Chris 2018

Did some sky photos last night: Part of Milky Way No prize for guessing what the line is! There might be a prize for find out what the fuzzy bits are?

07-Feb Typical Abel Tasman trail section, does not show height gained! View across Tasman Bay Down hill to go for lunch.  Lunch stop. Found this when we walked into the camping area. They are very tame. 08-Feb 09-Feb Camp for the night at a place called the Ballroom 10-Feb Walking back down the river 13-Feb 15-Feb Milford Sound and the gathering rain clouds 16-Feb Queenstown - blowy afternoon

Hannah found this and sent it to me. Unfortunately I already know about it!! BBC Rain update for NZ Chris

Hello all Our walking holiday finished today (20th Feb).  It has been more than a bit damp again! Back a few days in Queenstown! The weather keep being cloudy and damp so no star gazing.  But last Saturday, I did get a walk up a hill at the back of the motel once the day became sunny, following the route of a chair-lift and going a bit further resulted in 600 m ascent walk. Leaving Queenstwon on Sunday for a our last 2 nights we had a long drive to the Mt Cook area.  We were greeted with strong winds on arrival and our guide made a quick change of plan and got us into a hut for 2 nights instead of tents.  The weather on Sunday was nice, some clouds, but the mountain and the surrounding ones were quite visible and we had another hill climb to take the long drive out of the legs,  Great views of the valley. The next morning we were glad of the hut, the camping area had collapsed tents, broken polls and drenched campers sitting in the cars.  Te weathe...

Hello all Weather changed overnight in Queenstown, its very wet at the moment, although scheduled to start clearing about 1 PM.  It also looks as if it is going to be clear tonight and there is an Astronomy outing with a local company I might try. I would upload some more photos!  But, the motel WiFi is very slow, I presume too many guests trying to use it.  So again I'll have to catch up a bit later if I can get better access.

First day's walking on the Abel Tasman trail.  Socks pulled up to try to stop the sand-flies from getting to bare skin!!

For blog Hello all Sorry I have not put anything up here until now. It’s been a combination of taking photos on mostly on my camera and not being able to get them off the camera and only having a brief time with internet access.  A stop for 2 nights in Queenstown should allow me to post some pictures for you.   Here’s a quick recap of the walking holiday so far.  We started from Nelson and drove to the Abel Tasman national park. We had water taxi trip up the coast then spent 3 days walking back. It’s hilly! Possible 3 times that of Peak District.  After a night stop, we walked along the a river including fording it several times (shorts got wet) we ended up at a place called the Ballroom. It’s an overhanging limestone cliff that you can get a lot of people under, but there was just the 12 of us.  The next day we walked out and dove to Hokitika for a night in the big city, well a small but nice town. Staying backpackers accommodation allowed us showers and la...

This is leaving Dubai on the Morning of the 31st at the start of 12 hours of flying to Sydney This is several hours later as the Sun sets somewhere over the Eastern Indian Ocean

Arrived in Nelson yesterday after an uneventful flight from Auckland, apart from no security check leaving Auckland!  Picked up from the airport by my AirBNB host, Jon.  Nice little place not far from the centre of this picturesque town.  It's a very pleasant place although this coast-line was badly affected by the storm that was going over it on the day I arrived in Auckland last week.  No idea if that is going to affect the itinerary, but some sections of the coastal roads have been washed away as in the Lake District 2 years ago. Off on the walking tomorrow (Tuesday) so potentially no posts here for a number of days or more depending on when I get Internet access.

Some more photos from yesterday

Spent the day wondering around downtown Auckland then took the ferry to Devonport. Walked up a small extinct volcano and wondered around a vey nice residential area.  Couldn’t resist the green lipped muscles for lunch.