Hill running (with a lot of walking) above Porters pass

Tramping with the boys in the kaikouras

Styx mill reserve

Completely blocked after the winds last night.

An extravagant lunch

From broodebakers in Blenheim.   Eating at Wither Hills where I ran last night.   Figure between the run and the food wither hills has me calorie neutral!

Blenheim at night

I went for a run up in the hills above Blenheim at Wither Hills Farm Park.   Spectacular and highly recommended! 

Robert Ridge - Lake Angelus

This one was taken from further up the ridge

Lake Angelus

One of my favourite tramps is the route up to Lake Angelus, perched in between Lakes Rotoroa and Rotoiti in Nelson Lakes National Park.

This shot is taken from low down on one of the easier routes up to the lake - Robert Ridge. This ridge rises from the north-west side of Lake Rotoiti - here we see back down the ridge towards the Lake, and across to St Arnaud.

Cannibal Gorge

I planned a trip into Cannibal Gorge on the St James Walkway with the boys, and even managed to get dad to come along - its only my second tramp with him since my mid-teens so very exciting for me (and the boys).

Cannibal Gorge so named because human bones were found there, it is thought that a Maori party were cornered in the Gorge, and subsequently "disposed" of.

Heaven on (freezing) earth

Last summer we spent Christmas/New Years at one of our favourite camping spots - Waihi Gorge.

Waihi Gorge has good swimming of its own, but the holes weren't quite so prodigious this year, so we decided to go check out the nearby Haehae Te Moana Gorge.  As an added advantage the Te Moana river is normally a couple of degrees warmer.

I'd been genned in by a local about a legendary and semi-mythical waterfall further up the Te Moana valley - queue one trip up river, through fords that Karen wasn't too happy about.

Long story short.  In a "The Beach" kind of moment we found it!  And it certainly was legendarily beautiful and... cold!  

Swims were limited to a couple of minutes max - I stayed in under the waterfall for 10 minutes, and came out numb all over.  Nevertheless a fantastic afternoon... if only I can convince Karen to go back.

20 leagues under the sea... well 20 centimeters under the river anyway

I thought I'd get a little point and shoot underwater camera to have a bit of fun.  Also could be good when tramping if the weather is a bit inclement.

Here are the results from the first weekend away with it to the Hurunui River.

Rock Wren

A sighting of the very rare Rock Wren - in route from Sealy tarns to the Muellar hut.

I'm no ornithologist, but this siting had me pretty excited!