IN THIS EDITION…

• Update from the base
• Travellers linking adventures in NZ
• Staff profile - John Roper Lindsay
• Feature trip - Landsborough Rafting
• Youtube competition

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Hopefully you have had a chance to relax and eat too much over the festive season. A bit of hiking in 2010 is the perfect solution to use up some of that stored Christmas pudding energy. We certainly hope 2010 will be a successful and rewarding year for you.

The season is in full swing for us now and it feels like we have hardly had time to sit down and enjoy a Christmas glass of wine together. We had our annual Risk Management Weekend for guides and head office staff in September. It was a great long weekend, where returning guides got to catch up and meet the new members of our team. First aid always plays a significant role over the weekend and this year was no exception. Everyone enjoys the scenarios and role playing and seeing how others respond to various situations. I didn’t make the weekend as I was part of the Hiking New Zealand team competing in the Springs Challenge Adventure Race. It was a great race and team Hiking New Zealand won in five and a half hours. There will not be any photos in this newsletter as I had a tooth knocked out (crown actually) in the rafting section. My one chance to stand at the top of the podium and I don’t even want a photo to prove it!

The summer has proved to be great for hiking so far with the odd southerly weather system coming through to ensure everyone stays on their toes. Those clients on the Secret South Safari between Christmas and New Year woke to snow around the hut at Green Lake in Fiordland.

After saying that the Dusky Track Expedition would be a one off hike last summer we have relented and offering one departure again this year. It is a truly amazing hike that is as popular with the guides as it is with the clients.

Our new look website is still under constructions so keep an eye on HikingNewZealand.com in the next few months. We welcome your feedback and suggestions.
Anne and the Hiking New Zealand team

Linking adventures in Aotearoa

We are noticing a growing number of clients want to do more than one walk or adventure whilst exploring New Zealand. We are so incredibly lucky here in Aotearoa that the landscape is so diverse that we can offer two walks or adventures that vary so much in scenery you could believe you are in two different countries.

With a small and passionate team at Hiking New Zealand we really enjoy ensuring we match the best trip or trips to the client. With so many hikes and adventures to choose from clients often find it difficult to know where to begin. This is where our expertise and commitment to customer service comes in, with Glenys leading the team we get a real buzz out of ensuring our clients have a fabulous holiday.

Profile
John Roper Lindsay - Guide

An impressive sounding name you might be thinking, but John Roper Lindsay is a fairly impressive bloke. John is in his prime as a hiking guide, with over twenty years of experience tramping, ski touring, and mountaineering in both New Zealand and Europe. John has a real passion for New Zealand’s mountains and is dedicated to sharing that with others and enhancing their experience.

This summer is John’s second season of guiding for Hiking New Zealand, and when he is not guiding he works in a senior role as a software developer. Working on oil rigs, tobacco farms and roofing skyscrapers are other jobs John has turned his hand to prior to IT work. John lives on small farm in North Canterbury with his wife Judith, who is a Botanist and Environmental Consultant by trade.

When not working, or tending to the needs of 70 odd sheep that graze their way around their farm, John tries to get out as much as he can on personal tramping, mountain biking and ski touring trips plus the odd game of tennis and golf.

Feature trip - Landsborough Rafting
Alice Hurkett joins the Landsborough Rafting

While trekking round the South Island it had been recommended to me by a couple I met in Abel Tasman to go and do the Landsborough Wilderness Experience, something they quoted “that I'd remember for the rest of my life.”

I am a complete self confessed wimp who hand on heart dislikes any kind of adrenaline sports so was a little wary about doing a 3 day rafting trip but I trusted their recommendation and called the Queenstown Rafting office and signed up.

Arriving in Queenstown with all the death defying feats lining the walls (people pay to do this?), I was having second thoughts but our driver Roger soon reassured me that I was in safe hands as he weaved his way through the many tour buses and tourists that were intent on taking photos from the middle of the road rather than watch the traffic. Queenstown is stunning and I was itching to get into those mountains and see the mountains up close.

Our group was a real mixture, we had a father and daughter from Christchurch, a honeymoon couple from Sydney, a retired couple from the UK here visiting their son in Auckland, two guys, one from Melbourne and the other from the states and a girl who had been working in Auckland but I think was originally from some funny sounding country in Europe. My fears about being stuck with people out my age group all disappeared.

We drove to our starting point, and it was like something out of a movie set. Our bus pulled up and we all stood in a clearing by the side of the road and were whisked away by helicopter up the Landsborough Valley to a camp site in the middle of absolutely nowhere. I can assure it was absolutely in the middle of nowhere having just seen the pure wilderness and remoteness from the air! No roads, no towns, no nothing. Just a turquoise blue river, the snow on the mountain tops and the native trees. It was going to be me and the elements now… well with the help of our guides. I felt like a true explorer now!

We unpacked and Roger took us off for a walk up river to explore the area, there is no maintained path so we followed animal tracks and the river bed, and while we walked, I got chatting to my fellow adventurers. To my relief, most had never rafted before, I wouldn’t be the only “river virgin” as the guides called it; but like me many had done one of the multiday hikes in New Zealand and loved being in the outdoors.

We returned to camp to be surprised with garlic prawns and wine, these were “nibbles before dinner” we were told. This is what I call camping! Before settling in round the camp fire with a wine or three, I was shown to my tent which was surprisingly spacious as I could stand up in it. I had a stretcher bed and blow up mattress on top, which was actually extremely comfortable; although I wonder if all the wine helped there?

The next morning I woke at dawn to a beautiful pink sky and the sun popping over the mountains, it was going to be a stunner of a day. My heart was thumping a bit as I was going to get in my wetsuit and actually go rafting. Gulp!

Our guide was K C (he wouldn’t tell us what it stood for) who was passionate about the area but more importantly looked after me. I think he knew I was a “rafting wimp” so gave me clear instructions when to hold on and when to paddle, there actually is some great downtime between rapids with the river carrying us past beautiful scenery and just the babbling of the water to be heard. We negotiated some exciting rapids before lunch which were big enough to thrill me but the sense of achievement as your team successful weaves through the rapids was exhilarating. Exhilarating enough to worry that I was starting to become one of those adrenalin junkies I saw in Queenstown, now that I had tasted my first white water rafting experience I felt invincible!

The camp site on the second night was better than the first. It is situated overlooking the river where we all sat with more food and wine (well a beer for the Aussie guy who wouldn’t be seen dead with a wine in his hand) as the guides entertained us with stories and tales.

Our last day dawned and by now I was the rafting expert (or so KC made me believe). I couldn’t wait to get back on the river and once again feel like I was an explorer down the Landsborough River seeing the mountains for the first time, which although isn’t totally true, it is hardly ever visited. I couldn’t wait to get back and boast to my friends back home that I (the adventure wimp) had been and rafted the Landsborough knowing there was a high chance they would never have been there themselves....

Win the price of your South Island Safari back!
Post a video on YouTube or send us a copy that you are happy to have posted on our website before 30 June 2010. We will refund the best video winner the ticket price of the trip.

If you haven’t already checked out our Hiking New Zealand channel – be sure to have a look.

Send your link to us at info@hikingnewzealand.com