Blogs from Arthur's Pass National Park, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania

Yesterday, February 28, we hiked up Mt Iron in Wanaka and then headed to the Fox Glacier Lake Matheson Track. There we saw just a peek of Mt Cook and Mt Tasman due to the cloud cover. The walk around the lake was beautiful, like walking around a Hobbit movie set! Today’s hikes were in Arthur’s Pass! There were lots of steps up steep paths and at one point we were gifted with a wonderful waterfall! Finally, we were lucky to catch a beautiful sunset at the end of the day in Hokitika!... read more

So as anyone reading my few blogs will know they are very inconsistent, partly due to lack of internet while I'm traveling but mostly me being too lazy to write them once I get home... After the hard word from my wife saying it would not be in my best interests to go over seas this year I had to turn my sights to bird watching in my home country of New Zealand. So I took this chance to take a shot at some of our more obscure natives, the main two being the NZ Rock Wren and the Okarito Brown Kiwi, the latter turned out to be a complete failure due to very heavy rain so ill focus this brief blog on the Rock Wrens. The New Zealand Rock Wren is an endangered Passerine which ... read more

After returning to Westport on Tuesday morning (7thMarch), we finally put the West Coast in our rearviewmirror and headed inland through the scenic lower stretches of the Buller Gorge; before turning south and passing through the former gold-mining town of Reefton – which according to the local tourist propaganda was the first town in the Southern Hemisphere to receive electric street lighting. With rain falling for most of the day – including a long-overdue downpour that finally washed away the past week's worth of West Coast gravel road dust accumulation – we wisely decided to call an early halt to proceedings at the Slab Hut Creek DOC campground, where I was able to finally finish reading Heinrich Harrer's excellent 'Seven Years in Tibet' while Linda indulged her inner German engineer by constructing a flood channel in ... read more

22 mai: Debout assez tôt car on avait prévu d'aller marcher un peu le matin avant de reprendre la route mais il pleuvait!! Malgré cela on a quand même décidé d'aller se promener un peu et aller au point de vue. Le sentier était en forêt et donc très humide et boueux ! J'ai découvert que mes chaussures étaient inadaptées et pas étanches! En arrivant à un espèce de point de vue on ne voyait pas le lac en contre bas donc on a rebrousser chemin. On n'allait pas mieux voir plus haut. Donc retour au van et reprise de la route direction Christchurch . On s'est arrêtées à Arthur's Pass pour déjeuner et c'est ici qu'on peut voir le mieux les fameux Kea, perroquets alpins, que je voulais absolument voir. Il n'y en a qu'un ... read more

My friends from China and Malaysia, Xiao and Rachel, were also leaving Kaikoura the same day I was so we travelled to the next town (and the biggest city in the South Island) together - Christchurch! Christchurch was devastated with two major earthquakes in the last few years and the damage it has done, both physically and emotionally, is still very much noticeable. Despite the damage to the city centre and all the historic buildings, it was lovely to see the beautiful graffiti and art showcasing ChChs positivity through it all. I stayed a night in Christchurch with Kira's (see: Kira is a friend I made in an Auckland hostel, who ended up being my flatmate when I lived there for a few months and worked for Greenpeace) family, the Mance-Freires! Chris and Ceci, her parents, ... read more