North of the South

My new car and kayak in Murchison



Looking into the bay we were camped in on Kenepura Sound



In NZ it is customary to carry children with you for sacraficing in event of rockfall...



In the deep forest



a beautiful view down into Marlborough Sound (I think)



cranking it up one of the many many hills on the Queen Charlotte Track



one of the plague of Weka birds who constantly pestered us for food. Look out for the evil red eyes!



a view point at Eatwell's Lookout on the Queen Charlotte Track



the road back to the campsite along the Kenepura Sound



Davies Bay, near the end of the Queen Charlotte Track


Hello all,

As you can see I now have a car and a kayak. I've been out paddling on the Buller River at Murchison and one of it's tributaries, the Matakitaki. Great to get out on the water again, although there are relatively few kayaking tourists like me about so it's been tricky finding people to paddle with. Luckily in Murchison there is a kayak school, and due to the quietness, the instructors and rafters are often at a loose end.

C, J and I went for some mountain biking action on the Queen Charlotte Track in the Marlborough Sounds area while C&J wait for the van they want to buy to be fixed in Blenhiem (looks like it will be Monday now).

I am currently at GB & M's flat in Chch sheltering from the rain, before hopefully heading across to the west coast for some rivers tomorrow.

I've run a couple of my hiking plans past C & J and they are game for the Christmas and New Year plans. I want to hike the 7 day Hollyford-Big Bay-Pike River (not that Pike River)-Hollyford circuit over Christmas, spending Christmas day on the beach at Big Bay 2 and a half days hike from the nearest road. Then on the 31st we will start the 7 day 'traditional' Dusky Track from Lake Huaroko in the far south of South Island, out to Supper Cove, and back inland to Lake Manapouri near the town of Te Anau. On this track we will pass such famous Scottish landmarks as Loch Maree, the Upper Spey, the Dingwall Hills and Gairloch. These plans are hopefully going to come to fruition, but we still need to book huts, which may be a problem on the popular section of the Hollyford track.

Right, I think that's most of the news for now - i may not blog again until after Christmas, so Merry Christmas to all in the Arctic UK, from a rather soggy NZ!

Andy

out of Africa...

Lawrence, our loyal and reliable taxi driver, says 'tiwonana' for the last time.



Rach doing her "good relative / friend" impression and writing Christmas cards in Jo'burg airport during our 10 hour stop-over, I'm afraid I have not been as good...



mmm...real beer...!



happy Rachie!



Rach makes a new friend



a cold windy walk near Christchurch



good times in the pub with C,GB, J, M, AP and me!



a sunny walk near Christchurch



AP and K at the crag



me climbing


Not many words this time as I'm packing up to head up to the northern part of South Island to (hopefully) begin my adventure. Rosy and Jake have put me up in fantastic style at their lovely house, and have advised me on where to look for cars, leant me a bike to go do my stuff around town, and fed me beautiful food - thanks guys! I met up with GB and M, and C&J who are also new in town and finding their feet. AP met me off the plane (Christchurch customs were very easy to get through, in fact Rach and I had no problems all the way from Malawi).

Helen and Sandy put Rach and I up while we were transitting through Sydney for a weekend, and that base allowed us to get over jet lag, contact family and find our feet again. Both Sydney and Christchurch have been unusually cool and damp this week, but as we've mainly been pootling about sorting things out that hasn't affected us too much.

Of course, now I must let Rach blog her own updates, as we are now apart for an unprecedented 7 weeks...very strange!

Right, i must go do more packing. Will try to blog again soon.

Love to all,

Andy

PS - 2nd hand Whitewater kayaks are proving hard to come by...may have to buy new (eek!)

Rachie's first blog post

Hi folks! Tis Rachel here, trying out this whole blogging thing for the first time. I thought this would make more sense than emailing as I am unsure how much email/internet access I'll have whilst travelling around.

So....WE MADE IT! We are now in Sydney....in the rain?! In December?! Crazy.

The flight was looooong but fine and with no mishaps (amazing considering our luggage was out of our sight for 8 hours in Johannesburg-capital theft airport).

In true Rachel style, I will most likely write again shortly with some emotions on leaving Malawi. Currently I feel pretty numb - not happy, not sad. Relief if anything. But judging by the few tears (nothing new there then!) I shed earlier today just discussing some of the frustrations, I think it will take a while to fully digest how I really feel about our time there. But hey, you regular bloggers who perhaps havent been receiving my emails, won't be used to emotions being emitted by 'aandrinmalawi' so I won't bore you with any more for now....

Big love to all from a soggy Sydney, Rachie and Arnott-features, Rxx

ps. Oh yes, for those of you who care. I am heading to Canberra to see the Palestinian tomorrow and Andy heads to NZ on Monday. Yipppee, finally I'm getting rid of him!!