New Photos are Finally Up!

We are in Murchison with high-speed wireless, so please enjoy the photos from the last couple of weeks. The plan was to white water raft this morning, but Andy unfortunately pulled a muscle in his lower back yesterday so we will wait until tomorrow instead to give it a bit of a chance to heal.

After leaving the WWOOF farm yesterday, we headed to Karahungi National Park to hike the Mount Arthur track. This "goblin forest" as another hiker dubbed it, was quite amazing! Half a dozen different types of mosses dripped from the logs and birch-like trees in the forest. When we got up high enough, these Dr. Seuss-like trees were interspersed. The tui birds were singing and all in all it was a beautiful day. We came upon Mt. Arthur Hut and had a nice lunch. These huts are along hiking tracks, built and maintained by the Department of Conservation (DOC). They usually have a basic kitchen, bunk beds and running water that needs to be treated. These are perfect places to stay while on a multi-day hike and are only about $6 NZ per night.

After the 4-hour hike, we stopped off at the swimming hole by the WWOOFing place one last time for a quick dip before we headed south. We were there no more than 5 minues when guess who rolled up - none other than Heather and Dave! Strange coincedence. Heather pleaded with us to come over and stay for tea, dinner, another night and leave in the morning. We laughed and thanked her again for her generous hospitality and made our way to our campground here in Murchison. After a nice dinner of steak and bleu cheese salad on the river just outside our campiste, we journaled, read and went to bed early.