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It was a little short on pillow fights and Truth or Dare, but all the same my night in the Chch airport carried the retro thrill of sleeping in a strange place with all your friends and staying up...
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‘I arrived in Christchurch after a long windswept journey from Wellington, through Picton and Blenheim. The crossing of the cook straight was delayed for (although we didn’t know it at the...
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If you drive south of Christchurch in the South Island of New Zealand, you will find yourself passing through the town of Ashburton. Most people keep driving, on their way to some other place. But...
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Mount Cook has been the crown jewel in the New Zealand mountain chest since people first realised it was the biggest mountain in the country. It is where Sir Edmund Hillary learnt to climb before...
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The buildings of Mount Cook Village blend into the landscape, their green and brown roofs designed not to distract people's eyes from the mountains that tower around it. The only thing that...
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Day three was easy compared to day two. But the best thing was that we didn't have to get up until 7am... pure bliss.
It was a leisurely stroll down the Cinerama Col. The mountains we had...
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There have been 70 people killed while climbing Mount Cook, and the fact that I am here writing this proves that I was not one of them. There is a memorial near Mount Cook Village that remembers...
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The descent was relatively straightforwards. We just followed the same line we had used to come up. Our crampon marks lay like a traintrack under the sun, and our steps were still well formed in...
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After lunch the climbing got a bit tougher. We had to ascend a vertical ridge, pulling ourselves ever higher with our ice axes.
We climbed unroped, each aware that the other could plummet at...
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The warm sun touched our necks as we pulled ourselves onto the West Ridge. Mt Tasman rose seemingly from just across the valley, its massive flanks fat and inviting. During a break I traced my...
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I awoke just before midnight to an unusual sound. I lay in the darkness, my eyes closed, trying to place it. It wasn't rain or snow. It wasn't an avalanch. It wasn't the sound of breakfast.
...
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I was up at 5am, as the morning chorus of creaks, groans, and farts echoed from the slumbering hostel. I brewed up and munched on muslie and condensed milk. Pubdy joined me a few minutes later,...
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I almost forgot to take gas cylinders. How was I going to get a brew going up on the mountain without gas? Luckily, I met an American guy in the hostel the night before my climb who had a couple of...
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You don't have to go too far south to learn about Antarctica. And you don't have to pay much, either. It fact, you don't have to pay anything at all. The Canterbury Museum in the centre of...
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Kaikoura on the east coast of New Zealand’s South island is famous for the opportunity it presents to experience whales up close. Whale watching is a major tourist business in town and the two...
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