Just a few last pics of winter while I'm catching up. A trip up to the club fields in Canterbury gave some good skiing, once I had mastered the nut-cracker on the rope tow! (Ever seen a 30yr old have a tantrum?!).
We lived in Craig's van for a week, and skied Broken River, Olympus and some back country at Mt Cheeseman. So the last winter pics before I update my summer adventures!
x

Hi, well its been a while! Winter continued on wonderfully with a good lot of spring snow. We went up to Mueller hut with our skis at the end of October. It was an icy climb up, so we carried our skis most of the way and used our crampons on our boots. We got to the hut as it was getting dark, and had a cosy night in spectacular scenery, all by ourselves.
The next day we ended up carrying our skis more, as we crossed an icy and exposed traverse below Mt Kitchener, and accross to the Annette Plateau. But the sun came up and softened the snow to lovely spring corn. We got to the top of the plateau and the views were spectacular. And we got sweeeet turns back to the hut.
The next day we had a leisurely morning and skied back as far as Sealy Tarns on beautiful snow, walking then back to the village.
The mountain weather was due to turn, so we headed east for some rock climbing on the coast :-)

ITS WINTER!!!!!!!

OK, while I'm blogging, I cant resist a few skiing pics. Been going up to Treble Cone, the mountain ski area near Wanaka, it has the best skiing in resort of any of the local mountains, with lift access to un-pisted gullies and steep terrain. Just what I needed! I have some new skis and touring set up (bindings that the heel can lift up on, skins, and avalanche rescue gear), so have been adventuring away from the resort, into the solitude of the back-country, where you can find fresh lines, and not see another soul. In NZ you have to be fairly open minded about snow conditions, especially as its not been a great year for snow, but have managed to find some powder, and have lots of fun.
We spend a bit of time talking about avalanche risk, and sometimes dig a snow pit, or a test block, just to be sure of risk minimisation, and for the practice. Its a bit different to resort skiing, obviously you need to be sure of navigation, and what the weather will be and has been doing. There's a lot of up to every down, and you need to be constantly assessing the risk. But to be in the mountain environment, away from crowds, and finding some fresh powder to make first tracks in is an amazing feeling, and worth it all :-)
Me and Craig had a trip up to Arthur's Pass and went to some of the canterbury club fields, we camped in his new 4WD van. Bit stromy while we were up there, but great fun, once I had mastered the rope tow nutcrackers again!
So fun to be had both on and off the resort, and loving winter. Just hoping for another cold snap and some great snow, as conditions are remarkably spring like! please stay cold, keep the winds low, and bring us more snow.......

catch up.... and the next great walk run!

Well, its been ages since I've caught up! so sorry, not had a computer and been having lots of fun, so not really had the time or facilities....
So since my last adventure in the matukituki I have discovered a talent I never knew I had... mountain biking. Well, maybe not a talent as such, as my scars and bruises would testify, but a love for it. Where I live has some of the best biking in NZ, natural trails in the hills with plenty of fun rocks and steep sections to negotiate. Going further afield to Queenstown and Wanaka there is yet more biking on offer, including some gnarly trails down queenstown hill, that you can ride the gondola up to and have a day of pure adrenalin, downhill riding :-)
There is a large mountain range called the Old Man range just 15 mins drive from my house, you can get up to the top by 4WD (or freddie can do it under good conditions), and its then an hour of fun, fast downhill with a vertical kilometer of descent. Our fave thing is doing this in the dark under torchlight, adds a certain excitement!
Sooo lucky having all of this at my back door.
Big excitement of the year..... Mum and Dad came out to NZ to visit! It had been a stressfull week as I raced up to Christchurch after the fatal February earthquake to help out, doing 3 nightshifts in A&E, being woken from my sleep on a regular basis to the sound and feeling of the house being rocked and shaken! Although I slept suprisingly well through these aftershocks, and was great seeing all my old buddies up in ChCh. After these shifts I drove to Dunedin for a day of surfing to rest and recover before heading back up north to pic up ma and pa in Picton. Great seeing them after nearly 2 years, and excited about showing them my new home. We drove down the west coast and on to Clyde over the next couple of days, then sent them off on some adventures while I worked a few shifts. We all then headed down to Te Anau and had a fun three days walking the routeburn, kayaking Milford Sound, and drinking wine :-)
They went off to explore the Catlins, and I joined them later for a visit to Stewart Island, where I completed my 3rd great walk run....The Rakiura Track. 30KM of forest and mud!!!! Really very dull, except for the first bit which was lovely beaches. Not a track I recommend, unless you like forest, or want to see a Kiwi, as they do linger around these parts.
We drove up to Chch via the stunning Mt Cook Village, and soon it was time to say goodbye again. Really sad, wanted them to stay! But was so good showing them NZ and them meeting all of my friends, and at least now they can understand why I am here....I think they can be convinced to come back.
I feel at this point I should touch on the fact that I have taken up surfing. I wont stress the point as I'm rubbish, but it is fun, in the summer months. But really I am crap.
So summer and autumn were taken up biking, surfing, climbing and waiting for snow.... which was a long time coming, but now its WINTER! And I have some good, fat, stiff, off piste touring skis, so The back country has opened up to me for winter adventures..... I'll write more about that next time, but be assured, I'm having lots of them and since I've turned 30 i've suddenly got really gutsy! Heading for the steepest and deepest :-) (sorry mum) on bike or skis.
Oh yeah, I turned 30. Forgot that one didn't I! Had a great time, biking and a night out in Queenstown, and a big group of us got a batch in Ohau, an alpine village near Mt Cook, for some biking, lake kayaking, eating and drinking and fun. Thanks to all my lovely mates who came or sent wishes. And I'll have another 30th next year, as I'll be back in the UK for my birthday! So no one will have missed out, and I'll be 30 for another year, which I really dont mind as its been great the first time round. Life begins at 30........
So hope this has put those fears to rest that I've settled down and calmed down and stopped having adventures. Like that would ever happen, I just didn't have access to a computer to tell you about them.
Much love xxxxx

Return to the Matukituki......
On Jan 11th this year, I had a car packed, once again with climbing and mountaineering gear, and was headed off to Wanaka to meet Craig, and start our epic adventure! Both late, we pulled into the DoC office at the same time, so look at the weather, put in our intentions, and get excited! The weather was not very promising, but we were prepared for all conditions, and had a locator beacon, so we were all set. Except for a few last minute purchases, organising gear and ..... our last decent coffee for a week!
So by the time we reached Raspberry Flat car park it was about 13.30 pm, and we had 20KG packs and a long walk ahead! The first part of the walk is flat, and pretty, to Aspiring hut, and beyond down the valley to Shovel Flat. After a river crossing, its a tough 100m climb to French Ridge Hut. All well and good, but Craig was recovering from a nasty ankle injury and had not don any tramping for over a year....way to break him in gently Ange!
By 2100hrs, we arrived, gasping, out of the bush line and into the open. We only had another hour or so to the hut, but we were exhausted and darkness was falling, so we set up a wild camp near a tarn, and made dinner.
The next day was a well earned rest day. We had a leisurely morning in the sun, and then walked the remaining hour or so up to French Ridge hut, still climbing steeply. We got to the hut and Mark, the lovely volunteer warden, made us a pot of tea :-)
After lunch we practised rope work and crevasse rescue techniques on the rocks outside the hut, then we organised our gear. We planned to camp 2 nights on the Bonar Glacier, and attempt Mt Avalanche and Pope's Nose. However, on listening to the mountain forecast, the weather was supposed to turn on Saturday, the day we were coming down. We made a decision to still go, but to take enough supplies in case the weather came in early and we had to sit out a storm. We had an expected "out" day of Sunday, but our panic day (when people start to think we are in need of some help!) we had put as Tuesday, so we had some days to play with.
The next morning, at 06.30 am we set off up towards the Quarterdeck. We came out of the clouds, into beautiful weather. The quarterdeck was much more heavily crevassed than my last trip, and the top was a great big crevasse, with one remaining solid snow bridge across it. We got onto the Bonar Glacier in glorious sunshine. We found a flat spot on the glacier, poked around the check we were not on a precarious snow bridge, and set up our tent. We then set off towards Mt Avalanche. After plodding up steep snow, and negotiating a narrow path across a step slop with HUGE crevasses at the bottom, we reached the base of the rock. We moved together over loose rock, with some fairly good gear placements and made good time up Mt Avalanche. We didn't make it to the top as we made a decision to turn around in order to get off the glacier before the snow bridges became too soft and dangerous. We made it back to the tent by late afternoon, having had an awesome day!
We chilled out in the sun until it got cooler, had dinner, and settled in for our first night on the glacier. The first night taught me that sleeping on a $10 roll mat from the warehouse on snow is cold. And that my sleeping back did not have a -2 comfort rating (actually, its +2, I had obviously miss read it). And I was jealous of Craig's warm bag and thermarest!!!!
Next day, we got up early and walked across the Bonar towards Mt Aspiring, to attempt Pope's Nose. It was a long slog up snow, negotiating some awe-inspiring crevasses! We made it up to the base of the final climb, and a brilliant view! However the last part would elude us once more, there was a big schrund across the base, probably negotiable, but then a very steep section with poor protection. We probably could have soloed this but neither of us were that confident and a fall would have been unprotected and very bad! So we came away, happy, but slightly disappointed. It was an intense walk down, and there were some very delicate crossings of fairly exciting snow bridges over pretty scary holes in the ground!!!!
We plodded back towards our tent and had a great afternoon in the sun, a lovely dinner, and a well deserved rest.
Now in true Ange and Craig style we had a leisurely start to the next day, getting up at 7am. Our style is not "fast and light", not "true alpine". Its chilled out, messy and slightly disorganised. Its always fun, but sometimes not terribly professional. So as we walked towards the top of the quarterdeck in closing in weather, we kind of wished we had a wee bit more discipline and had got up at 0530am as planned. So we ended up on this snow slope, in bad weather and no visibility, surrounded by crevasses. The only sensible thing to do would be to re trace our steps and get back up to the safety of camp. We found our camp again and hour later, and put up our tent just in time. The rain, snow and 120kmph winds began, as did our 48hrs of "truth or dare" and the name game. Oh and eating nothing but bars, no hot food or drink and strict rationing. And did I mention being stung by whipped up snow and nearly being blown away whilst trying to pee? Sometimes I wish I was a man.......
We managed to make the next 48hrs really fun, did a lot of laughing, and a fair amount of sleeping. There was a brief weather window on the Monday night, but too late for us to go for it. We decided that the next day we would pack up at about the same time and have a shot. It was almost our panic day after all, we were fine, but would not have wanted people to come looking for us! So we packed up at 1400hrs the next day and headed to the top of the Quarterdeck. We spend an intense hour negotiating the worst bits (including knocking the last of the snow bridge at the top down....sorry! and me taking a slide - and remembering how to ice-axe arrest!!). It was intense! But we made it down in clearing weather, and got to the hut radio in time to let people know we were ok.
Boy did we have a good feed that night! 2 days of eating and drinking very little, we were glad to be able to use our gas and have a hot meal, hot drinks and as much food as we liked. We were walking out the next day so the more we could eat the better! We met some cool people at the hut that night and had an awesome time.
The next day we had a leisurely breakfast and set off down the valley. It was a long walk, and we broke the journey at Aspiring hut for an hour, w=it was pretty busy, and we were soaked through and hadn't had a shower for 7 days! lovely! We headed out and to Craig's friend's house where they had cooked us dinner :-) Then back to QT to Yan's house for some wine (we had missed his birthday due to getting stuck!) and spent the next few days recovering, mountain biking and kayaking! Back to work for the weekend, then a trip to the Catlins surfing..... All in all a fun packed and tiring few weeks!

The Great Runs No. 1: The Kepler

Last Friday I prepared to head up North to Collingwood to run the Heaphy track, however they had been experiencing heavy rain and the access to the track was impassable. The track would also have been sodden, slippery and flooded in places. I needed a new plan! Suprisingly enough, Fiordland appeared to have had the better deal as far as weather, so after checking this with DoC, I headed south to Te Anau to run the Kepler.
I drove all day, then slept in my car (rather uncomfortably as I had no roll mat or mattress!) in a backpacker car park (the back packers had closed by the time I got there). So after a poor nights sleep, I woke at 05.15 am, and drove to the start of the Kepler Track.
The Kepler is a 60.1KM track, with over 1000m of climb, reaching about 1500m over the Kepler Mountains in Fiordland. I ate a one square meal bar, and downed some powerade, before setting off at 06.20am. The morning light was beautiful over the lake, but I followed the track into the forest to begin the climb. A couple of hours later, and I emerged from the bush, onto the tops, yey! It was fairly over-cast, with a hint of light rain, but beautiful views all around. I reached luxmore hut (nearly 14km into the run) at 08.30hrs, and topped up my camelbak, which had been leaking down my back the whole way! I discovered that this was due to disruption of the seal, which I managed to sort, and avoid a long day of hydration drink splashing down my legs!!
Now for the best bit! After further climbing up to about 1500m, the track undulated along a narrow and exposed ridgeline, with spectacular views of fiordland. It felt good to be on gentler inclines and flat, although careful footing was a must, as a fall here could be serious. With a few photo stops and hellos to passing walkers, I plodded on, listening to tunes, and enjoying the view. After about 12km, the track descended abruptly and zig-zagged into the bush, entually reaching Iris Burn hut 14.6km on from Luxmore.
Iris Burn hut is tucked into the forest and is infested with sandflies! Well, everywhere here is, but they were in even more abundance here. I quickly made my way on, after a H2O top up. From Iris Burn Hut the whole way is in forest, something that I struggle with immensley, and still over 31km to go! But the way was gently undulating, and mainly downhill, and the day had gotten very hot, so there was much to be thankful for, the shade, and the lack of uphill mainly. I had managed to convince myself that I had less far to go than I actually had, thinking that after the next hut there was only about 15km to go. How wrong I was.....
As this had been a last minute decision, I had not really researched the track or known what to expect, so on reaching Motarau Hut, on a beautiful little beach on lake Manapouri, I was quite disheartened to read that the end was a six hour walk away, which would mean up to a three hour run in my state, not the hour and a half that I hoped for!
I somehow had phone reception here, so it was a saving grace to read a text from my friend Jane, saying good luck and our little motto...."keep calm, carry on". Oh, thank goodness for this little burst of positivity!! Thanks Jane!
So on I went, stopping only to bandage blisters and to drink. I hadn't managed to eat much, but tried to nibble on a OSM bar. NOT a good running food, made me want to vomit...at least I know for next time to take proper food. I was starving, and although running wasn't a problem, I began to feel the challenge mentally. The key, as always, was good tunes and switching off, and going into Sankey Land, the crazy little world in my head! I stopped to chat to a British couple, who lived in Berkhampstead, where I used to live. She was a nurse too, and they were here on holiday. Its little meetings like this that put you in a better frame of mind and keep you going.
I can not tell you how great the temptation was at Rainbow's Reach (9.5km to go!) to go into the car park and beg a lift back to the control gates! No one would ever know.... but I would, and I didn't want to have to come back and do this again when my conscience got the better of me. On, and on, and on I went throught the bush. I was nearing desperation when I saw a sign..... 1KM TO GO...LOOKING GOOD it said. Woo hoo, I can do this, come on, one last push....
And there were the control gates. I sat down, and leaned against the Kepler Track start/finish sign. From broken to happy in ten seconds! Oh the feeling to have done it! Its amazing how great you can feel, so soon after feeling so bad :-) I sent the obligatory "I'm alive" text to people, then got up to walk the two mins to the car. And then I realised how much this was going to hurt! I made two stops on the 3 hour drive home, and each time walking was a little harder.
Not much left to do but wash, eat and sleep......One down, 7 to go!!

Girl Power in the Matukituki!

Time to get back out into the mountains!
Last monday I picked my friend Laurayne up from Queenstown airport and we headed off to the start of our adventure - Wanaka. After leaving our intentions with DoC and hiring a locator beacon, we drove down the Aspiring road and along a long gravel track to Raspberry Flat. Leaving Freddie in the carpark, we heaved our 20KG packs onto our backs, and set off. We were carrying all our food and gear for 7 days of climbing in the high alpine peaks of the area. we walked as far as Apiring Hut, and set up our tent there. We practiced a bit of rope work and crevasse rescue, just in case!
Next morning we were up early and left some of our food at the hut, to save weight. We climbed over 1000m to Cascade Saddle, with early cloud clearing, giving us fantastic views of the surrounding mountains. We camped at cascade saddle, by a beautiful clear snow-melt river. The next morning (at 4.45am!!) we stuck our heads oout of the tent and were disappointed to find heavy cloud and poor visibility. We went back to sleep for an hour or so, then got up and decided to head up onto a ridge and navigate our way to the Isobel Glacier, in the hope that it would clear later and we could make a summit attempt at Mt Anstead (2388m). We used bearings to find our way, but approached the glacier in much improving visibility and blue skies. Anstead is a long day, and we thought it best not to be getting back off the Glacier too late (the sun makes the snow bridges over the crevasses weak, and there is more chance of falling through). So we headed for Mt Tyndall, a higher peak at 2496m, but closer. We dumped our packs at the head of the glacier and made our way up patches of loose rock and steep snow. We had a few false starts, finding ways to be impassable and unsafe, before finding a route of snow, and a final rock scramble to the summit. We were rewarded with astounding views of the Matukituki Valley and surrounding mountains.
Very happily, we plodded back to camp accross the glacier.
We had planned to climb Plunkett Dome, but its approach was steep and heaily crevassed, with many of the crevasses opening up due to a very warm November! So we made the slightly crazy choice to descend the 1000m to the valley floor, walk a few kms along the valley, and climb another 1000m up French Ridge! It was a long day, the temperature was approaching 30 degrees and we had very heavy packs again, although we each only took one ice-axe up here to save weight, and left a few bits of gear behind. It was a ten hour day, involving a river crossing and wet feet! French ridge is steep, which is hard with big packs, but at least you gain height quickly! We camped outside French Ridge Hut, and met the friendly warden there. It was stunning, well up out of the bushline with stunning mountains all around, and a view back up the valley to where we had walked from that morning!!
The next morning we were up at five to attempt the Quarter deck(2305m) and Mt French. The quarterdeck is a snow slope, leading up to the Bonar Glacier, over which Mt Aspiring presides. It is steep in places and quite heavily crevassed, but the snow was good and firm (thanks to our early morning start). We roped up for safety and had a good steady plod to the top. The view at the top was breathtaking. The Bonar Glacier was a vast, smooth carpet of snow, with Mt Aspiring rising graciously from it. There were snow capped mountains as far as the eye could see, the sun was bright and the sky was blue. Mt French had a big schrund cutting through our route, and was heavily corniced at the top, so we decided not to risk it. We negotiated our way back down the Quarterdeck and stopped for refreshment once we were safely back on rock. I then put on my waterproof trousers and slid down the snow on my bum back to camp - great fun! (and a legitimate mountaineering technique!!).
So being back down for lunchtime, we did what any self respecting mountaineer would do - we sat in the sun and ate all afternoon! We did so well at this, that our packs were much lighter for the descent, and we had no excess food to carry ;-)
The next day we packed up camp and headed down to the valley again. We enjoyed the walk out, down the lush and green Matukituki Valley. We rested a while at aspiring hut, before the last two hour slog. back at the car (again, 30 degree heat!) we were soooo glad to take off our boots, which were the only thing we had worn on our feet for the last week, and put on our flip-flops. We drove into wanaka, handed in our return slip, then sat in a cafe and ordered massive bowls of good, sweet coffee, and stuffed our faces with mozarella garlic bread and cheese muffins! Having not had a shower in a week, we cleared the cafe out pretty quick......
We then found a campsite (with showers) and got clean! When I say clean, we had no shower gel, so used leaves of travel soap, we had nothing to wash our hair with an no hairbrush, so we still looked pretty awful! But I had that post-hills alpine glow that no make up could ever replicate, and I was so happy and content. We wandered to the pub, in tracksuit bottoms and the cleanest thermal I could find. We drank beer, had fish and chips, then returned to the pub for more wine.... absolute bliss! We could stop talking about this trip, planning our next trip, and congratulaing each other on a successful week!
The next day the weather closed in, but we didn't care. I dropped Laurayne off for her return flight to Christchurch, both so happy, in a way that is only achieved from week of hard physical activity, in one of the most beautiful settings in the world......