2nd Jan - Hotikita to New Creek

We had a slow morning and a big cooked breakfast of bacon and eggs - for a treat.

Left Hotitika at 11.30 to bike to Charleston lake and meet Christoph there. The weather was not great again but the views were amazing. The West coast of New Zealand is awesome in terms of scenery but the towns are not great. Greymouth was gray and boring and I did not stay long. The coast is very beautiful. I did not manage all the way to Charleston Lake as I met Christoph at Punakaiki instead - not planned. I went off and had a look at the rocks, bolders and blow holes there while Christoph kindly waited. The rock formations are awesome and worth a visit.

We had coffee and cake over looking the sea and then headed on to Charleston Lake to stop for the day. However, we missed the turn off and so we carried on. The weather cleared up and we ended up driving for another hour or so through the mountains. It was a while before we found a suitable place to stop at New Creek - but it was a good place. Once again it was free camping in the mountains, right next to a river and with a fire. I went skinny dipping for the first time ever in my life. It was quite freeing. Instant noodles for dinner again :-)

1st Jan - New Years Day in Hotikita

Woke up pretty early considering I had gone to sleep about 2.30. Had some coffee and cereal with Kevin and then Christoph arrived. We then had eggs on toast and discussed what to do with the day. Kevin very kindly offered to take us to lake Kaniere and lend us his Kayak.

It was a beautiful sunny day - great for New Years day. It worked out really well as Kevin took his bike and cycled round one side of the lake, I ran on the forest route on the other side of the lake and Christoph Kayaked across the lake. When we all arrived at the other side me and Chistoph swapped transport and he ran back and I used the Kayak. We sat an chatted for about 1 hour at the swap over point. The area is really pretty.

I am enjoying getting fit at the moment. The route was hilly and through the forest but I still did 10km in 50 mins and then carried on up the hill to do 12km. I found the Kayaking back across the lake (8km) a bit tougher as a shoulder injury is playing up a bit. It was a great thing to do for New Years Day.

When we got back me and Christoph cooked a huge meal of mince and veg with some roasted vegetables and we all ate too much. Kevin then took us for a wander to the view point at the back of the town.

Went to bed late as we were chatting with Kevin and looking at his pictures of tens of years of mountaineering. He really was inspiring. It is great to meet someone that has so much knowledge about mountaineering - and funny with it. It is very sad that several of his friends have died mountaineering.

31st Dec - Fox Glacier to Hokitka

We went on together in the morning to see Fox Glacier and then on to the Franz Josef Glacier. I have never seen Glaciers in the summer before. They real were very impressive - even in the bad weather. From a distance you can not tell how big they are but when you see people walking on them you realise that they are massive. We could not get on to the Fox Glacier because the recent flooding had washed away the track. We did walk up to the Franz Josef and then ran back as it started raining heavily.

In the afternoon the weather cleared up and we drove on towards Hokitka, stopping off on the way to go for little walks etc. We had a lovely picnic by lake Ruatapu on the way. I knew that my friend Elin, from the UK, was in Hokitka for New Years Eve and so I wanted to be there to meet up with her. There is also a guy (Kevin) from Warm Showers in the town and so I left Christoph in the early evening and biked into Hokitka to meet with Kevin and stay with him, while Christoph went off into the mountains.

I had a really nice evening with Kevin and a lovely meal. He is a very intelligent and interesting man with a huge amount of mountaineering experince. It was great to talk with someone with the same interests and with a lot more knowledge than me. He has done some very serious trips in the mountains.

Kevin went to bed about 11 and I headed out into town see if I could find Elin (she had not received my email in time and I did not have her mobile number at that point). I went to the main pub in town and got a drink an saw the New Year in with the New Zealand locals. It was fun. I was pretty sober and most other people were not :-) It was unfortunate that I did not manage to find Elin.

After New Year had hit and I had phoned friends and family at home, I headed off out of town to go and visit the glow worms (Kevin had recommended a trip). I am really glad I did. The area is accessed via a short path which then takes you to an enclosed area with cliffs on 3 sides, trees on the top and then the sky above. In the dark it is awesome as there where thousands and thousands of glow worms lighting up the cliff walls and then there is a layer of over hanging trees and then the stars above. In parts it is not clear where the glow worms finish and the stars begin. A beautiful place to sit and ponder the existence of life and think about the year ahead. I really enjoyed being there on my own just being.

Happy New Year Everyone!

30th Dec - Lake Ohau to North of Haast

We got up late as the weather was not great early in the morning. We drove from Lake Ohau through the mountains to Wanaka. The weather cleared by then and the town was buzzing with people on holiday in the sun by the lake. A real little tourist place.

We both needed to catch up with diaries and internet stuff and so we went to the library for a few hours and then continued on up the coast. It was a shame really that we spent time inside when the weather was nice outside as it then turned on our journey up the coast and was very windy and started to rain. I should have realised by now that in the changeable nature of NZ weather to always be outside seeing areas when the weather is good!

We headed on together towards Haast, stopping off to have a coffee and cake by the lakes on the way and take pictures etc. I wanted to get back on the bike for a bit and meet up with Adrian and Jenny (from Dunelin) and to bike with them up the West coast. They had said that they would get to Haast campsite tonight. Unfortunately there was no mobile signal and I could not find out exactly where they were and if they had even managed to get as far as Haast as Adrian has a bad knee. Unfortunately, when we got to Haast I could not find then and they were not staying in any of the other campsite on the way to Haast. Therefore, me and Christoph decided to continue on together for longer.
We found a great little place to stop between Haast and Fox Glacier. Christoph has an amazing ability to find little tracks down to either the sea or to a river so that there is somewhere to have a swim in the morning and get water. There was a fire all ready to light at the end of the little track and a way down to the river. We had a lovely evening chatting by the fire, eating instant noodles and drinking wine (it was supposed to be the bottle that was for new years eve).

29th Dec - Mt Cook

Woke up to a beautiful sunny hot day. We had a great breakfast at the campsite and then walked up to the lake at the bottom of the mountain. The views were amazing but there were far too many people on the path. The rivers were still over flowing and very strong and walking across the swing bridges was like being in and Indiana Jones movie. I was in a great mood as it was such a lovely day after so many miserable ones and the scenery was amazing. I was listening to some fun music in one ear and singing along walking on the path.

When we got to the lake we walked through a couple of deep, fast flowing rivers which meant that we got away from all of the other people. We had a few great hours on the side of the lake, reading, taking pictures, doing Kung Fu and swimming in the lake. It was sooooo cold in the glacial lake. There was actually a massive ice-burg just round the corner from where we were swimming. Chrisoph is really good at Kung Fu!

We walked back to Mt Cook village for 3ish and had some lunch and then drove on to the Tasman Glacier (the largest in NZ). I did not even know about it but it was really worth the visit. It was only a 20min walk up to the top but the views were incredible. The glacier is manly a couple of meters below the ground and goes down for about 600m. The lake on top has many iceburgs in it. You can not tell how big the iceburgs are until you see them next to the boats with people in. An amazing place.

We then headed on to see Lake Ohau. It was about 7.30 and so we decided to stop and camp at the side of the lake tonight. A lovely quiet spot with views of the mountains and lakes and no other people.

We had a very exciting meal of rice and beans and an early night.
This was one of the best days of my trip so far! Beautiful sunny day with awesome views and great company. In such a great mood.

28th Dec - Arrowtown to Mt Cook

Up early to pack up stuff and get going with Christoph. Said good bye to the Jenkins and on the road by 9. It is a really miserable day and I am happy not to me biking today and to be going to Mt Cook. I had thought that I would not have time to go to Mt Cook on my bike and so it has worked out really well meeting Christoph as I can go with him in the car in the bad weather and see the area and still get up north on my bike. It rained all the way to Mt Cook Village and we could not see very much at all. We got there in a few hours and went into the information center and watched a video about Mt Cook and the history and the mountaineering disasters etc. It was really interesting.

We then sat by a fire in a cafe in town and read and chilled until the weather cleared. It turned out to be a fantastically clear evening and so we did the 3 hour return walk towards the lake at the bottom of the mountain. As the rain had been so heavy we could not get all of the way and so we climbed as high as we could and watched the sun go down. We walked back for 10.30 and had noodles for dinner and I took loads of photos of the mountain in the distance with the stars behind. It is cold up here at night when there are no clouds. Its is only at 750m but on a glacier.

27th Dec - Caples Track and Queenstown

Up at 6.30. The weather was not too bad (but it had been through the night). We got going quite quickly and did the 20km walk back on the Caples track. It is a lovely valley walk along the river and through the forest. It mainly stayed dry and the low lying clouds made it very beautiful and eerie.

I am very glad that I met Christoph. He has the same level of fitness and pace when walking and is fun company. I would not have gone off and done that walk on my own as it would not have been safe to do so. It was probably the roughest walk I have done in 25 hours.

The main thing that I had been worried about on the walk was that the Jenkins might be worried about me as I did not get back last night. Once I called them from the Hostel down the road from the car park I relaxed and we had a coffee at the cafe and a chilled drive into Queenstown. By the time we got to Queenstown the weather had really turned and it was raining heavily. We went food shopping for the next few days and Christoph bought some new trousers and a camping stove and we had a wonder round the town.

We then went back to Arrowtown and had showers and some turkey soup :-) Christoph then headed off and I stayed with the family and organised the Christmas Photos and packed up my stuff. We had a great salmon diner and I ate too much Christmas Cake. :-)