After our last little adventure, we decided to have some R&R on the Milford Track, often called the finest walk in the world. Though it’s a 4-day, 55-km hike, you get to stay in well-equipped huts (no tents allowed!) complete with beds and gas cookers. Pretty posh. Beautiful rain forests for the first two days,...
Monthly Archives: February 2007
Keeeeeeaaaaaaaaaa!
Last time I was in NZ, about 6 years ago, I cruised with my friend Andrew to this place called Twin Stream. It’s an amazing glacial valley high above the road to Mt. Cook. The guidebook said a 2 hour hike in from the trailhead and the weatherman said to expect sun. No problem, we...
Castle Hill, Bouldering Mecca
After we finished our sea kayaking trip, we headed toward Castle Hill, which is basically one of the world’s bouldering hotspots. The weather was perfect — the sun, miraculously, seems to be chasing us — so we climbed there for 5 days. The rocks are bizarre limestone blobs scattered on a few huge grassy hills,...
Kayaking!
Just got back from our kayaking adventure through Abel Tasman National Park, which was a blast. It was a three-day trip that started on one end of the park and ended with a pick-up half way through it. We got worked by big swells and sand flies, but we also had some perfect weather, glassy...
Sea kayaking, woohoo!
So we’re a day into a three day kayak trip around Abel Tasman National Park, in the northern South Island. Taking a lunch break and I wanted to see if I could update the blog… Seems like it works.
Anyway, we’re being eaten alive by sand flies, so if anyone can read this: please send help....
Wharariki Beach
Had a bit of a mission today. First we had the obligatory climbing session at Paynes, then we took an afternoon off and went to Wharariki Beach, which is about an hour northwest. It’s accessible by a long, circuitous dirt road, then a hike along a path winding through grassy hills, forests and dunes. Amazing...
Fat Tuesday!
Takaka, tiny, two-block Takaka, threw a pretty wicked Mardi Gras — even if the parade consisted of 15 people. But at least the crowd was huge!
Yesterday was a super productive day of climbing — Alicia lead a few lines and continued to get used to being on the sharp end of the rope, while I...