Queenstown, NZ - 20-22 Nov, 2006The clouds of fate were gathering (as well as the rain clouds, no surprise there). Steve & I spent the next three days 'meticulously' planning six days of outdoorsy activity. Not the usual run-of-the-mill few days hiking for us. Nope. We were going to take on no less than three NZ greatwalks in succession with a day of kayaking (I still call it canoeing) in Milford Sound, a stunning fiord on the far west coast. The route: The Routeburn Track, 'day off' kayaking, followed by the Caples and Greenstone tracks linked by a lesser walked path called Steele Creek that took on mythical and abominable status in our minds - no-one at the Department of Conservation (DoC) office had walked this track, in fact they didn't even know it existed. Days were spent poring over maps, annoying the staff at the DoC office, planning our overnights, booking transport, sourcing equipment (mainly from Ali Baba's Outdoor Emporium) and trying to get Steve to experiment with something other than a SubWay chicken parmesan sandwich for lunch.We adopted a local transport agent called Keiran (a.k.a. Teapot...reason explained later) at The Track & Info office. He seemed to have his finger on the pulse of what we were trying to achieve and managed to arrange the logistics with consummate ease: transport to the start of the route, kayaking and overnight in Milford Sound, a provisions drop, further transport back to the route and a pick up (including water taxi) from the end of the hike along with assorted equipment rental. We dropped some serious cash on Teapot and when we bumped into him in the World Bar one night, he expressed his appreciation by buying us a dubious cocktail - some milky white gloopy fluid that tasted vaguely of coconut (hmmm) delivered in...well...a teapot. Errr...thanks.Dominici Stanczyk was due to arrive on the evening prior to our departure. He missed all the fun.
Steve calling his pots and pans broker to find out whether we were getting a deal on some second hand camping pots. We weren't...apparently.
Some of the provisions we were taking. Notice the abundance of cans and glass bottles. Not ideal - as well as being heavy, we had to carry all our rubbish out as well as in! Reminded me of an unintentionally hysterical climbing movie made by Toby Mollins, a friend of Isobel's. Documenting an expedition to the Karakorum range Toby interviews his Logistics Manager in front of a seemingly haphazard and disorganised array of equipment and food.
Toby: 'Is this the most complicated expedition you've been involved with?'
LM: 'Yup.'
Toby: 'And how many expeditions have you been involved with?'
LM: 'This is the first.'
Route planning using the big wall map.
Getting pointy-fingery with the map.
At least we had the essentials: wine, cheese, Pringles & chocolate.
Tussocky grass in the Greenstone Valley.
Greenstone Valley. What more can I say? It's big and it's wide.
Crossing a ravine to the Greenstone Hut and a fairly uneventful night stop.
Pick up at the end of the Greenstone Track by water taxi. A sort of water going motorbike (yet not a jet ski...thank heavens...hate those things).
Homeward bound. Route complete and ready for a decent meal (not that we ate badly...I was cooking after all, well, apart from Sock Soup) and a shower.
