Jessamy had organized a group of us from Auckland to go down to the West Coast and to meet up with a few from Dunedin so that together we could tramp the Copland Track, an 18km hike that takes you through the Copland Valley to a hut where you stay before doing it all over again the next day…. But more of that later.
Our first hurdle to overcome was getting down to the South Island and we took a flight via Wellington to Christchurch. Whilst it was annoying to not be able to fly directly, flying via Wellington gave us the welcome bonus of meeting up with Steve Field and spending an hour or so catching up whilst on the plane. We almost didn’t make the flight out of Auckland though because in spite of leaving plenty of time to get to the airport we blithely followed Colin through the security areas at the gates and had gone through when one of the staff suddenly noticed that we were all actually traveling Pacific Blue rather than JetStar and so were in completely the wrong place! At this point we heard all our names being called over the tannoy, I went into mass panic mode and we ran all the way across the terminal to the right departure gate! Still we made it, and I’ve decided that NZ domestic flights are incredibly lax about heir security – at no point did we even have to show any ID – we could have been anyone!
Once we got to Christchurch we passed our first ‘Bear Grylls Survivor test’ by using the handy flint tool that Joel had got for Jessamy and lighting our own fire by the side of the road, whilst waiting for Jess’s dad to arrive – check out the evidence below!
We are the fire starters!!!
Reassured that if we were stranded we would be able to keep ourselves warm, we met up with John ‘Daddy’ Bousie and Mel and John Ketchen from Dunedin and set off on our long journey through Arthur’s Pass towards Fox.
Sometimes driving can be so boring...
It was a glorious day for traveling and so on the way we stopped at Castle Hill, where sadly no castle was ever built, but where there are an impressive collection of limestone boulders and rocks all over the hillside that you can climb and that look like ruins of some ancient monument (so much so that it has been used as a location for Lord of the Rings and Narnia). The views were spectacular and you really for the sensation of how far you really were away from any type of civilization, whilst we also had some practice climbing up steep hills and over rocks to reach the top!
Bigger than they look!
If only the tramp trail had looked like that!
That's Natalie on the top of the rock!
Clockwise from left - KZ, Mel, Michelle, Maria, Joel, Natalie, John, MZ, Colin, Jess and daddy Bousie
After having to dissuade Mel and Jess from then going on a caving adventure that would have involved wading waist deep through water (as none of us were dressed for it or knew where the torches were) we decided to carry on through the mountains to fox, with a few more rest stops along the way, including one in Arthur’s Pass township where I saw my first Kea!!! And it was a unique one as it only had one foot!!!!
A New Zealand bird that can fly, even if this one doesn't really walk!
We were also slightly horrified to discover that inspite of being a massively secular country in a lot of ways, supermarkets in New Zealand won’t sell alcohol on Good Friday – don’t they know that the disciples and Jesus drank wine?!!!! Fortunately we had a couple of bottles stashed away with the food supplies so after a lovely meal of spaghetti Bolognese and a moment’s silence for Einstein (the Bousie cow who had died to provide us with the beef – so named because he was too clever by half!) we retired for the night to prepare for the big tramp ahead!!!
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