The Mt. Somers Subalpine Walkway

Hey all! I feel terrible! I haven't been doing my part with blogging lately! Here I am writing another blog, but yet again, I've forgotten my camera at the house I'm staying at! So, once again, I can't put up pictures of my latest adventure until later!

But my latest adventure was one of Backpacking. The day after I flew in to Christchurch I hit the ground running. I jumped into Larry and headed to the Mt. Somers Subalpine walkway with Dominic. Of course, we packed our climbing gear with us because there is climbing up there. It's inevitable though, I always wonder why I do things like that once I'm a few kilometers into the hike.

Anyway, this was a three day hike, and we only got to climb two pitches, so it was a lot of extra gear, for just a little climbing, but the climbing was worth it! There was one FABULOUS pitch! 50 meters long, adequate protection, and HARD! Luckily for me, Dominic is a superb climber and he was able to lead the climb for me. All I had to do was follow. :)

Anyway, I've also noticed that the back country in New Zealand is nothing like the back country in Montana. I don't know if it's just the luck of the draw, but every hike I've been on down here has been packed! I thought this one was going to be not crowded, but as we did it, there was a group of college kids learning how to climb, and there was 2 school groups doing the hikes. New Zealand has an extensive hut system, so as we arrived at these huts, we were appalled to find them packed to the bone with tents and people! Someday, I'll find a hike out here with not many people!

But besides the people, the Hike was gorgeous! It started out on a creek bed in the middle of the forest. After walking along that for about 3 hours it broke out into the open and over some prime LOTR spots. In fact there was a little detour to the "water caves" which apparently was used in a few LOTR scenes. I didn't recognize it off hand, but I'll go back and watch the movies to see if I can pick them out. But the water caves are these gorgeous pools of water that have formed under giant rocks! They aren't really caves, per se, but boulders that have fallen into a steep canyon and gotten wedged above the creek. Very pretty indeed.

I'd like to go into much more detail about the rest of this hike too, but I feel that without pictures, I don't really know what to talk about. . .so, even though this is kind of a short post, I'm gonna call it good. Sorry!

Really quick, things are starting to get pretty exciting for me as far as the world goes, and truthfully, I'm getting ancy to travel somewhere new and exciting! We'll see if New Zealand can hold my attention much longer I guess! Keep checking back! I'll keep you all updated! And I'll try to remember my camera one of these times. . .I promise!