A Day in the Clouds

It's been pretty miserable weather here the last week or so.  Rainy, cloudy and on Sunday, the day of our latest hike up to Mt. Oxford, it was also cold.  We are nearing the start of summer and I'm ready for a bit of sun.  But, given our impending Great Walk, we needed another ambitious hike to whip ourselves into shape.  So off to Cooper's Creek car park we went.  We had a brief stop at the Oxford farmer's market to pick up our eggs and to feed the teenagers.  This is the last of the Oxford foothill hikes and also the highest peak at just over 1300 metres.  It's also rated the most difficult of the three.  

It started quite leisurely, with a gradual climb to about 700 metres but after that it was pretty steep.  Couple that with a near constant blanket of drizzle and overall it was pretty wet.  Great hiking weather in the bush but once you got above the bush line and into the exposed slopes of Mt. Oxford, it was mildly nasty.  We actually didn't make it to the top because visibility was maybe 30 metres and it was very wet.  It was also about 8 degrees as we worked our way above the tree line which was markedly cooler than amongst the trees.  So no pictures from the top half of the hike.

The trail was a slow trickle the entire way

New Zealand earthworm

On our way down, a slight clearing of the fog

Cooper's Creek was high

Down near the start of the track

A Warm, Familiar Place

Each weekend for the past few months we have endeavoured to get out and hike.  This is mainly to work ourselves into shape for our upcoming Christmas hike along the Heaphy Track.  This will be an eighty kilometre hike across an incredibly beautiful and diverse landscape and is considered one of the Great Walks of New Zealand, which is saying something because most of the hikes here are already pretty great.    Originally, we had intended to go back up into the high country and do another peak hike but, at the last minute, we found out we had to head into town to get our son his vaccine passport.  Now, being a fan of government overreach and being more than willing to sacrifice all of my freedoms to support a tyrannical regime, we rushed off to our local pharmacy and GP to do our bit to oppress the masses.  

After our brief detour, we decided to do one of our favourite "in town" walks, Godley Head.  We started off at Taylor's Mistake and headed along the coast.  It was an incredibly pleasant, if slightly warm day, so the surfers were out in force and we enjoyed watching them bobbing and weaving through the waves down below.  This is a fairly easy walk with minimal elevation gain so the going was easy.  The turquoise water always astounds.  We look forward to our next visit.