New Years Trips

Happy New Year, everyone - and best wishes for 2007!


The summit of Mt Murchison, Arthurs Pass National Park.

Peter Clulow (Katie's Dad) and I (jpf) had a couple of short trips away over the NYr break (Katie was working - terrible!). We climbed Murchison from Barker Hut (below) on a perfect day, and could see peaks all the way from Mt Rolleston (Arthur's Pass) down to Aoraki/Mt Cook.

Peter


















Kea - NZ's alpine parrot.
Two of these were playing on the longdrop roof, and at one stage made off w our toilet roll


Barker Hut (1460m) is like most NZ Alpine Huts - spectacular.
The tarn (alpine lake) was crystal clear and very cold!











Not a great photo but if you look carefully you'll see a deer. This spiker walked out in front of us in the Waimakariri Valley, and stood still, sniffing and looking about for about 5 minutes! He eventually wandered off. Both Peter and I thought it was just typical, we'd wandered about in the bush with a rifle for 3 days and seen nothing, and then as soon as we go on a climbing trip - hello!




Oxford Forest
Walking thru the moss-smothered alpine beech trees was like being in a black and white movie.
NB. useless rifle.