vedana.net

back from the bush

I'm back in civilization from the NZ bush, Christchurch to be exact. This is a shot of the Ada Valley in the Lewis Pass region, here on NZ's South Island, taken on Day 2 of the St. James Walkway. Jessica (a fellow Vipassana meditator from the course back in May) and I got a late start on Day 1, and ended up night-hiking the last hour to the Cannibal Gorge Hut. When we left the car park, a quick check of the D.O.C. Intentions Book revealed a pack of Boy Scouts supposedly tramping as well... Uh-oh, we thought. Sure enough, a gang of 12 of them (hi guys) plus 4 chaperones were doing the 5-day walk as well. Joy! It was great hanging with them though, they grilled me constantly about my funny accent, what the USA is like, why our president is a war-monger (yes, 14 year-olds telling me this), their own travels in the US and Australia, etc.

The weather was supposed to turn foul (snow down to 500m elevation, the majority of the tramp being ~800-1200m), so the original plan was to tramp a day or two in, then come back to where we started before being dumped on. But we couldn't be shown up by the scouts, who were set on doing the whole walk regardless of snow... So we changed plans and did the whole track, all 66ks, in 3 nights/4 days. Due to poor food-planning, however, we crammed it into 4 days so as not to go hungry. I'm sure we could have stretched it, but...

In the end, the weather held out and we had stunning views the entire time. This one is of some mountain range or another (there's tons of them in the Lewis Pass) we saw on Day 3.

A highlight of the walk was definitely the pack of wild horses we passed on Day 3. And yes, the Rolling Stones were playing in my head from that point on. :)

And a PS- many thanks again to Jonas (nice redesign, J) for the guest blogging while I was away. Too bad about the net news from Denmark, though.