A year ago, after riding the Otago rail trail (near Queenstown), Adrian and I had a few hours to spare at Auckland airport.  Our
long-standing friends from Auckland met us at the airport, took us out for dinner and over a glass (or three)of wine we decided to meet up again this
year and walk the “Grand Traverse” (the Greenstone and Routeburn tracks, also near Queenstown).  This is a 6 day, 5 night walk
but fortunately it can be done in style as a guided walk, staying in nice lodges and with all meals prepared for
you and wine/alcohol available in the evenings.  So we ended up with a group of nine of us and 14 others,
wondering what we had let ourselves in for, at the Ultimate Hikes meeting rooms in Queenstown, at the end
of January.  The pre-walk talk couldn’t have been too bad because we all turned up the next morning
to catch the bus to the start of the Greenstone Track, on the other side of Lake Whakatipu.

The first couple of days walking, apart from being more kilometers than I’ve walked in one go in years,
weren’t too arduous, as we walked up the Greenstone river valley, a reasonably gentle upwards slope. 
The first night’s accommodation was Steele Creek Lodge – fairly basic but hot showers and beautiful dinner
cooked by our  guides, four amazing young people who carried most of the food in for us.  The second
day was harder as we climbed to the top of the river valley,  becoming much steeper and
rockier (and legs and knees were getting tired).  We managed to arrive at McKellar lodge just before the rain. 
So settled in around the open fire for a night of pouring rain (about 300 mm in the night). 
The next day was a “rest day”, which some of us spent, after the rain cleared, walking up to a waterfall above
lake McKellar in the morning, and climbing the “hill” behind the lodge in the afternoon. The
views from the top were fantastic and the weather in the afternoon was bright, sunny and perfect for views.

 https://picasaweb.google.com/jkloeden/GreenstoneTrack?authkey=Gv1sRgCOjAzrHBvt2FEw#

 Next day we completed the Greenstone track at Lake Howden, where it meets the
Routeburn track.  There we did a detour to Key Summit where the views should also have been
magnificent, but it  started raining again so we had spooky views of mountain tops drifting in and out of
clouds – very Lord of the Rings.  We spent the afternoon walking in the rain to the most
amazing lodge at Lake Mackenzie.  The hot showers and drying rooms were the best
ever after traipsing through  rain for 12 km.  Unfortunately no photos of Earland falls,
which, after all the rain were enormous, as it was too wet to stop or take photos.

The weather for the next two days was superb, as was the scenery, particularly from Harris saddle, where we
did another detour to climb Conical Hill, to Routeburn Falls.  Routeburn Falls, where we
stayed the next night, were also in full flight so quite a sight.  The lodge there is also pretty
special, probably even better than Lake MacKenzie lodge. 

The next day was just a short walk to the end of the track, but we were amazed when, at a bridge across a pretty
vigorous stream running into the Routeburn river, we found  a group of people “canyoning” – jumping into the
river, climbing along a narrow ledge then continuing down a gorge and waterfall to the Routeburn
river – utter madness!!  No wonder one of them had on a helmet labelled “Donkey”!

 https://picasaweb.google.com/jkloeden/RouteburnTrack?authkey=Gv1sRgCOb73JbcmP3WOA#

 It was a really great holiday with a really interesting group of people. The New Zealanders certainly
know how to organize great holiday experiences in the wild.

Judy

***

 

As Ruth and Jan suspected we had a few hastles getting to London due to the snow at Heathrow.  The flight we were supposed to
be on was cancelled but at the last minute we had decided to go a day early.  So our flight left on time but we were
stranded in Singapore for 18 hours.  Fortunately after about 10 hours of sitting in the lounge, Qantas decided to
put us up in the Oriental mandarin – very nice.  Had a good breakfast, long sleep and lunch all on Qantas
before resuming the flight!  Hate to think what Qantas’ bottom line will look like after the fun they’ve had this year!

 

So we arrived at Heathrow at 2am instead of 5 am the previous day.  No Heathrow express and a long
queue for taxis.  We eventually arrived a t our son’s place where we were staying for a couple
of nights at 3 am.  Poor fellow had a very disturbed night that night – Alex,
our grandson, had decided to have a disturbed night that night!

 

A couple of days later we flew to Naples without any problems to start our week’s holiday with the
family.  Fortunately our daughter and husband, who were also coming from Australia on Christmas eve, weren’t delayed.

 

We rented a villa at Positano for a week with the family (wanted somewhere warmer,  drier and less grey than
the UK in winter!).  It turned out to be a great place for a winter holiday:  weather wasw great and
reasonably warm, no crowds – only locals and a few mad tourists like us, and the accommodation
was less than half price.  We had an amazing villa with five deroom s, all ensuites, large living,
dining area, great kitchen and fabulous balconies and views.  Lots of interesting things to do
and see along the Amalfi coast.  Huge steep cliffs with tiny villages perched in the most
unlikely positions, lots of footpaths and steps – but very steep.  One day we walked
from Positano up to a little village on the top of the cliffs that has only been accessible
by car for about 10 years.  We saw a house being renovated there where all the building
materials had to be brought in by donkey – the streets are just footpath width and the car road
only goes to the edge of the village! 

 

 

After our week there th e kids went their own way – back to London and on to Croatia and
Adrian and I went, via Naples and Pompei, to a little UNESCO heritage listed village
just above the instep of Italy, called Matera.  The old village was built into the
rocks of a very steep ravine and was inhabited until about the 1960s when the government
built a new town above the ravine and moved all the inhabitants out – there was no sewerage
or running water and all the usual diseases infected the place.  The old part is now being
restored and it is absolutely fascinating – the film about Jesus starring Mel Gibson
was shot there. There are lots of churches built into the stone of the ravine.  We stayed right
in the centre of the restored part.  We also went to an amazing church called the crypt
of the original sin, which is a troglodyte church on a private property outside
Matera.  We had to book to see it and ended up with a private tour – deep inside
the cl iff is this large church whose walls are covered in the most
beautiful frescoes from 1000 years ago, depicting the story of Adam and Eve, hence original sin!

 

By the way, Naples would be the dirtiest place imaginable – such a shame as there
are some wonderful things to see there and great cheap restaurants, which our wonderful hotel concierge directed us to.

 

 

Back to London for a few days then to Norway to try and see the Northern Lights.  We
started at Tromso, above the Arctic circle, where we went dog sledding at night.  It
was an amazing experience.  The dogs were n othing like the huskies we see here,
though they are Alaskan huskies, they live outside all year round (wouldn’t suit my pampered pets!)
and seem to love pulling sleds.  They make so much noise and manage to do just about
every thing that dogs do while running at 30 km/h.  While sledding the Northern Lights
put on a magnificent display.  We were very lucky as most people we spoke to didn’t see the
lights (you need a clear sky – difficult in winter  and to be away from town lights).  We then
caught the Hurtiguten ferry to travel around the top of Norway to Kirkenes.  The ferry
stops at all the little towns around the coast and at one of these we did a trip to the North
Cape – we had to go on snow covered roads in convoy with a snow plough leading
the way.  At Kirkenes (near the Russian border) we rode ski mobiles and stayed a night
in the Snow Hotel (interesting but I don’t need to do that again!).  It’ ;s hard to see why
Heathrow was closed with a bit of snow when the Norwegians have no trouble
with an airport at Kirkenes – the snow plough clears the runway before the plane
lands and the planes actually taxi across the snow to the gates!  Guess it just isn’t
worth having the equipment in London.  It also amazes me how many people live
around the coast of Norway, above the Arctic circle.  The lack of daylight in winter, apart from
everything else, would drive me mad!

 

 

 

 

Not quite back to reality yet – on Sunday we go to Queenstown,
NZ to walk the Routeburn and Green stone tracks with NZ friends
of ours.  Not too sure if I’m fit enough after this trip but guess I’ll soon find out.

 

Judy