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On the trip up we stopped at the top of the Lewis Pass, and got this nice pic |
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Spent a night at Nelson lakes, and watched these bored kids jumping their bike off a ramp into the lake |
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Relaxing, peaceful, clean, Nelson lakes, |
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Went tramping at Mt Arthur into the Salisbury Hut. It was a wet 4 hour trudge and we just beat the rain, the hut is nice though (Blue Dot) |
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Solar powered and heated!! The most high tech toilet at the Salisbury Hut I have ever seen, produces no waste, only fertilizer. Good on the Department Of Conservation for their ingenuity. |
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We found a rare native sail, grows to be as big as your palm. Note the beautiful pattern in the shell, great camoflague. |
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After our first easy but damp day hiking, we decided to return to via the tops of the mountains. This was the first of the ones we had to climb. After that it was still up into the cloud. |
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As we cleared the trees the views started to appear. Unfortunatly so did the cloud. |
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It was STEEP!! this degree of steepness for about 4 1/2 hours, and we did it with full packs. Whew! |
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However the low cloud started to close in on us as well ruining the views. |
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As we reached one of the tops, we encountered the mountain parrots - Keas, They squawked and jumped around but otherwise ignored us |
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The views just kept on getting more magnificent, we are the altitude of the tops of the mountains |
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Looking down a side, forest all the way down |
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UP and UP, on we climbed! Were we exhausted? You better believe it! |
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Looking back along the ridge, unfortunalty it too went up... |
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High on the mountain we passed over some shale outcrops |
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Looking back this was a ridge we had followed. |
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Way up the top, what do we see? Fossils! They look like the remains of Orcs .... |
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Finally we reached Mt Arthur hut, the long way. After this it was all downhill. |
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Decending into the cloud we saw some Mountain Nainai, Trees by Dr Suiss |
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Further down, note the nice path we followed. |
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Talk about spooky, expected to see someone looking for their ring.... |
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Really Lord of the Rings territory |
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Another atmospheric scene |
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Well that was that, afterwards we retired to this beach for a week ... |
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... where we soaked our tired bones in warm sparkling water |
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Welcome!
