St. James Walkway (day1)

It was a long weekend in Christchurch, so Maaike and I, not having tramped for a _very_ long time, headed off to do the longish (67k) but flat, St. James walkway.

It was markedly different from the hike we did in for Mike Carrigans stag night, the snow had receded quite a lot in just a few weeks.

One of the huts (Anne hut) had burned down, so we had to structure our tramp with e 22km Day, a 30 km day and a 15km day. The first day certainly felt like the longest – my legs just aren’t used to walking that far at the moment!

Our high point for the day was passed without needing to resort to oxygen.

The walk would actually be quite treacherous in midwinter. There are lots of avalanche paths crossing the track and it would be distinctly uncool to be caught out in one. At this time of year though, the danger has passed (so we were safe mum ;)

The station has had wild horses on it for years. They’re let roam, and then every so often are rounded up and sold. There were horse skulls everywhere, and we caught our first sign of the beasties just before reaching our hut for the night.

All in all, it was an excellent start to the tramp.