New Zealand Tour Guide: Part One

Today, I went for a spectacular run along Swampy Ridge.  I started from home, headed up the Pineapple Track, turned towards the Swampy Summit track and then followed signs into the Silverpeaks.  This is the same route that I ran a few weeks ago when the weather was horrible.  I didn't go down Swampy Ridge because the fog was so thick, but today's view was amazing!

Pacific Ocean (center), Otago Peninsula (top right), Swampy Ridge track (foreground)

I was aiming for a 5-hour run as part of my Northburn 50k training. I finished it in 4 hours 20 minutes and felt great at the end. Not too shabby.

So, what did I think about out there all by myself?  Well, I reflected a lot on how my PhD is coming along (I've been here for two years and have one more to go!) and I thought a lot about how fun it was to have my friend Jo and her Aunt Mary in New Zealand. I loved playing Tour Guide for the two of them!  I hope to get pictures up from their visit soon because I'm leading a tramping trip this weekend and I'll want to post photos of that, too.

Before I do that, here's a quick, rough intro to their trip:

Days 1 & 2: Fly from New York to Dunedin, New Zealand
Days 3 - 7: Dunedin
Days 7 - 9: Akaroa (Banks Peninsula)
Days 9 - 10: Christchurch
Days 10 - 13: Mt. Cook
Days 13 - 15: Queenstown
Days 15 - 18: Dunedin

This trip was heavily centered around walking/hiking and I think we saw some really great places/scenery.  We spent 1-5 hours at a go on our walks (some days we had more than one long walk).  Some walks were flat and some were steep hikes with steps.  I would recommend this sort of itinerary for others who want to see a lot of New Zealand's south island on foot, but with some minor tweaks.  I'd cut a day off of Mt. Cook or Queenstown to go to Te Anau.  Fiordland is beautiful and I'm sad that Jo and Mary saw it mostly from the bus as we made our way to Doubtful Sound.

So that's the teaser for the next lot of blog entries. YAY!