Well this is awkward.
This post was going to tell you of our trek from the Bealey Hotel to the Goat Pass Hut.
But the isolation of the backcountry has botched the plan.
We are in civilisation...just about. We have a room with sheets and a TV.
The Saint Arnaud Lodge even has a couple of computers with broadband that I could load the last twelve blog posts up with...but...the broadband dies every five minutes. It's fast, but spluttery, which plays havoc with the uploading of pictures.
Yes, I could post all of the blogs without pictures, but then you'd miss out on half the fun.
And what fun...
So here's the plan.
After we drink the bottle of award-winning 2013 Marsden Black Rocks Chardonnay that the lovely Jana gave us, use the twenty dollar bar tab that Carl left at reception, and have one more continental breakfast, we embark on our longest and hardest stretch yet - the rugged Richmond Range.
It's about nine days of hard yakka. We'll come out at Havelock and sprint through the Queen Charlotte Sounds before catching the ferry back to Wellington, then home.
Once home I'll start posting the finished stories with pictures.
You'll have to pretend that we're still plodding our way up the country if you want the full Whiowhio effect...or you can just read them as they arrive and ignore the fact that we're back at work, doing the dishes and feeding the cats.
But here's a preview of some of what you're in for:
The mouse plague gets ridiculous.
Dead rats in the water tank.
A hot bath in slime.
Anna runs back into our lives.
Kaka, Kea, Kakariki, Kerearea and more native birds.
The death of a pair of boots...and more...much much more...