This blog gets older... it's been 5 years and two months since I started posting here, more or less frequently.
I get older... it was only a couple of weeks ago that I ate another birthday cake (carrot, this time).
But this travelling thing... this never gets old. Nature will always be pretty, and walking through it will always make me giggly.
It's been a loong time since I spent a whole week in the mountains. A whole week! That's seven days of making yourself incredibly tired and unbelievably dirty in your quest for new sights and adventures! And so it was.
Day 1
Total amount walking hours: 8
Target: climb Hawks' Cliff (also seen here)
The river looked really refreshing and inviting from up there, so the next target spontaneously became "must bathe". But of course, the accessible side of the river was no good, and only the other side would do for splashing.
I don't know what slimy species of scum inhabited the rocks on the bottom, but the texture was just wonderful:
After the secondary target was successfully attained, we crawled home, had some dinner and fell asleep before it was even dark outside.
Day 2
Total amount walking hours: about 4
Target: celebrate birthday in style
This time, "in style" meant have a hot meal, and limit the amount of walking to a simple shopping trip to the village. Because for some reason, food just seems to vanish into thin air when one is in the mountains!
Food was cooked, fancy lunch was had,
and evening was spent with hot tea, nibbles and a very bad Dan Brown novel.
Total amount walking hours: 10
Target: climb Tihu peak
(Tihu has a rather Maori sound to it, doesn't it? :) )
The dog above decided to follow us almost all the way. We later found out from a beekeeper that her name is Lisa and she acts as a tour guide, accompanying hikers uphill and then coming back down with forestry workers, just to do it all the next day with another group of tourists.
The last few km became steeper and more interesting.
It was an overcast day, which made the surroundings look even more impressive, dark and ominous. Added to my new-found fear of bears, that made for a rather short stay on the top; enough to snap a couple of pics to prove I've been :)
Again, the evening saw us crawling home, banishing all stinky gear to the far corner of the deck and falling asleep before it was fully dark.
Day 4
Total amount walking hours: a couple
Target: Pick and eat enough raspberries to get a stomachache and a rash.
Total amount walking hours: another couple
Target: come back to the city, have a shower and attend a book club meeting. Go back the next day to continue adventures.
In the meantime, Lisa blissfully ignored us and played with her new friend.
Total amount climbing hours: 6
Target: climb all the routes!
I failed miserably on some, but at least it was good to know I had not one, but two guys keeping me safe :)
Day 7
Total walking hours: 0.5, if you count trips to the fridge.
Target: do nothing and enjoy it!
Well, it wasn't exactly nothing. The guys rigged a flying fox over the yard, and there was a big watermelon that had to be finished. So there was some work to do.
Like dance the Macarena with watermelon slices in your hands:
By the way, this is a non-flying variety of fox that visited the yard in the morning. She was a bit camera-shy.
And then it was back to the city and its modern sorcery, like hot water spouting from walls and electric contraptions that wash your clothes for you and stuff like that. Better go away again before I get too used to it!
