It had been 6 months since we had last been to the South Island, so we decided that a trip into the Southern Alps was well overdue. Our friend John has a land cruiser down in Christchurch, so we all flew down early Saturday morning direct from Tauranga, via a turned around flight, a bus to Auckland, another missed flight and finally a flight into Christchurch just in time to get to Oamaru to pick up Sam who had been down in the Catlin's hunting.
We spent most of the trip up the Hopkin's Valley, which is tucked in just behind Twizel and is a stunning place. Our very enthusiastic friends Erik, Bjorn and Ben came along with us as well and we had a great time bumping our way up the river valley, got a Tahr, ate lots of sausages and bread and left very happy.
We also had one night staying at Ben Ohau Station which is a great place run by some friendly people. We spent the night creating our own Olympics, using sticks as javelins, rocks as shotputs etc.
On a side note, our friend John makes great custom plywood things. His website is: www.happysunday.co.nz
Throwing rocks into the lake with our wrong hands to decide who cooks breakfast.
Will cooking breakfast after being the last one to hit the lake with a rock.