We have canoed this section of river before but not as a two-day (weekend) overnight trip and not at such a low water level. This is my solo pack rafting rig. I completed this section by myself in 9 1/2 hours paddling (in a packraft) and could have shortened it by another hour if I …
Charles Kingsley was right. Imagine finding one of these in your garden. A Lewin Water Rail. We admit the garden has become a bit overgrown, but we also suspect the fox-proof fence around the farm is helping make it a haven for various unusual critters. Della now tells me that there have only been 146 …
I have written about this wonderful airline, Wings And Water before. For our 50th anniversary we just had to have a flight into Supper Cove (since we did not quite make it on our walk) and a tour of Dusky Sound and some other beautiful fiords: Breaksea, Dagg, Doubtful, etc. The flight took approx 2 …
Particularly when track hiking (which I mostly avoid) I have found that I sometimes need to clear a small spot to erect my tent. Often the track times do not suit such retired folks as ourselves (and many other much younger people!) so that you find yourself needing to camp where there is no campsite, …
Milford vs Doubtful Sound? Which is your favourite? The road to Milford is one of the most wonderful in the world I’m sure, and there is no doubt that Sound is the more famous, but for my money the Doubtful beats it hands down, and if you can manage a trip there the Dusky beats …
There are many wonderful sights along the Milford Rd. This trip we witnessed some intrepid whitewater canoeists. I thought I had done a lot of whitewater work – but not like this. The guy reckoned this was Grade 3+. I beg to disagree. I have canoed a lot of Grade 3 water in Oz but …
Undaunted by our (unsuccessful) fiftieth anniversary foray on the Dusky, a couple of days later we decided to give the Kepler Heli-Hike a try. It involves a (claimed) 3 1/2 hour walk down from the Luxmore Hut to Brod Bay on the Western shore of Lake Te Anau (pretty accurate – for us anyway – …
I will let Della begin (from her Facebook post about it): “First of our Fiordland adventures: (More to come later). We spent 3 magical days on the Dusky Track. On the first day we crossed Lake Hauroko in a water taxi and spent the night with the Hauroko Hut all to ourselves: Not everyone’s notion …
A reader drew my attention to this interesting piece of parallel evolution. The X-Boil is a roll-up windscreen very similar to my roll-up titanium stove which I posted about here a year earlier than the X-Boil. I made later modifications to it in posts here and here, though until last week when Craig alerted me …
(Della) “We often see satin bower birds in the garden at fruit-ripening time, but yesterday gave us a special treat: I discovered a hesitant fledgling bower bird that had been separated from his frantic mother by a flock of noisy cockatoos wheeling overhead. Mum was flying about and calling from a nearby tree, and you …
