We’ve arrived in Singapore, for a brief, brief overnight stay before we head out to Vietnam tomorrow morning. It’s a bit of a rough trip: we got up early in NZ to drive to the airport from across the island, so going on over 25hrs now. At least we got to catch up with Carolyn a bit. 

Our last few days in New Zealand were full of hiking, and, well, perfect! The Caples track was not the easiest thing: it was shorter than Kepler (this time 27km) but required crossing swamps knee deep and scrambling with hands and feet straight up a mountain side. Climbers: it was like a long v0 with lots of mantels and high knee steps, WITH a pack. We underestimated this route, hustled our butts for 9 nine hours straight (maybe there were two 5 min stops), and ended up being a little late to meet up with Ben’s parents and Kerry. The second half was actually quite nice, along a river through a broad grassy meadow. Highly recommend doing an out and back on that part of the track.

The Routeburn track, however, was amazing all over. First, we were doing it over 3 days, and not our usual hyperspeed mode. We were looking forward to appreciating the scenery, and after 100km, our legs needed a break. I’ll write about it later, but some highlights: The hut at the end of the first day was next to a waterfall; we scrambled down and sat by it for awhile (we SAT!). Second day was all above the bushline with views of snowcaps all around. We “swam” (I literally jumped in and out) in the MacKenzie lake, which was unbelievably cold but so refreshing.

And that was the last day of tramping. Sigh. I lingered as we got near the parking lot. 

I have tons more tidbits to write about NZ, but really need to get some sleep. I’m uploading pix on flickr, tons of them. Enjoy them there; hope you like scenery!