Microblog

Posted Snapshots: Egmont National Park.

Egmont National Park, Day 2 of 4. After yesterday’s Big Climb, we eased back and hiked lower-altitude forest tracks starring numerous waterfalls and furry trees hosting mosses and epiphytes.

Clambered, sometimes on all fours, over volcanic scree to reach this hut at 6,450 feet. We turned around at the hut and rode the scree back down. We’d need ice axes, crampons, and the skill to reach the summit of Mount Taranaki at 8,261 feet.

Our room for the next few nights in a small lodge built in 1896 half-way up a mountain. Many of the electrical outlets are DC, powered by possibly the oldest operating hydroelectric generator in the southern hemisphere.

On our Wellington urban hike: a glimpse of the ferry we took last night for a four-hour journey from the South Island.

Tasted the wines of five Marlborough wineries with friends from Oregon. We hired a driver.

Hiked above and beyond Picton, a port on New Zealand’s South Island. Tomorrow evening we take one of these ferries to Wellington on the North Island.

Posted Snapshots: Queen Charlotte Track.

New Year’s Day, 2018, we did what we usually do on New Year’s Day: went for a walk. Today was the longest section of the Queen Charlotte. Tonight, 7:00 p.m. it will be 2018 in Minneapolis.

New Year’s Eve, continued walking the Queen Charlotte Track to Punga Cove. The view is from our verandah.

We designated today a rest day. So, we did what we always do on rest days: we hiked.

No photo did justice to Queen Charlotte Sound on the first day of our tramp.

Our descent in a de Havilland Dash 8 into Blenheim BHE, at the top of New Zealand’s South Island, took us over part of the Queen Charlotte Track. Tomorrow we start a multi-day tramp along that track.

Boarded Air New Zealand 7, SFO to AKL and summer

With temperatures sinking below zero Fahrenheit, I was happy to stay inside, enjoy friends, and eat too much.

Walked around a quiet Downtown looking for utility boxes featuring photos by Minneapolis youth, Picturing Peace.