Tag: tramping

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A walk along the Three Mile Pack Track, Okarito, New Zealand

We are nearing the end of our month walking and travelling through the beautiful South Island of New Zealand / Aotearoa. We have walked on mountains and through rainforests, along beaches and glacial moraine. We have seen a wild Kiwi in its native environment and visited a predator free island. We were drenched under its highest waterfall and gazed up at the knife edge arêtes on the snow plastered summit of its highest mountain. It has certainly been a trip to remember and for our last walk we find ourselves on the ‘Wild’ West Coast in the tiny settlement of Okarito, where we will be walking the three mile pack track.

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Routeburn Track Day Three, Lake Mackenzie Hut to The Divide

All was quiet and still in the valley as I paid a visit to the outside toilet during the early hours. I could see the stars were out so turned off my head torch. As my eyes adjusted to the dark I became aware that above me, the Milky Way was stretching out gloriously across the inky black Southern night sky. A million diamonds twinkling through a black curtain. I stood there for a while, mesmerised by the sight until the night air started to chill me and I made my way reluctantly back into the hut and my warm sleeping bag. The clarity of the air in New Zealand and the lack of light pollution in the mountains has meant regular sightings of the Milky Way during our tramping adventures and it has been a joy to see the stars of the Southern Hemisphere throughout this trip, even if I have not quite got used to seeing Orion upside down.

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