Thursday, November 1, 2012

Enjoying Northland and changing gears

We went out fishing today with Aliyah's cousin Andre. He got off work early and took us out in their sweet boat. The weather and ocean were great but the target fish, snapper and kingfish, weren't to be found. We had a great time zooming around in the turquoise waters and rugged coatline of the northland area and look forward to returning after our tramp. The fishing has been off for several weeks as the summer temperatures have not found their way to the area. Andre says ocras will be coming into the area soon too!

On a similar note, winter weather continues on the south island and the threat of avalanches through several of the passes we had planned have us switching gears. The previous post, sound to sound, will still hold true to its name, just a bit rearranged. We'll still be heading down to Milford sound and hiking the Routeburn track as we have too many reservations booked that cannot be refunded. The Routeburn has one pass that has variable avalanche threats the stationed hut rangers will walk trampers through the hazard zones. If overall conditions are still too dangerous, a helicopter is standing by to fly trampers over the pass!

From there we are much more subject to the weather and will lack the DOC's support found on the Routeburn, so we've booked a free rental car out of Queens town to drive up to Picton and start hiking the Te Araroa from Queen Charlotte Sound south. Hopefully the weather will clear in front of us as we head down. At least we aren't in a hurricane...

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