I’m currently sitting in a warm and cosy backpackers in the tiny alpine village of Arthur's Pass. Outside the wind is howling, angrily shaking trees and threatening to tear the roof off the backpackers while thick sheets of rain move down the road in waves. Some 75mm of rain is forecast here today with wind … Continue reading Days 26-29 of #WalkNZ part 2 – River Crossings
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An adventure into the New Zealand wilderness
We arrived in St Arnaud, in New Zealand’s Nelson Lakes, to persistent drizzle and a grey cloud that hung in the air and made driving difficult. It wasn’t a great start to a three-day walk into New Zealand’s wilderness, and a real mood-dampener considering the bad luck we had already had with the inclement Kiwi … Continue reading An adventure into the New Zealand wilderness
Planning isn’t everything
Yip, I admit it, I’m a control freak. I love planning and I love making to-do lists. And the recent month-long trip to New Zealand was no exception – I had a detailed calendar of our movements, a spreadsheet, and an A4-page to-do list to make sure all logistics and bookings were sorted. It worked … Continue reading Planning isn’t everything
Another epic weather fail
The rain on the tent sounded like an army chucking thousands of buckets of water over it. It had sounded like that all night; a constant drumming as the torrential rain pelted the tree above us, which jettisoned the water directly onto our tent. To say it was wet was an understatement. We’d completed the … Continue reading Another epic weather fail
When the weather scuppers your volcano-climbing plans
“Are there any questions? Does anyone have other plans for tomorrow?” the hut warden Sally asked the motley group of trampers as we huddled in the Mangatepopo hut on the skirts of the Tongariro National Park in the centre of New Zealand’s North Island. Outside the wind was buffeting against the hut’s wooden walls, whipping … Continue reading When the weather scuppers your volcano-climbing plans