These photos are taken from the 2nd weekend I was in New Zealand. On the Saturday I went up to Arthur's Pass which is virtually due West of Christchurch in the Southern Alps. I climbed Avalanche Peak which is where the first 4 photos were taken

At the top were three very tame Kea. The 2nd photo shows the bright colours of their underside plumage. This is definitely one of my best photos - the other 8 I took with only their feet in the shot etc I'll save for another time!

On the way back to Christchurch I stopped off at some random gorges and lakes - all very spectacular and all totally deserted and this was a Saturday afternoon in summer! It was a bit dull weatherwise though.....

On the Sunday I headed down to Mt Hutt. The first 3 are random photos along the way - though Methven was where I bought the piece of paper that I used to "guide" me around the trails of Mt. Hutt.

Onto "that" walk. The pamphlet said it was about 3 hours to the top of the walk - so setting off at 325pm I thought would be fine!???? The first 5 photos are views of the way up. Initially the walk was through quite dense woodland. That eventually cleared to scree and tremendous views - the last two photos both look towards Banks Peninsula, near Christchurch, which was about 50 miles distant.

I got to the top in the allotted 3 hours. So now it was 615 or so. I decided to complete the loop and drop down to the stream that the pamphlet said would require numerous crossings, especially when it was wet. It had been dry for the previous week or so, and so I thought I'd be fine. On the drop down through the forest I started to realise this wasn't a good idea - the "path" was so infrequently used that I could barely spot the way to go.

Eventually I reached that stream at about 730pm. After crossing it 10 or so times the water was above my walking boots. Another 15 times later it was up to my knees. About every second crossing a new stream joined the main one - so there was more and more water to cross. After another 20 crossings I was really getting quite concerned - and the water was up to my shorts! The three photos below give an idea of what the river was like. In the final photo the water is about a metre deep - its speed is fairly obvious from its colour!! I crossed the river here by crossing from where I took the photo - avoid the white stuff at all costs!

After those photos I eventually scrambled up the valley side - far too frantic to take photos at that stage as it was 15 mins after sunset and I had no idea how close to "base" I was. I eventually found a footpath, guessed the correct direction to go and ended up back at the car another 15 minutes later (having sprinted all the way). Cutting it fine is putting it politely - downright reckless probably more accurate!