Blogs from Kahurangi National Park, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 2

Four wonderful days in Kahurangi National Park. Six hour hike in to Stone hut on day one, wet and mushy and tiring. Established base camp in the hut for the next two nights. Had the hut to myself on night one - the only "disturbance" in the supremely idyllic spot surrounded by podocarp-carpeted ranges were the Whio (whistling blue ducks - endangered) who were being rather amorous overnight. Day hike (5 hours) up to the biggest of Biggs's tops on day two. Stunning beautiful day with clear tops all around - the Arthur range, Mt Owen (the one that still eludes me), Mt Kendall still sporting snow on his sides, and so many other peaks and ranges stretching away as far as the eye could see (and the eye could see dozens of miles on this ... read more

Morning all. A couple of days of tourist-like living, wee walks along the coast, and a day of logistics (washing and shopping) and planning brings the wanderer to the beginning of the trek in to the proudly bluffy Mt Owen. This will prove to be either a two-day or three-day tramp. Hiking in to Granity Pass Hut today and hoping to find a bunk to kip in there this evening. Hike to the summit of Mt Owen tomorrow and then back to the hut. Probably decide at that point (depending on time and tiredness) whether I hike out that day or stay another night in the hut and hike out the next day. It's a bit strange to not have to consider the weather when heading out for a hike on South Island but quite pleasant ... read more

Old mining sites and lots of caves! We hung around Karamea for two days and checked out the trails. We got poured on one day while investigating some really neat caves. One was a tunnel you had to travel 100 meters through to continue on the trail! We also went further to check out an old gold mining site (where incidentally it started to pour) and found ourselves huddling in a recreated miners hut with a weka (wingless bird) stalking us for cracker bits. We slept at the start a beautiful DOC camp. The second day we pushed the limits of our gas tank and went up a 14 mile old logging road to see some arches and more caves. The arches were quite impressive. One was 30 meters tall and a couple hundred meters long. ... read more

Feeling like we hadn't travelled anywhere for a while, we headed out one Saturday morning for a quick 1000km trip up to Nelson and back, driving anti-clockwise, up the coast, along the north coast of South Island and then back down through the mountains. After heading up SH1 with just a few quick stops (of course, that includes visiting the seals off the Kaikoura coast!) we drove along the Sounds and across to Havelock. After a walk on the Sounds we set off to cross the innocent-sounding Mount Richmond Forest Park... Here comes the interesting (fun) part...and I blame Top Gear! Upon leaving Havelock and driving past the last petrol station until our destination, we both glanced at the fuel gauge. It was just below a-quarter-tank and normally we would have tanked up before venturing out ... read more

Westport and Karamea November 29, 2008 We took another look at the Pancake Rocks and were on our way north up the coastline. While we were there we got our first good look at some Hectors dolphins (smallest species of dolphins) that we have heard so much about. First stop was the small town of Westport that we feel gets a bum rap in our guidebook. We thought it was a delightful place with friendly people and fun shops and at least one pretty good café. We were going to head inland from there but two gas station attendants convinced us that we should continue north to the town of Karamea (the end of the road) and into Kahurangi National Park. They also suggested that on the way we should take a side trip up a ... read more