My friend Katrina was in town (from Melbourne) for the weekend. She wanted to go on a tramp… and boy did she get one.

This was the route.

Starting on the RHS – tramped to Rocky Creek Hut and then on to Griffin Creek Hut on the Saturday. It was supposed to be a 9 hour tramp, but turned into 12.5 hour tramp. Ouch.

We took one slightly incorrect turn heading up a spur in stead of following rocky creek itself. Very easy mistake to make, but cost us about 3 hours all up. It wasn’t a formed track at all, far from it, one of the many remote huts around NZ. I’m not sure I’d recommend going the route we went… it was hard work and not amazingly beautiful. The effort to reward ratio not quite enough for this aging tramper. Ok, not that aged yet.. but yes. Also it was damn not.

That’s not to say it wasn’t pleasant to be out and about…. it was… and there were some nice views.

But there was a lot of overgrown bush about, which does get a little tiring as every time you stand up the rucksack gets snared on something and pulls you back. Quite tiring, for 12 hours.

Hmmmm… I’m now going to run slap bang into the “no complaints, harden up” brigade. Hey Ho. I’m not saying I don’t like tramping (I do)… and it was lovely getting out with people..it’s just I did enjoy the walk out a lot more…

One thing which was very cool, and may necessitate another trip, was the bath…

I have no idea how it got there, but I hope it was airlifted in!! that wouldn’t be an easy thing to walk in with. Not one little bit.

Finally… we’ve been having not _quite_ the heat wave that OZ has of late, but it has still been quite hot.

Here, you can see the farmer has been busy, making hay while the sun shines ;)

Had a great day climbing at otepatotu on the banks peninsula. My trad leading head definitely isn’t there at the moment – but it was nice to get out in the sun and do some top-roping anyway.

I also got to play with my go-pro camera. I’ve quite a bit to learn about how to get it setup correctly as after about 10 minutes in the sun it got quite foggy. Seems adding absorbants to the housing (even rice) or keeping the housing in the fridge / freezer before sealing it up is a good idea. Will have to have a play and see what works best. Anyway, a few pictures & a video taken with it. Fun.

Femke, Maaike’s sister, arrived on the 26th and spent a few days getting over jetlag (really didn’t seem to be all that affected by it?! amazing). Femke & Maaike went for a walk up behind our house on arrival….

…. and was gently introduced to the not-so-gentle NZ summer sun (even through clouds). Trap for the unwary.

Then it was off to Mt. Cook for some hikes & general lazing around over new years. First stop was Tekapo where we stayed a night on the way down. Some slightly cloudy views from by the Church of the Good Shepherd

Mini golf was played. There was some decent competition there. Well, reasonably decent anyway ;) Was a really good course though, definitely recommend if you’re in Tekapo for an hour.

Then on to Cook proper for a few days. It was really quite cloudy unfortunately while we were there. However, it was better than it could have been. On the West Coast, bridges were being washed away… There was some seriously foul weather.

Maaike & Fembke were due to fly back from Cook to ChCh, but unfortunatey the weather was so ‘orrible they couldn’t do it. Still, twas nice company for me on the drive home!. All in all a great little trip and while the weather wasn’t great, we made the best of the gaps.

I was still mostly in a state of undress when I got out of the van in the morning.. and a guy was standing by bushes and beckoning me over.. I’m quite glad I did as I got to see these guys who were living in the (thick) flax on the campsite… making their way down to the water for a swim.

Then an extra lovely start to the day… my overly generous brother gave me a go-pro for Christmas & Birthday (forever) I think.

Really looking forward to trying it out.

Next it was off to Jacks Blow hole ~ 200m from the sea and 100m+ ? deep… quite impressive.

Finally it was time to leave the Catlins and head home (via a few more waterfalls) so that we would be back in time for the arrival of Femke, Maaike’s sister on the 26th.

Stayed the night at Purakanui bay..

View Larger Topographic Map

Very nice spot with some Rata growing down by the beach. It was definitely a popular place to stay… but in the off season I bet you’d have the place to yourself.

After that it was on to visit the Gypsy Caravan at Papatowai. That place is a must see I reckon if you’re in the area. The guy has made a whole lot of automata (I really should have brought my video camera…). Really very cool and maybe, when I’m all growned up I’ll have to tinker a bit.

Next it was onto Curio bay where we stayed the night for Christmas Eve. Twas a lovely spot. I was slightly disappointed by the petrified forest…

I mean… it’s a stone log. Sure it’s a hundred million billion years old (well, Jurassic period but.. they’re hardly a “forest” now are they. I was expecting giant trees made out of stone. Admittedly that was a daft thing to hope for, but it’s the truth.

Penguins made up for it (again! hurrah for penguins)

Then a lovely eve at a simply beautiful campsite looking out over the Southern Ocean towards our friend Amy who’s in Antarctica. Well worth a look at her blog.