Ben Lomond Track

Well another day of terrible weather, but we went hiking anyway! Tramped up behind the Queenstown Gondola to Ben Lomond Saddle, was really good but really tiring! Nice views too!

Routeburn Track

After some perilous gravel roads, made it to the Routeburn track, one of NZ's most famous walks. Unfortunately we only had a few hours to spare, so bombed it up to the first hut and back (basically did 18km in 4 hours), grabbing quick photos along the way!

Weather wasn't great but was a nice walk nonetheless.

Rob Roy Track 2

Fantastic glaciers near the top of the track combined with 16 waterfalls. Stunning.

Also witnessed a mini-avalanche while we were up there :O Eeep!

Rob Roy Track 1

Absolutely stunning short hike about an hour and a half outside of Wanaka up to the Rob Roy Glacier. Beautiful!

Kepler Track day 3

Spent most of today in forest, but were rewarded with some lovely river views (and some sunshine) towards the end.

Absolutely fantastic 3 days. Am quite sleep deprived now, and my camera has literally NO space on it, lol, but was such a great hike.

More photos available on facebook!

Kepler Track day 2

The pictures really don't do it justice.

Fantastic second day, except for the long downhill march at the end, which hurt!

Kepler Track day 1

Undertook the Kepler track on Wednesday, a 60km mountainous track in the heart of New Zealand's southern alps.

This was probably the place with the best views I've been to so far - our hut on the first night was at 1400m (about 4000 feet) above sea level and gave a real sense of living in the clouds.

Also for any LOTR fans reading, the first hour and a half of day 1 is spent walking through the same forest they filmed Amon Hen in at the end of the first movie. Beautiful!

Tongariro Crossing

Well, just got back from the longest walk ever, turned out to be 19.2km over some fantastic mountains (including going past Mt Doom!), had such a great time but am really exhausted now! Am heading off to Wellington tomorrow and may stay there for a few days, watch this space!

Lake Taupo + National Park

Left Taupo yesterday after being very disappointed by the weather - we weren't able to skydive at all, which sucked! Went on a bit of a sailing trip instead and saw some lovely Maori carvings in the rockface, which was interesting at least.

Arrived today in Tongariro National Park to inclement weather (it pissed it down lol), but it cleared up enough for us to do a 2 hour walk and to get some stunning photos, woohoo! Tomorrow am doing the arduous Tongariro crossing - a 17km hike across some stunning mountain ranges, if the weather holds. Should be fun!