New Zealand Tramping....

Things are going great here in New Zealand. I spent 3 days in Christchurch on my return just sucking up the warm weather and having a few drinks with fellow ice folks. It was a great time to be in ChC as the Buskers festival was also going on. This meant a ton of street vendors and street performers. At one point, I witnessed a guy on a unicycle..on a slack-line, while juggling flaming torches. It was pretty amazing.

I got kind of sick of city life quickly though and headed south a few days ago until I made my way to the small town of Wanaka. From here, I drove up to the start of the Cascade Saddle track and begin a mini 3 day tramp. For those of you confused....Tramp = hike and Track = trail. Also I found out that people call liquor "piss"...which is a bit weird. Someone will say, "hey, lets go buy a bottle of piss" or "I drank way too much piss last night". anyhoo

I learned very quickly that a "moderately difficult tramp" (According to the guide book) is a lot different than in the states. The track took me 4200 feet straight up an extreme rocky/rooty boulder scrambly trail. It was very similar to the hike up Mt. Katahdin. The views though, make even the views in Colorado seem tame. There are no words to even remotely describe the things that I saw the past few days. I will upload more pictures when I can...but I only have 5 more minutes of time on this pc for tonight. There's so much more to say.....so I'll write again soon,

-john

View from part way up the 4200 ft climb from Mt. Aspiring Hut

The Dart Glacier