Amazing photos

I have some amazing photos - I really do, but this particular internet kiosk is perhaps the most useless that I have found - it is in our hotel in Palmerston North and while most of these systems work pretty well and allow you to edit images using a basic tool like Irfanview, this one has nothing. SO I can't show you the great powder snow that fell on us as we drove through Saint Arnaud, or the pale face of Alli as we crossed Cook Strait into the teeth of the same low pressure system that brought the snow.

I hope to do a little photo editing tomorrow - and I'll post up some images then.

I can say that this morning I had my best coffee so far - in Wellington. By and large the standard of coffee and food over here is very high and I don't like to make comparisons but this was really outstanding - Floriditas in Wellington - I got the tip from "Grab Your Fork" an Aussie food blog and it was bang on the money and provided a good rest and recovery stop for us after an early start and moderately rough trip over the Strait (actually it was pretty calm but Mrs Grendel does not do sea travel at all well so for her a 1.5 metre swell might as well be a hurricane).

I have to catch up with a lot of the cafes we have visited over the last few days - there have been some goodies, and I'll also review a few of the places we have stayed - and a few we wish we'd stayed in, like Lake Wanaka.

We are on the journey North to Auckland but stopped by Palmerston North to visit friends and we have had a great time - we have another day resting here before heading for more adventures in Taupo.

I found the cloud

In 1988 I visited New Zealand and found the Long White Cloud. I've just found a map of the place where I found the cloud on the NZ Travel web site so I thought I'd share it.

This is the Lake Waikeremoana track on the North East coast of the North Island. It is a region that is wild and beautiful and the track travels along a high ridgeline around the lake with a series of backcountry huts that trampers (hikers) can use to overnight.

We were there in summer and attempted the track in a clockwise direction, starting at Onepoto - I understand that most people travel anti-clockwise and I can understand why (now).

The first leg from this direction involves a steep climb of around 500m (1600 feet) to a final altitude of 1100 metres (3600 feet). In the right weather conditions this can help things chill down nicely and the day we set of it was overcast and drizzling lightly - not much to worry about.

Halfway up the ridge we were battling driving torrential rain, temperatures below 10 degrees (and this in the middle of summer) and visibility of less than 30 metres - we were pretty much right in the middle of the Long White Cloud at this point.

The water was turning the track into a chute and I slipped and rode it down a number of times. I was soaked and all my wet weather precautions for my back had been good for naught and everything in there was wet - and heavy.

I probably should have gone down the ridge at this point but I was keen not to been seen as the 'shirker' (yes, there were girls present) and so we pressed on. The last 100 metres climb was pure hell, I had long ago stopped shivering and was just wanting to crawl under one of the logs along the track and go to sleep.

Fortunately the others in my party recognised that I was probably hypothermic and so they kept me going until we got to the Panekiri hut. There were only two other trampers so there was plenty of room, but some idiot had stuffed things up the stove chimney (to keep the wind out) and it was all jammed tight.

I was bundled into a sleeping bag and I am SURE that I heard discussion among the girls about one of them climbing in with me to warm me up but I don't actually remember that happening - and believe me at 18 a little hypothermia is worth it for that prize!

The weather closed in for the next three days and we stayed put and ate our way through our track foods. Conversations with the other trampers who came through indicated that for most this was the last stop - apparently it is much easier to negotiate the steep ridge in a DOWNHILL direction without the 4-days supply of food that we were carrying UPHILL.

If I ever take the Junior Grendels on this trek I know just which way we'll be travelling!