Walk on the Wild Side aka Summer Holiday Shenanigans!

First we had to get through Term 4 which as always has a habit of grinding to a halt and taking way longer than a 9 week term with most students on study leave should. Sara reached the impressive age of seven (and the impressive height of 29 pizza boxes!) and we celebrated in style with a birthday surf at Sumner and some tasty pizza. We also had our biggest birthday party yet – about 25 of the little treasures who enjoyed the pirate/mermaid/dinosaur theme including the usual party games, a fun treasure hunt and best of all Ethan did a captivating magic show to wow the little ones. Em did her usual magic with the cake and we all needed a lie down afterwards and a quieter day on Sunday cruising round Mcleans Island. The next weekend was a fun double of biking and orienteering at Bottle Lake for the Canterbury schools championships with Ethan doing really well coming 5th against kids two years older than him.

Daddy’s birthday was up next (most important one of the year?!) and I managed to fit in a quick surf with dolphins (Em is starting to doubt all my dolphin sightings but there were some there promise!!) and a soak in the excellent hot pools at New Brighton, before a tasty burger and sushi dinner on the estuary, all in all not at all bad for a school night! We had a long weekend to follow so took advantage and teamed up with some of Em’s mummy friends for a trip to Twizel and Tekapo. Good friends to have as they all have boats so we got plenty of doughnut/biscuit action and daddy had a go at single ski water skiing which involved 4 or 5 spectacular wipeouts before finally getting the hang of it! Weather was a bit hit and miss despite the photos, with some high winds and rain at times, so we bailed to the Tekapo hot pools one day and an excellent walk up Mt John above town which had great views and some cool boulders to play on…

We actually ended up with an extra long long weekend as Em was offered an obscene amount of money to work the following monday and was too tempting not to take up this offer. With Jasmine off sick I got the day off work too and the kids and I enjoyed the sunshine and the ever excellent Margaret Mahy playground with it’s usual cookies, ice creams, mini golf and fun karting ride to finish. Starting to feel like summer now for sure with all the outdoor water play and shade hunting around noon!

Time for a proper adventure and we’d booked the huts well in advance for a round the mountain tramp at Mount Somers and it didn’t disappoint. We left my work sharpish at 3.30pm and drove down to Woolshed Creek carpark for a quick dinner of Mexican wraps in the car park and a lovely three hour scenic bimble up to the well situated Woolshed Creek Hut. With Em now seven months pregnant (why stop at three?!), the only problem was sherpa daddy had an impressively heavy rucksack to carry but luckily friends lent me a proper bag for the job…

We got to the hut to find we would somewhat ironically be sharing the room with a very small baby but the baby slept really well luckily and we got a decent night’s sleep, I raced the sunset up a few hills (top tip, take a headtorch!) and just about got down before pitch black arrived! The second day was a hilly one over the saddle and down to Pinnacle Hut but we took plenty of breaks and enjoyed the water caves, chilly swimming holes and some evening (mildly terrifying!) bouldering near to the hut. A smaller, cosier hut and a good double for the kids. All that was left was the long walk downhill following the river back to Sharplin Falls carpark. I ran ahead of the mini team and followed the south summit path back round the mountain to complete the loop and get the car back. Overall a memorable and pretty hilly 12km multi-day adventure for the gang and the ice creams in rustic Staveley cafe were very well deserved by the whole team.

A rare wet weather weekend followed but not to miss out we of course went swimming in Corsair Bay anyway and did some more fun bouldering at Uprising as the rain hammered down on the roof. The following week was a camp double for daddy, firstly Year 10 school camp at Boyle River and then cub camp at Cheeseman Forest lodge in the Craigieburn Ranges, yikes! I can honestly say it was the most exhausted I’d felt since climbing the mighty Walker Spur on the Grandes Jorasses in 2010! Year 10 camp was a lot of fun and reminded me of a former outdoor instructor lifestyle I used to lead, only this time I wasn’t organising or leading, I just got to go along for the ride and enjoy the kids abseiling, camping, nightlining, high ropes etc. The best bits were the river tubing down pretty extreme rapids which of course I had to join in with and the overnight campsite complete with fire, endless marshmallows and about two hours of singing classic songs, being a girls’ school there are plenty of amazing singers to produce some lovely harmonies. Definitely worth the effort of hiking three miles carrying a guitar! I also took the chance one afternoon to sneak off and go for a “short” three hour mountain run up the mighty Mount Faust and Mephistopheles looming high above camp, great ridge running and apart from a shortish section of extreme bush bashing when I lost the path (top tip, NEVER try direct routes in NZ bush, stick to the path!) it made a great loop though should have probably told the other teachers where I was going as they looked a tad worried/relieved when I finally returned from the bush!

And so after three exhausting days at camp I found myself cycling home in the rain to repack and head straight out the next morning for cub camp (luckily only one night this time!) which continued the theme – hide and seek, bouldering and archery at Castle Hill and then some excellent biking near to the lodge. The second day was very wet so a quick walk between showers was all we could fit in. The leaders do their best but the cubs are pumped full of sugar and meat from dawn till dusk and are totally hyper and barely sleep so all in all it’s a challenging experience, after three of them in two years I reckon it must be Em’s turn to go to camp! Detox week of healthy fruit and veg for me and plenty of much needed sleep…

Big excitements back at the ranch as Iona got to try on her new school uniform and take her first two half days at the “big” school which she loved, she is already fairly proficient at numbers up to 100, reading and even writing so we don’t think she’ll find school too taxing! More rain meant more biking adventures so we braved the Wharfedale again and this time managed to get a decent way up the track and back to the car before the worst of the downpour arrived, Em and Ethan pushed on a bit further and it’s a great downhill on the way back but maybe a bit extreme for five year olds with small wheels and no gears!? Sunday was a great little orienteering event at Taylor’s Mistake which Ethan and I teamed up for and managed to get the win! Great double with surfing in the afternoon on some glassy waves and I’m really starting to get the hang of SUP surfing as a fun new spin on surfing. Awesome too that all three kids love being in the water and are confident in big surf – double overhead for Iona anyway! Em and Iona had a fun overnight mid week adventure to Quail Island despite some dreadful weather they explored the whole island and Dad Chad held the fort at home without too much chaos!

And before we knew it we’d made it to the end of term and the endless prize givings, farewells and goodbyes for me from one of the nicest and brightest Year 13 classes I’ve ever taught, full of future doctors, engineers, but most importantly really nice people. I also managed to get a promotion to be the Head of House of McAuley house, which meant saying goodbye to Claver house and my C1 Ako group who I’ve bonded well with over the last two years. Nice to take on a new challenge and push myself a little and work with different staff and students. But enough about work, let’s get 6 week holiday planning! With a new baby on the scene at the end of the holiday we were keen to get some road trips in early on and with the usual wet weather forecast we set out on a three week trip to the cooler and quieter parts of south island, with covid and warm weather inching it’s way southwards we were keen to try some new places…

First stop on the adventure was Mount Cook village where the girls enjoyed the classic Hooker Valley walk once the weather cleared, while Ethan and I went up the 2200 steep steps to Sealey tarns and onwards and upwards to the amazingly situated Mueller Hut for the night, a cracking place to stay. Views in all directions of snowy mountains and freezing temps and snow flurries not at all feeling like summer! We awoke to a perfect alpine morning and headed up Mt Ollivier which perches above the hut, giving great scrambling on mostly solid rock and a fun bumslide back down afterwards. I tried to teach Ethan the dark art of glissading on the steep snow, but then regretted it as he shot off down the hill on his bum at great speed, luckily stopping before the rocks! Back on solid ground we then enjoyed the run back down to find the girls with big smiles after their day out in the Hooker valley. The campsite in Mount Cook might be windy and have no showers, but the location is world class with massive seracs above you and Mount Cook glinting in the sunshine, what a start to the holidays!

After a quick boulder at the Pukaki boulders the next stop on the trip was Wanaka, another old favourite and this time we opted to camp at scenic Lake Hawea to avoid the crowds of Wanaka and Queenstown, we needn’t have worried, before Christmas the campsites were almost empty without international tourists and with kiwis preferring to holiday after Christmas. First adventure at Wanaka was a nice hill walk at Diamond Lake and Rocky Mountain, the lake part was fine but the wind and driving rain on the summit was pretty brutal and we were all glad to make it back down again to the safety of the valley…

The following day we headed south to Cromwell to cycle the new Lake Dunstane trail billed as the “best day ride in NZ” which with a description like that would always attract us like moths to a flame! It actually lives up to the hype with bridges, mountain passes and some cool board walk bolted onto the cliffs. It even has a unique floating cafe near the start for ice creams. At 25km though it is pretty long and hilly for the little people so the plan had been that I’d leave the car at the finish, shuttle back to the start and catch the others up to help with the hills. The shuttle took a painfully long time and I ended up 2.5 hours behind so (a now fairly pregnant) Emily did amazingly well to get the kids over Cairnmuir Ladder, the biggest hill on the route and I caught them up for lunch and the second hill. We had a great tailwind but it was a hot one and we were all glad to reach a swimming hole near the end to cool off and then finally reach Clyde dam and the true finish, though poor Iona must have been exhausted as she fell asleep on the bike on the final road descent and went off the road down a steep grassy bank and was woken up suddenly! Luckily no injuries and she was persuaded back onto her bike. Ice creams all round, a great day out!

Most people would have a rest day after that one, but with only one day left in Wanaka and so much good biking to choose from we went for a gentle spin round the excellent Deans Bank track near to Albert Town, only 11km this time but much more technical, flowing single track to keep you on your toes, while having lunch we met a bloody mountain biker with a broken bike which is always concerning but it was way easier than he made out!

Time to get really remote (that baby is a long way off right?!) and head down to Fiordland which is completely off the grid, but with stunning mountains all around who is complaining? Only downside is the weather and hideous sandflies but we seemed to get lucky and only have rain at night-time and the sandflies seem to love Ethan and Emily and leave the rest of us alone and they’re only really unbearable in the morning and evening so you can usually cope. Our first day Christmas Eve was supposedly the best weather so we were disappointed to wake to low cloud and light drizzle but pushed on anyway. The mini team headed up Gertrude Saddle with Em and I set off up towards the Homer Saddle above Homer tunnel to try the classic McPherson-Talbot ridge high above. I was fully prepared to back off if need be but once I committed to the airy Talbots ladder scramble I wasn’t going to go back down and this lead to a cool snow ridge up to the first summit. Sheltering from a snow blizzard in a cave to eat some lunch I was wondering what I was doing up there in the cloud but pushed on anyway and then the clouds rolled back and I started to get the Fiordland views I’d heard so much about. Mount Talbot had a really fun rocky ridge to scramble along and I finished with a fast snow glissade/run down to Gertrude Saddle and a technical (ie super rocky) run back to the carpark, the last bit was flooded and was slow work jumping the many streams. Without phone reception and no family in the carpark I opted to hitch back to Cascade Creek, but unbeknown to me the others had bailed on Gertrude Saddle, walked up to Marian Lake instead and drove round looking for me for hours, doh! A late dinner and an even later sandfly infested present wrapping and stocking hanging session got us to bed later than planned as….

..as you’ve guessed it, the mini team were up ridiculously early to open their presents! We had squeezed as many presents as we could fit into the fully packed car but had left a few at home for later and of course typically the weather was now perfect, so we set off to Milford Sound for a cheery Christmas cruise taking in all the sights of the fiord. It may be a tourist hotspot but is very quiet on Christmas day – maybe 10-20 people in the terminal and a similar amount on our boat, all asian families in designer gear taking impressive selfies, we were definitely the odd ones out! Highlights were reaching the open ocean at the far end, getting soaked as the boat got up close to the waterfalls and just generally soaking up the stunning scenery. Final stop of the day was the great swimming hole at the Chasm which was as “refreshing” (ie baltic!) as always. Back to camp for a sausage sizzle, party hats and even a mini tree, bad Santa impressions and some more presents. Not your typical northern hemisphere Christmas but certainly a memorable one!

Managed to scrape a minimal internet signal at Milford to get the latest patchy weather forecast and we opted to sit tight and spend a final two days in Fiordland, which worked out very well as we had an excellent paddle on the Lower Eglinton river down a fun rocky gorge, marred only by the well-named “Flipper” rapid which managed to flip the whole canoe and tip all of us into a deep pool. Luckily the kids loved it, “can we do that again!!?” and it really is the very first time we have flipped the boat so worth practising wet exits to be honest, and we were back right way up and on our way in no time. Final day we all went up Gertrude Saddle together which is a brilliant day walk through some more stunning scenery – Em, Ethan and Sara made it all the way to the saddle and a slightly off colour Iona and I made it up to Black Lake and did some great bouldering on the way back down instead.

I think we were all ready for some civilisation after that and a quick game of mini golf at Te Anau was just what we needed on the next stage of the journey as we headed down to Bluff to catch the notoriously choppy ferry to Stewart Island, we thought we had plenty of time to repack but it was all a bit of a rush getting fish and chips and getting all our stuff onto the passenger ferry that we managed to leave a few key things like air mattresses and thermarests behind, doh! At least we made the boat and it was certainly a bouncy one with some impressive white horses and big waves to cross in the Foveaux strait. You land in picturesque Halfmoon Bay and Oban which as it sounds is all very reminiscent of the Scottish Isles. Speaking of Scotland I’d met a friendly Scottish mountaineer on the ferry called Kenny who insisted on driving all our stuff to the campsite for us, all of 600m but did make it much more pleasant, the tent alone is 20kg! The backpackers campsite is on lush green grass with the chatter of many birds and is a great place to stay. Stewart Island or Rakiura is home to one of New Zealands ten great walks, the Rakiura Track so we decided to walk the first day of the track and then Em and the kids could get a water taxi back to town and I could run the last two days of the track. Kenny gave us another free lift to the start at Lee Bay (earning plenty of beers from me!) and this worked well as a plan as the first day is far and away the best with beautiful beaches and coastal views. Day 2 is a mudfest through the middle of the island and 100% in the trees and day 3 is somewhere in the middle with some views but some dull bits. I opted to do a longer finish via the excellent Ryans Creek track and had a well deserved swim after 20 hot hilly miles of running.

Day 2 on Rakiura and we headed over to pest-species free Ulva island which means it is home to an impressive amount of friendly birdlife. The rustic old boat and friendly captain is an experience in itself and we had only been on the island five minutes before we saw a saddleback and then many other birds such as NZ robins (who come very close), fantails, kaka, kereru and even a giant sealion and her pup hiding in the bush. We finished our visit with a refreshing swim with plenty of cheeky weka running along the beach, looked out for Iona Island on the way back and even saw a penguin swimming past. A great day trip and a nice contrast with the Rakiura track, rounded off nicely with a slap up feed at the South Sea Hotel on the high street.

With a late ferry back to Bluff on the final day we had time to explore a bit more of the island despite the dodgy weather, a coastal path was a bit disappointing but the giant chess set in town and the amazing Bathing Beach were much better and the latter was too nice not to swim even in heavy rain! Needless to say we were the only ones swimming, weather all very Scottish so we were fine! Sad to leave Stewart Island but thankfully the ferry back was a wee bit smoother, still with a few wild sections, you can see why some people opt to fly instead! Em and Iona spent the crossing on deck getting hit with giant waves going over the top of the boat – one way to avoid motion sickness!

The final destination on our tour was another old favourite, the rugged cliffs and beaches of the Catlins. We stayed at Curio Bay campsite which is perched at the top of a petrified forest rocky cove and has the sweeping sandy Porpoise bay on the other side. Was great to finally use the surfboard and bodyboards again and there were plenty of dolphins in the bay to swim with too. Em and I wandered out at sunset to look for yellow eyed penguins and though we didn’t see any, the colours in the sky were impressive enough. Waipapa Point lighthouse was a nice break from the waves and three nights flew by so we moved on to the scenic DOC campsite at Purakaunui for the last couple of nights, via a SUP and swim at Tautuku Beach which had a cool offshore blowhole (Rere Kohu/spouting cave) to check out.

Purakaunui Bay was as pretty as we’d remembered from an earlier visit but unlike the last visit this time the sea was “almost” calm, very rare on this stretch of coast, so we opted for a boat trip under the impressive caves you can see from the campsite. After an exciting entrance requiring two attempts to get past the breaking waves we had a great paddle with plenty of caves and sea arches to explore en route, finished in style with a campfire and marshmallows on the beach. Definitely a contender for our most scenic place to eat breakfast too, again right on the beach, and we clearly picked the room with a view to pitch our tent for sure!

Sadly it was nearly time to tear ourselves away from the Catlins and head homewards but rather than the long boring 6 hour drive to Christchurch we opted to break the drive in Oamaru. En route we visited Tunnels Beach, Dunedin which involves a steep walk down to a stunning rocky cove with pillars and arches galore. When we arrived it was blue skies and fairly calm seas, so after some bouldering and exploring I set out on a SUP adventure round the coast, the weather turned dramatically though with strong winds and heavy rain and it wasn’t long before I was kneeling on the SUP, then lying down, paddling hard to get back to shore! Just had time to shoot through the cool arch feature and then try and time my beach landing between the massive shore dump breakers, and then we found a cave to shelter in, we’d of course left all the waterproofs in the car due to the sunshine! After a good soak in the campsite’s hot pool we did some fun bouldering at Elephant rocks on the final leg of the journey, a nice end to another epic New Zealand road trip, and despite the poor weather forecast we seemed to find sun nearly everywhere we went!

We tried relaxing at home but it wasn’t really our scene to be honest! Still no sign of the stork either so after two days getting through the big piles of washing and car unpacking we figured we were ready for another shorter adventure, and this time headed north for a mini loop via the west coast. First stop was Reefton which had some great biking above town, after a warm up lap from the campsite round the Pumphouse loop the day we arrived, the mini team did really well the next day on the long uphill of the Murray Creek Track (400m vertical!) but were rewarded with an equally long downhill back to the car, I pushed on a bit further over the saddle and found the brilliant technical descent of the Konini track which is a great ride leading you directly back to town. Lots of old gold mines and scree sections interspersed with twisty roots to test your skills. Right behind the campsite is a great swimming hole, good for cooling off after a hot ride.

From Reefton we headed over to Westport and stocked up on supplies before heading northwards towards remote Karamea. Granity beach was a great stop for a true west coast beach experience – big swirly waves for some scary surfing and plenty of rocks to climb on and pick mussels. Then a windy road leads you over a high pass and down to Karamea and a great holiday park full of cheeky weka jumping into your tent and car at every opportunity.

Karamea is famous for it’s caves and arches so we made an ambitious plan to see as many as we could the next day, first up were the Crazy Paving and more impressive Box Canyon caves, but they paled in comparison with the next two – the sizeable Oparara Arch and picturesque Moria Gate Arch which is straight out of the film set of Lord of the Rings. From there I opted to run the Oparara Valley track, a nice runnable 12km link to our last tick, the Fenian caves. The plan was the mini team were going to drive round and walk the 10km loop to these caves and meet me there, but you’ve guessed it with no phone reception the plan again fell apart. I ran most of the way to the car expecting to meet them and when I didn’t I assumed I’d missed them so ran round the caves loop looking for them, then back to the car and then finally round the caves loop one final time where thankfully I found them, my 12km run had somehow become a 20 mile run! That’s gonna hurt tomorrow! They also walked at least a hilly 12km which was a good effort and the Tunnel cave was probably the best of the bunch – a 100m stalactite infested tunnel which you have to take as there is no other route. The mini team seem to love being underground, I think caving is easier the smaller you are as less stooping and crawling. I prefer the fresh air and sunshine above ground myself especially after two arches and eight caves!

Another Karamea highlight is being so close to the end of the famous Heaphy track, and I was keen to show the mini team some of the highlights after biking it earlier in the year. It didn’t disappoint with Nikau palm groves, rainforest spilling down the hillsides to the white sand beaches and we had a nice walk up the coast past a suspension bridge and plenty of scenic viewpoints, but predictably we spent most of the time playing on Scott’s beach which had a great pinnacle to climb on. Only negative was the sea was super dangerous with a nasty shore-dump and undertow so we could only lie in the shallows and not swim sadly. Back to the Kohaihai river lagoon for a swim and SUP to finish, nice to go upriver under the suspension bridge and the sandflies (described as some of the worst in New Zealand) were tolerable. Off to the Last Resort restaurant for a well deserved slap up meal after two days of tramping in some pretty scenic surroundings.

We headed back south the next day for a night in Westport, first stop was Tauranga Bay for some epic surfing – there was a surf competition on as I found out when over the tannoy I heard “Could the guy on the blue board please surf further up the beach as this is a national competition!”. The 4-6 feet pounding waves were pretty big and exciting, but I enjoyed pushing my comfort zone and as they say if you’re not flying you’re not trying! I was well and truly shown up by the dolphins though, who were enjoying themselves with an acrobatic display out the back, and we all got some great rides before heading up to the campsite for our exciting first night in a cabin of the trip. Turns out they didn’t get my booking so might have to be the tent again, doh! Luckily found a similar size last minute cabin in quaint Charleston twenty minutes further down the coast, which gave us a nice cliff-top walk the following morning and a swim in the warm waters of pretty Constant Bay, good way to wake up on another scorcher. After braving the wild seas and crashing waves of Allan’s Bay for lunch, we headed down to Punakaiki and quickly aborted the plan of doing the pancake rocks walk. It was far too hot for that, so we opted for the coolness of Punakaiki Cavern, cold drinks and ice creams instead, before heading to our final destination, Hokitika.

Great to be back in Hokitika again, but first impressions weren’t great, scenery just not as stunning as further north and the campsite was a bit souless too – dry, stony and no shade and not a patch on Karamea, but the kids loved it of course being re-united with a bouncy pillow, playground and they even had a mini bike park in the campsite. We surfed at Hokitika beach the next day which had a really nice point break/sand bar but a bit too extreme for the mini team – poor Iona got shore dumped onto the shingle beach pretty hard so we took the bodyboards inland to the cool blue waters of the Hokitika Gorge instead and refreshed ourselves while giant dragonflies flew in to see what all the splashy fun was. There is a new scenic walkway which winds up the gorge and I SUPed back down the gorge posing for photos and trying not to fall into the fast flowing water!

Last day in Hokitika we thought we’d finish the trip as we started with a bike ride and did a great 9km section along a historic water race from Lake Kaniere to Huranui Jacks, we sent pregnant lady back along the road to get the car while we had a picnic by the river, just kidding she wanted the exercise! Another hot one so we all enjoyed jumping off the pier into Lake Kaniere and Iona who has never dived before thought she’d give it a go from the height of the pier three times, I’ll let you be the judge! We finished the day loving Hokitika all over again with fish and chips on the beach and a driftwood campfire (mildly exciting in strong winds!) in the evening sun and a final soak in the ocean.

Heading homewards once more, this time over Arthur’s Pass hopefully with some bouldering at Castle Hill to finish the trip, but once again the sun was beating down, so underground Cave Stream was the obvious choice, we didn’t have Em’s parents with us this time but we did have some precious cargo on board, so we were well prepared this time with three torches and all in wetsuits. Mixed reaction in that Ethan, Sara and daddy enjoyed it, but Em and Iona were less impressed, the strong current is hard work when you are five and climbing up waterfalls in the dark isn’t easy when eight months pregnant but we made it and cooled off in the stream to finish. Home for yet more unpacking and waiting…

Another two days passed and I thought I’d squeeze in a one final mountain run for the holiday so borrowed Heather and Duncan’s car and headed back up to Arthur’s Pass to explore the high hills above town. Rome Ridge was a fun warm up – steep scrambling leading you towards the mighty Mount Rolleston, which I thought I might be able to climb to the top of but was repelled by a tricky exposed gap in the loose rocky ridge and retreated with my tail between my legs! I followed the scrambly ridge south over the well-situated Avalanche Peak (safe in summer!) and over to Mount Bealey with great views of the Crow Valley and glacier and Mount Rolleston behind. A steep, fast scree descent dropped me into the aptly named Rough Creek which had lots of rock hopping and stream crossings but did give me two nice swimming holes under waterfalls for my troubles. Only a 10 mile run but 3000m of climb and took the best part of 6 hours due to the technical terrain so a big day out for sure, but a fitting end to a great summer of adventures, our last as a team of five, will be interesting to see if the newest one likes the great outdoors too, let’s hope so! Ka kite anō! Haere rā….