NEW BLOG ENTRIES!! (FINALLY)

Alex and I on the ferry

Hey there!! It's been a LONG time (I know) and it's about time I do a little updating on our progress here. Alex and I have been fervently working our way down the South Island since January 22 when we departed from Wellington on the Interislander Ferry to Picton. Since then we have experienced an earthquake, swimming in ice cold mountain rivers, climbing an entire day (900m) to reach a ridgeline and pushing our minds and bodies to new limits. We have spent a majority of our time with a fellow Te Araroa Trekker, David. Being a local kiwi he joined us for a few weeks as we have worked our way south - mission: Bluff.

After a couple major mountain passes (2 out of 3 in bad weather), wasp stings and an ongoing war between us and the sandflies (I think they're winning), we have made it to Arthur's Pass. Being relatively close to Greymouth, Alex and I have diverted here to spend a rest day and catch up on things (Blogs included) before we head back to continue our journey.

According to calculations we are looking at about 6 weeks (give or take) to get to our final destionation of Bluff. It's hard to believe that it has come down to that small number and even harder to believe that within a couple of weeks we should be at our halfway point down the South Island. So much adventure has been had and so much still to go - a major obstacle is still our finances (who knew we could go through so much oatmeal!!) - we can't wait to see what else the south island has yet to offer us.

So with regards to the blogs here... I am proceeding to give myself arthritis as I madly type up an array of entries to postdate for the next few days here. Expect to see a new one pop up each day for about the next five days (I'll make a note on the last one that that is the last one for the next while) as I bring everyone up to date on the going ons of what has been happening as Alex and I trek our way to Bluff. Enjoy!