Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

About to start the Hollyford Track...

Bridge crossing on the first day of the H'ford track

The high point of the track - a whole 167m above sea level!

Big waterfall we passed on the first day

a bridge to nowhere...surrounded by water on all sides!

Day 2 of the Hollyford...a bit drier but much tougher track

Day 3 of the track, and the first burst of sunshine and a view out of the rain forest

Christmas stockings hanging up!

Traditional Christmas Day activity...for kiwis!

Eventually we reached the sea on Christmas Day

Christmas Dinner

Out for a wet walk on Boxing Day

Steep bit of track heading back up the Hollyford Valley on Boxing Day

Perpetual bog

At last, a beautiful view and beautiful weather for our last 24hours on the track! Hidden Falls hut.

Mount Christina (probably) from the Hollyford Valley

The Mavora Valley on 1st January

Crystal clear burn crossings on 1st of Jan

amazing landscape of massive scale

Looking down into the Greenstone Valley on 2nd Jan

Lower Greenstone Valley on 3rd Jan

Side waterfall in lower Greenstone Valley

Crossing a side stream in the lower Caples Valley on 3rd Jan

Handy tree down for a stream crossing...balance!

View of Mount Christina from the McKellar Saddle, high point on the Caples Track

Descending from the McKellar Saddle on a really rough bit of track, glad it was a dry day!

Scarborough Beach and the Christchurch suburb of Sumner

On a bike ride around the Lyttleton Harbour estuary

Waiting at Diamond Harbour for the ferry back to Lyttleton Harbour

Hi All,

Wishing you all a happy new year! This year I wanted to do something completely different from the norm. Not because of any dissatisfaction with the normal situation, but just to take the opportunity when it presented itself. So I figured that the opposite of spending the festive season with lots of people, mainly spending most days inside eating lots of yummy food, would be to head off on a big hike in the middle of nowhere. C & J were also keen for a similar style of festive season, with the one demand that we spend Christmas Day on the beach somewhere. So we chose to walk the Hollyford Track which involves 4 days walking through dense rain forest from the road end to Martin's Bay on the West Coast of South Island, and we would then turn around and walk 4 days back out. The track we had originally wanted to do was a variation on the Hollyford, but this track was flooded out due to the massive amounts of rain the area was experiencing, so we had to stick to the 'tourist track'. Given the weather, the tourist track was challenging enough, so we were happy enough to reduce our aspirations. Arriving at Martins Bay on the afternoon of the 25th we found the hut quite full with a few Kiwi families who had flown in, which wasn't really the remote wilderness experience we were after. However, the rest of the track was quite quiet and our last 24 hours were spent in sunshine (it rained pretty much the whole of the rest of the 8 days) and we got great views up to the Fiordland Peaks.

We finished this track on the 29th, booked into a nice backpackers in the nearby town of Te Anau and dried our stuff out. On the 30th we shopped for the next track and had an entertaining night at a campsite out of town chatting to a kiwi hunter and helping campervans with tight manoeuvres. M came to meet us, having driven from Christchurch.

On the 31st we arranged cars for our next track (or Tramp as they call them here). The shuttle from one end of the track to the other took over 2 hours each way, so we didn't start out on the track until after lunch (pies from the great pie shop in Te Anau). The late start did not matter however, as the Mavora Walkway is a very easy walking track which and we covered the ground quickly to our wee hut - home for Hogmanay! The evening was spent drinking whisky and cheap weak wine M had bought by accident, chatting, reminiscing and watching the amazing stars until the cold drove us back inside. Mavora Valley is a beautiful and massive landscape, but is not one of the popular hikes for some reason, so we saw nobody at all on the 1st of January, nor on the 2nd until we reached the Greenstone Valley and hit the Greenstone-Caples Track. Our days were mainly short, with long relaxing evenings spent reading in the huts (hiding from the sandflies outside!). A great way to unwind and really feel like I was on holiday. Starting to feel a bit more like myself again after all the stress of Malawi.

Now we're back in Christchurch at M & GB's in Sumner. I've been down to the beach body surfing, and out for a bike ride with M and some other brit doctors (who seem to be drawn to Sumner like moths to a beautiful seaside flame).

So what next?

Probably heading north to the Kaikoura area for some hiking, biking and sea kayaking. Some of you may have heard that I managed to lose my kayak shortly after I last updated the blog. I found a few other kayakers in Hokitika and we headed for a flooded river as the rain was still pouring down. Got on the river and quickly realised it was far more powerful than we had thought from our inspection of it. I found the first hole on the river, got played around with for a while and eventually decided that the quickest way I was going to get to breathe was to bail out and swim. The river quickly took my kayak and paddles away as I swam as hard as I could for the bank. Bit of a shame to lose the kit, but these things can easily end up a lot worse, so I'm humbled and grateful not to have come off worse.

So for my remaining 2 weeks (eek, is that all!?) in NZ I'm probably not going to get to do anymore white water but there are PLENTY other things to keep me entertained here, so definitely not the end of the world!

I hope you all had lovely Christmases, New Years, Hanukkah (sp?) and any other celebrations (Happy Birthday Li'l One!).

Later Gators!