his first tramp/hike.

starting out--the boy has the shade cover on his pack.

sunny wear and bundled up

emerging from the treeline

the hut

view from the top. he's asleep and i was tired.

sunset

mike cooking up dinner in the hut

grabbing grandad's dinner roll

early morning view

view from longdrop/outhouse

actual sunrise

my sleeping boys

getting some mat time before going in the pack

getting ready to head out

before splitting ways with liz and pete

it was quite windy up there


the lead runner in the trail race

mt.cook in the distance





the end

Yesterday we got back from an overnight tramp on the Croesus track over towards the west coast with liz, Pete, Mike, myself and our boy. He was fantastic little tramper and only got kind of scratchy when he had been in the pack for hours on end--fair enough. The weather was great and the track wasn't too hard but I haven't done much exercise recently and with a 16 lb. boy on my back, I was feeling it,but it felt soooo good to be out moving my muscles.

The first day we walked up a slow incline through forest for about 4 hours until we reached the hut. We had to take a break along the track to get the boy dressed up in some warmer clothes and once he was bundled he fell asleep.The last 15 minutes we emerged from the treeline to a beautiful view of the valley below. The hut sleeps 16 and once we arrived it was full up. We didn't get up until about 9PM so people seemed a bit surprised to see us rock up with a baby so late. Mike cooked us up some yummy pasta and we got into bed. He slept between me and Mike and only made a few little cries in the night that I quickly hushed with some feeding :) He made no more noise, in fact less, than some other snorers in the hut. Well done boy.

I went outside around 5:30AM to take a picture of the bright sunrise and noticed that there was also an amazing view from the longdrop (outhouse). We had our breakfast and packed up for the descent. Mike and I were taking the boy down the other side of the mountain and liz and Pete went down the same way and drove around to get us. The hike down towards Barrytown follows the ridge line of the mountains before heading into the treeline. The views really were spectacular and the pictures don't do it justice but we could see all the way to Mt. Cook (NZ's highest mountain), the green valleys to the east, and the beaches of the west coast. It felt like we were on top of the world.

There was also a trail race going on so we were passed by about 100 runners on their way down to where we started the track. Some of them running what it took us 10 hours to walk in 3 hours. I thought I might want to run the race too someday until I spent the 3 + hours going down some pretty steep zig zags in the forest. My quads were so tired by the end, they were shaking. Our boy actually slept most of the 6 hours and only got a bit fed up towards the end. I found that he would quiet down a bit when I sang so I ran through my repertoire which I realized is not very extensive. The winner, Guns n Roses, "Paradise City"--I didn't know I knew the guitar and drum solos so well. Pretty much sang it at the top of my lungs and it was probably shock of my Axel impersonation that kept him quiet.

It also feels so good to get the pack and boots off after a big walk. We stopped by Punakaiki--cool rock formations on the oceans and then drove the 3 + hours back to ChCh along the beautiful Buller river through the Lewis Pass onwards. Dad, you would really like to ride a motorcycle along this road; it would be perfect.

I had such a good time and our boy is just so easy. I feel lucky to be part of a family who really get out and enjoy each other and this beautiful country. They have so many stories and it is exciting that our little family has begun to create our own history of adventures together. This was a good warm up to this weekend where we are doing a 4 day walk up in the North of the Island.