Hiked the Sabine area and the St. James walkway over the last 8 or 9 days. Hopefully that's the heaviest pack I'll ever carry; it was around 35kg. Why so heavy? Nolan and I sent ourselves food from Wellington to St. Arnaud, Boyle Village, and Arthurs Pass, which are all about 8 days apart. In Nelson, we thought we hadn't sent ourselves nearly enough food at any of those places, so we set out to buy about 12 days of food, on top of the few days we already had. When we got to St. Arnaud we found that we had sent ourselves plenty of breakfast, and too much dinner, but not enough lunch. So we were carrying about 20 days of food. Since we're hiking all day, we've figured we'll eat 4-5000 calories per day, which is about 1kg of food, if not more. So we each carried about 20kg of food, on top of our packs with all our gear (about 12kg each). And did I mention Nolan bought a guitar in Nelson?
Anyways, the first 5 days were spent Crossing Travers pass, staring at Blue Lake (the clearest Lake in the world), and climbing over Waiau Pass. Spectacular mountains all around, and I think Waiau Pass should be renamed to Rivendell with all the waterfalls around there.
The next three days were on the St. James walkway, a grassy sand-fly filled Valley that stretched for 66k. It was pretty, but nothing compared to the Mt. Travers area.
Anyways, the first 5 days were spent Crossing Travers pass, staring at Blue Lake (the clearest Lake in the world), and climbing over Waiau Pass. Spectacular mountains all around, and I think Waiau Pass should be renamed to Rivendell with all the waterfalls around there.
The next three days were on the St. James walkway, a grassy sand-fly filled Valley that stretched for 66k. It was pretty, but nothing compared to the Mt. Travers area.