Blogs from Nelson Region, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 44

When last you left these intrepid bloggers, we were getting ready to head out on a day's hike over the Tongariro Crossing, supposedly the best one-day trek in NZ, as well as the setting for Mordor in Lord of the Rings. Unfortunately, we'll have to take the guidebook's word for it. The weather had kept anybody from going this year, and we were no exception. After a day spent on the beautiful shores of Lake Taupo, we headed down to Wellington, known as the Windy City. Actually, it had quite a bit in common with Chicago, especially in the way it crushed Auckland, NZ's NYC. While the wind was constant and chilling, it wasn't much of a difference for us. After getting in the first night, we actually came across a bar named after our home ... read more

Day 3: 21.5km, 6 hours, James Mackay - Heaphy Hut Today was almost completely down hill. Heaven. We were back in the forest again but as we descended during the day towards the coast and mouth of the Heaphy River there was a noticeable change in the types of trees and vegetation that we saw, moving from predominately beech at the start of the day towards and increasing number of nikau palms at the end of the day. A few of the girls were starting to get some quite evil blistering and rashes but we still made steady progress. Poor Aileen took a wee tumble at one point which, with a few juicy embellishments, made for a good story later. We crossed lots more swingbridges, stopped for lunch at the Lewis Hut and eventually got ... read more

I'm still playing catch up with my blog entries.... here's what we got up to after xmas at Collingwood.... Day 1: 17km, 5 hrs Brown Hut - Perry Saddle When I got up on the 27th December I was a little nervous. Today was the day we started a 4 day, 82km walk through the Kahurangi National Park. The Heaphy Track is one of New Zealands 'great walks'. I'd done a couple of great walks already but they weren't in quite the same league... first there was the Tongariro Crossing, but that's just a one day walk, then there was the Queen Charlotte track.... where a boat ferries your bags between hostels so all you carry with you is your lunch. This was a whole new experience for me - we were carrying all our food, ... read more

Very strange to be celebrating Christmas in the Southern Hemisphere ... although it rained all day so it felt like a 'real' Christmas. We started the day opening cards and presents and then set about preparing a roast turkey dinner, armed with only a bbq and a hob.... read more

Nya Zeeland har en ganska stor vandringskultur. Bland annat finns ett antal vandringsleder som kallas Great Walks (vilket aven var paddling pa Whanganui var). Nu ska vi ut pa var forsta Great Walk och vi har valt Heaphy track som start. Vi anlander sent pa eftermiddagen till "Brown Hut" som markerar borjan pa vandringen och vid vilken vi planerar att spendera var forsta natt. Stugan ar redan ockuperad av 7 tjejer i 14-15-arsaldern och en av deras fader. Vi ar glada att vi spenderar natten utanfor stugan i vart talt. Dagen efter borjar vandringen och vi klattrar sakta uppat pa en mycket lattgangen promenadstig. Vaxtligheten och djurlivet ar naturligtvis helt annorlunda och under vandringen traskar vi genom regnskog, gar over hedar och langs palmkladda strander. Vi traffar weka, en ickeflygande, brun, lite honsliknande fagel som ar ... read more