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| Walking on Waikuku Beach with the tide coming up, 22 June 2014 |
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| Barnacles galore on driftwood on Waikuku Beach |
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| Seals near Kaikoura, where we went for the w/e with Anne and Andy, 5 June 2014 |
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| Sun setting with snow on the mountains at Kaikoura |
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| What an outfit! Better not let Katy see this photo. Setting out to walk the Rangitata Gorge, 10 August |
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| Walking steeply up at the start you soon find yourself way up high above the river |
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| Mike looking pretty cool too |
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| Mike's getting hungry must be time for lunch . . . |
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| . . . so we walked down to river level and found a picnic spot next to the river |
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| On the way back we saw people carrying kayaks obviously planning to travel back through the rapids |
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| We decided to go to Hanmer Springs for the w/e of 16-17 August but stopped at Waikari on the way to walk up and view the Maori rock art at Weka Pass. It was a steep climb to the tussock-covered uplands then up and down a few more valleys till we reached Weka Pass |
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| Weka Pass is a deep gouge in the limestone rock, creating masses of gorgeous rounded rock shapes |
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| The drawings are painted on a huge rock under a ledge. Many of them, like these, have been touched up at some point in the past, the others are visible but fairly faint. They're some 600-1000 years old so made at a time when there were only birds on NZ, yet many of the shapes look like animals (and some like space monsters) |
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| Resting on top of a huge limestone rock |
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| Beautiful pussy willows just opening. The tree was alive with bees buzzing |
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| That evening we stayed at Rosie's b&b and went for a curry after a long soak in the hot pools, and the next day we decided to walk up Mt Isobel. Turned out there were a few approaches but you needed 4-wheel drive to get to the start, so instead we decided to do the Chatterton River Trail. It was a fairly gentle uphill walk beside the river but the final push was a bit of a scramble. |
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| We were mostly walking along a wooded ridge, often a scramble. Worth it for the views though, and plenty of birdlife around |
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| We got to the top and hit the road where the 3 hour track to Mt Isobel was marked. Looks like we could have driven after all. |
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| 31 August. We travelled SW of Christchurch down through Darfield, and set off on the Dry Acheron Track near the Rakaia Gorge. Fabulous snow covered peaks on the southern Alps. |
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| The track went down to a small river which must in the distant past have been much larger and more powerful as it had cut a channel deep into the plain |
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| This was the first of many crossings. When we got to the open stony plain at the end of the walk, we stopped for a picnic and decided to count the crossings on the way back. There were 24, so 48 crossings for the whole journey, must be some kind of record. It's only a shallow stream here but in places it ran swift and deep and we had to find stepping stones to cross |
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| There was no path as such, though it was roughly marked with poles, so we just followed the stream crossing and re-crossing wherever necessary. |
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| The rocks were quite slippery as the stream was infected with the dreaded didymo. Mike had to help me over in quite a few places, but we both managed to keep our feet dry |
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| Coming back up the side of the gorge and back onto the plains. Looking across the sheep fields to the mountains |
