Lake Hauroko

South Coast Track New Zealand

New Zealand’s South Coast Track is a magical journey through one of the world’s completely untouched forests where no axe has ever fallen or anyone ever lived. I/we have been there four times and plan to go again, maybe in late spring this year if my knee is good enough by then, otherwise next autumn. […]

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Hunting in Fiordland:

It is incredibly difficult country. Some ‘easier’ areas (eg along the South Coast Track) are flatter and safer. There are both pigs and deer there. In NZ they have these excellent DOC (‘Dept of Conservation’) huts all over the place (roughly a solid day’s walk apart with a pack; all have a helipad) which make

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Eddie Herrick – Moose Hunting at Dusky Sound

Venery is one of my passions. This is one of my all-time favourite photos. This was Eddie Herrick circa 1934 in his eponymous creek in Wet Jacket Arm, Dusky Sound, Fiordland NZ with his bull moose. In a moose hunting career in Fiordland which involved Eddie hunting there for nearly three months a year for

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South Coast Track: A Walk in Fiordland

The last two years ago today, this is where we were. How I wish I was there again. Of course we can’t go this year because of Della’s sudden angina. Maybe the Dusky next year! What I said two years ago: ‘Home from the Waitutu Forest! More posts to follow. In brief, the South Coast

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South Coast Track, Fiordland, NZ, Della’s Version:

Day one was totally passive, involving a jet boat ride over the beautiful Lake Hauroko and then helter-skelter down the fast-running Wairaurahiri River to the sea. There we stayed overnight in lovely wilderness accommodation and prepared our packs for the big walk ahead. Our jet boat waiting. Lake Hauroko was like a mill-pond: Lake Hauroko

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Dusky Track Adventures #1

I have been on this track now EIGHT times, first in March 2000; the last time April 2014. I hope it is NOT the last! Other folk go different places, I know, yet I keep returning to this magical place. (I go SOME other places too!) One reason I guess is I really like the

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South Coast Track Fiordland NZ: Westie’s Hut: Topo Map Errors

Westies Hut, Price’s Harbour, Fiordland NZ. I have encountered this once or twice before (also with the Australian series): Westies Hut, at the end of the South Coast Track is marked in the WRONG position in the DOC and Linz topo maps. It is actually located at the WESTERN end of Price’s Harbour, as a

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Hiking Food / Customs Gestapo

We had a bad trip with one of these guys at Queenstown airport. Every other time I have been in NZ, they accepted I knew what I was doing, had cleaned my gear properly, had only proper hiking food (no dangerous, illegal imports etc), but this time we encountered a Pommie import who had not

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Rain Kilt

On our recent walk on the South Coast Track NZ this interesting zpacks innovation worked really well for me, keeping me warm (but not too) and dry above the knees, and providing a dry seat whenever I wanted to rest on a log. At 54 grams you are hardly going to notice it in your

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