Back to the West Coast again this weekend, plus my first long drive in my little car in a very long while. Wasn’t really sure how it was going to hold up – but it did well! Has to get it’s WOF (warrant of fitness) in a couple of weeks, have to fix the windscreen (kinda cracked it with a kayak…) ehem, but other than that hopefully it’ll pass easily. Except that it always konks out when the revs get low. But besides that… :)
Anyway, picked up Kirsty & Andy’s friend (another Andy) and headed through Arthurs Pass – stopping off for the mandatory ice-cream in Springfield.. Twas a lovely evening though.
Took a while getting to Punakiki, but we were there by 10, and asleep not too long after (after a couple of jugs of course ;)
Next morning we hiked in to an incredible spot – it was 3 hours of following markers through the bush. No real trails so to speak of.. Had fantails following us most of the way..
That afternoon we went through the cave Armageddon. It was super – huge cave with gazillions of glowworms (hopefully pic coming later). One pitch of SRT but generally it was quite cruisey. Mind you, took me a little while to get back into it – first caving I’ve done in almost a year really.
Dinner never tasted so good! And our shelter for the evening was a huge overhanging rock – with the river down below – and glowworms above. Not too bad!
Sunday – up early and we went into two caves that have just been discovered (doesn’t happen too often) – about 10 other ppl have been through these caves – ever. In one there’s a skeleton of an Upland Moa – one of the smallest (if not the?!) of the Moa Species (a flightless bird hunted to extinction by the Maori)
This skeleton dates back to roughly 12,000 years old (pics were sent to the resident expert! – apparently after the last ice-age the species became a lot smaller..) Still, it was fun being in new caves (though they were incredibly muddy). You feel kinda bad going through new caves though – as *anything* you touch gets mud on it – and it *never* comes off again.. (there’s no water in some of these caves to wash it free).. it’s also quite difficult not to break some stalactites when you move around… but then if no one goes in then no one sees it anyway.. catch 22.
Then a quick walk out – wanted to get to see Billy Connolly on TV1.. drove most of the way back before it became apparent we’d never make it back in time. But then Kirsty remembered that the clocks went back (for us)… so had an extra hour.
So drove to work (I have no tv) and settled down to watch it. Only to find the rugby sevens (whatever they are! :P) have taken precedence and Billy wasn’t on.
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