Oceania Green Gully Track - Day 4 Remember on day 2 when we were forced to bum slide down the mountain it was so steep? Well, today we're going back up. The plan is to leave a bit earlier this morning, as today's ascent is supposed to be criminal (600m in 3kms; steeper
Oceania Green Gully Track - Day 3 Nice easy start to the day. No hills scheduled, thank God. Just a lazy 13.5kms following the Green Gully Creek upstream the whole way to the next hut. Some of it will be on tracks, some we will have to make up ourselves. It doesn't take long
Oceania Green Gully Track - Day 2 - Bird's Nest Hut to Green Gully Hut We've got a cruisey 15km on the agenda today. Just kidding. Today is said to be the hardest all of 4 days on the hike, mainly due to the very steep descent. Jeff and his ankle are not looking forward to this. We start off with our usual
Oceania Green Gully Track - Day 1 - Cedar Creek Cottage to Bird's Nest Hut We arrived at around 6pm the night before, to a welcoming mob of kangaroos. The cottage and the setting had us pleasantly surprised. A great spot to transition out of the city head-space and slow it down ready for a week in the bush. We wake with trepidation on Day
Oceania Overland Track - Day 7 - Echo Point to Lake St Clair No rush today. We're 10 (hopefully) short kilometres away from the end of our journey. We are up early anyway. 530am after a great sleep. We decide to sit at the end of the jetty and watch the sun rise. It tries its best, and we see some
Oceania Overland Track - Day 6: Bert Nichols/Windy Ridge to Echo Point We wake at our usual early time and decide over breakfast and coffee that we'll combine today's hike with half of tomorrow's. The scheduled hike for today is only about 3 hours and tomorrow's (last day of the trek!) is around double
Oceania Overland Track - Day 5: Kia Ora to Bert Nichols/Windy Ridge We are up and ready for a new day. Bodies are feeling good, motivation is good. We smash down our breakfast and get back into our wet clothes... Yaaaay Time to take down the tent. Usually a nice, easy task considering there isn't much too it. Throw in
Oceania Overland Track - Day 4: Pelion to Kia Ora We survived our first night in a tent despite the rain and it was about 50x better (and quieter) than the huts. It seems like the sunny and clear weather was short lived, the cloud and drizzle is back. We head to the hut for our freeze dried brekkie (porridge
Oceania Overland Track - Day 3: Windermere to Pelion We're into a good routine of waking up around 6am when daylight starts breaking and today is no different. We've got a 17km hike ahead of us, so we don't want to dilly dally. We have our usual breakfast of freeze dried eggs, beef
Oceania Overland Track - Day 2: Waterfall Valley to Windermere Early to bed and early to rise! We're up before the sun thanks to our early bed time and woeful nights sleep. We decided to sleep in the hut and it was pretty noisy and uncomfortable. We're debating over breakfast whether to combine today and tomorrow&
Oceania Overland Track - Day 1: Ronny Creek to Waterfall Valley We're all up bright and early and before our alarms, anxious to begin the Overland Track. We head back to the visitor centre to meet the Overland company driver, who'll be taking our bag with non-hike gear, for us to pick up on the other side.
Oceania Overland Track - Day 0: Cradle Mountain Bus to Cradle Mountain arrived nice and early at our accommodation in Launceston. We don't start the trek until tomorrow, but decided head up to Cradle Mountain a day early, so we can head off as early as possible on day 1. We make a breakfast pit stop
Oceania Lake Tekapo to Christchurch It's our last full day of travel as we've got a very early flight back home tomorrow morning. We're keen to make the most of our last day, so one last hike is in order. We rise early, pack up the car and make
Oceania Dunedin to Lake Tekapo A decent little drive today so we get cracking early. We stop at Signal Hill lookout for a final view before hitting the road and saying bye to Dunedin. Quick coffee and muffin stop before clocking up some KMs. First stop are the Moeraki Boulders; a strange geological phenomenon resulting
Oceania Dunedin - Day 1 Not in a massive rush today, which is good considering the late night. We're planning a walking tour of Dunedin. First stop is breakfast at a Cafe. Best we've had so far. Perfect coffee. Jeff has a sushi bowl (no more scones) We head past the
Oceania Te-Anau to Dunedin Te-Anau was just a place to rest our heads for the night, not much to see other than the glorious lake. A playground was promised and was delivered. Jeff does a workout and pays up on a lost 50 push up bet before hanging out with Bailey on the castle/
Oceania Milford Sound This is one of our earlier starts today as we've got a boat booked for early arvo to check out Milford Sound. It's about a 3.5 hour drive from Queenstown. We hit the road and make the obligatory stop for breakfast pies (we're
Oceania Queenstown - Day 3 After Courts banging on about how nice the sunrise was following her run the day before, she's drags Jeff out of bed so he can see for himself. It's probably a balmy 2 degrees and windy as hell but she's right, this time of
Oceania Queenstown - Day 2 The fit and healthy of us (Courts and Caleb) head off for a morning run for sunrise. The pics suggest this is exactly how you should start your day in Queenstown. We're aiming to tackle what AllTrails is calling the Thunder Goat track to get up to where
Oceania Queenstown - Day 1 Slow start today, making plans and getting sorted for all the Queenstown activities. We wander into town (about a 10 minute walk, perfect) and to the nearest coffee shop. Courts wanders on up to Starbucks because she's a savage; she likes the Caramel Macchiato. We make our way
Oceania Wanaka to Queenstown Our next stop is Queenstown. Only about an hour or so drive from Wanaka, so we're not in a huge rush. Courts has been itching to go on another hike since our last epic one in Franz, so we head for a short one (various over 30s injuries
Oceania Wanaka - Day 3 - Cardrona Snowboarding day... this will be interesting. Jeff is going up the mountain with a veteran at least, so should be able to get some decent training. Another plus: its the perfect day for it (what's new). Sun is shining and the snow is powdery. Let's get
Oceania Wanaka - Day 2 Big cook up breakfast this morning to get us going. We're planning a mini-hike/walk to Rippon winery on a hill overlooking the lake. With plenty of fuel in the tank we drive to the centre of town about 5 minutes away and head down to the lake.
Oceania Wanaka - Day 1 No big plans today. We are spent from the hike yesterday. So we lazily make our way into town for some breakfast. This is the first of many "Oh wow" moments of Wanaka. Just rocking up into town by the lake to park the car is stunning. We
Oceania Franz Josef Hike We got a good taste for the glaciers yesterday but we were still kilometres away from them. The best way to get closer is to hike to them. Roberts Point is about a 6km hike on the side of the mountain which will get us much closer. About 5 hour
