I will walk 500 miles...

Ok, so let's first begin this blog with a little definition of tramping! Now, I'm not sure if I didn't pay attention properly at the pre-meet but no-where do I recall mention of the need to traverse rivers, get knee deep in mud, scramble over boulders, avoid landslides and be chewed on by sandflies!

The first shock to the system was discovering that we would be beginning our 'two days of fun' whilst it was still dark in order to get a good start to the day?!! Then Jessamy happened to mention that we might want to leave on our flipflops and not put on our boots as the first thing we would need to do would be to wade across a river!

Now me and rivers don't really mix and therefore before I even got halfway across I seemed to manage to go one way as my flipflop went another!

We arrived on the other side of the river to find, no not a track but more of a forest for us to then walk through! Still, full of enthusiasm, despite the drizzle, we bravely set off!

Half of the intrepid group (actually - the slow ones, that did strange things like stop and take photos!)

We soon discovered that tramping is definitely easier if you have longer legs to overcome some of the obstacles in your way! Trying to match your steps to people that have legs about a foot longer than you doesn't really work that well as you end up stranded in the middle of the mud rather than able to walk over it!

The scenery was pretty stunning as we walked along - the Copeland track basically takes you 18km along the valley floor, through the forests and mountains to the natural hot pools at the end!

Our motto on the tramp was 'Just because you're tramping it doesn't mean you have to look like a tramp!'. We were really fortunate to be able to borrow loads of clothes off people - I now know that polyprops are the way to go - should I ever choose to go again! - and as you can see, decided to work my '80's tramping look'!! Check out the co-ordinated top and socks!! And despite Jessamy's best attempts to weed them out, there were smuggled bottles of mascara taken too, ha ha!!

Finally after walking for what seemed like hours, we caught up with the other faster group for a spot of lunch! Kz had never been so grateful for a cup of tea! It was shortly after this point that Jessamy came running up to me with a worried look on her face and uttered the immortal lines, 'I think I've broken Katharine! She's not making any noise!' (obviously, this didn't last long!!)

We continued on and just as we were losing the will to live, and after 8 1/2 hours of walking we finally arrived at the hut that we were staying in. Nz has lots of these little huts dotted around the countryside for trampers to stay in overnight. Unfortunately, lots of people seemed to have the same idea as us as so we arrived to find that there weren't enough beds for everyone as it was working on a first come, first served basis, and amazingly we weren't the first ones there!! Therefore a number of our group decided that they would sleep outside under the bivouac rock!!

Now there was actually a reason why we'd walked all this way into the middle of nowhere! Just at the end of the track by the hut were some amazing natural hot pools! A great way to spend an hour or two after walking so far! All it was lacking was a glass of bubbly!

The huts that you stay in basically consist of a sleeping area and a downstairs communal area, with kitchen area (a few worktops and a sink) and that's about it. There is no electricity and the toilet is basically a long drop down a little path! So any cooking is done on camping stoves, water has to be heated for washing up and when it's dark, it's VERY dark! Fortunately, we had remembered to bring torches and candles so we could see as we ate our way through a yummy meal of beef satay and rice (thanks again Einstein!), apricots and prunes with custard and drank lots of red wine (as the boys refused to carry it down the mountain as well as up!)

A helpful map of the route so you can see how far we walked! We walked from A-E!

After a pretty early night, due to general exhaustion, we awoke the next day knowing that we had the same joyful walk before us again on the Sunday! However, this time would be mostly downhill, which allegedly was supposed to be faster/easier. It also had the added interest of the fact that it had rained heavily for most of the night (don't worry - the guys and gals under the rock all stayed dry!) and the ground was now sodden and the river running much higher than before!

The sleeping area - find a spot and hope you don't wake up cuddling the stranger lying next to you!!

The view from the hut was amazing - note the snow on the mountains!

We set off - I'd like to point out that even though my pack may look smaller than the others that doesn't necessarily mean it was lighter!!

So you might be thinking how did they manage to get this far without having a 'near death' experience as Kz is normally so good at seeking them out! Unforunately, this time it was me! I somehow managed to slip going through a stream (see, me and rivers just don't mix!) and managed to fall into the water, which wouldn't have been too bad if it hadn't been for the fact that my pack then shot over my head and meant that I headbutted the rock beneath it! So I was basically prostrate in the water, kissing this rock and not able to lift my head or even really move because of my pack! All I could hear were the gratifying sounds of Kz shrieking, 'I don't know what I'll do if she dies!!' Fortunately, Colin and Maria were on hand to drag me out and return me to dry land, a little dazed and bedraggled! I also then managed to nearly slip down off the side of the hill, which doesn't really look much in the picture below but believe me, there was a big drop there!!

The best part of the trek were the Indiana Jones style swing bridges that we had to cross at intervals. From the middle of the bridge, they gave an amazing view up and down the valley - and were also quite fun to bounce on. Kz of course, did not approve of this 'high risk' activity and made sure she followed the directions to the letter of only having one person on the bridge - or anywhere near the bridge at one time!

Lunch on the last day - only a few more hours to go!

The problem we found as we neared the end was that we started to recognise parts and kept thinking that we weren't that far away from where we had started! Unfortunately, on a number of occasions this proved to be untrue and as the rain set in, it would be fairly safe to say that we were well and truly 'over it!'

However, 36kms, lots of bruises and some very wet feet later we FINALLY reached the end!! After virutally running across the final river, we were very happy to see the car park!!

We made it!!

Then it was home to hot showers, a roaring fire and sorting out the numerous socks that we washed!!

A final shout out to Jessamy and Maria for going and buying food and feeding us all on the Sunday night and also to Natalie for knocking on the chalet owners door and asking them if we could buy some wine off them as the shops wouldn't sell it on Easter Sunday!

Would we do it all again?!! Err.........