All good hikes deserve a reward at the end, so we treated ourselves to some ice cream. Here’s a picture of everybody in our group: Lara, Mike, me, Nick, Vicky and Marie. And with that the hiking safari, and my time in NZ, was done. We drove to Christchurch and I then flew back the States the next day, Christmas Eve. After spending some time with my family in Phoenix, I took about five days to drive across the U.S and am now back in Washington D.C. It’s cold here…
Our last overnight hike was in the mountains around Mt. Somers and Woolshed Creek Canyon. We hiked to a hut, which you can see way in the distance in the middle of this picture, but the setting was so nice that I wanted to sleep outside, so I just pitched my tent right next to the river (also known as the drinking fountain and shower) that flowed past the hut.
I’m convinced that I’m incapable of looking remotely cool in any picture of me in a mountaineering environment. I think this picture is a fine example of this, especially considering I took off my dorky headband and shades to try and improve my look. Nonetheless, it does capture a great scene on a great day. That’s Mt. Cook/Aoraki behind me, and this picture was taken atop Sebastopol Peak, an awesome day hike we did from Mt. Cook Village. It was a beautiful, sunny day, with clean, crisp views in all directions.
After hiking up to and camping in the woods at the edge of the bushline (the green area in the picture above) the night before, we then hiked up to some 1,900 meter, snow-spotted peaks in the Ohau Range. It’s tough to capture on camera the amazing blue of the lake water in this region, but the cloud shadows in this picture of Lake Ohau do a good job of providing some contrast so you can see the milky blue of the lake.
Next up was some penguin sighting at Cannibal Bay in the Catlins. The penguin we were after was the rare Yellow-eyed version. From atop a cliff overlooking the bay, we were able to see them emerge from the Southern Ocean, one-by-one, about ten minutes apart, and then awkwardly walk across the beach and into the bush, where their baby chicks awaited. It was very, very cool to just be staring at the ocean and then slowly see them rise out of the water, dramatically put their feet down and then hurriedly make their way across the sand. Here’s a picture of one of them doing just that.
The best parts of the overland trip were the days we would hike for a bunch of hours, camp overnight and then hike back the next day to where we started. Our first such trek was in Fiordland National Park. Our destination was Green Lake and we stayed here, in Green Lake Hut. The picture doesn’t show it well, but there was nothing else around for miles and miles except mountains, lakes, forests and bush. There was also nobody else staying at the hut with us…until Hugh the Irishman showed up at dusk. As if from Irish central casting, he then dazzled us with stories and humor all whilst sipping whiskey from a flask he carried with him at all times.
My final weeks in NZ were spent on an small-group overland hiking & camping trip around the southern part of the South Island. Our first morning was spent kayaking in Milford Sound, which had just received a fresh dusting of snow the evening before. Fun fact: See that ship in the distance? It’s a big tourist boat and my group convinced me to stand up on my kayak and moon it as it closely passed by us. I received some positive feedback, I think, as the captain of the boat blew the ship’s horn and people on board clapped and waved.
Stuff I Like
Magic Chimp Atlas Obscura Information is Beautiful Silhouette Masterpiece Theater Kiva Freakonomics Glennz Tees Radiolab Current TV Days until the end Text to Speech The Memory Place The Straight Dope Slate's "The Explainer" Old 'EyeinTim'teachstreet
