Koru – the fern leaf spiral

The go-ahead for the new adventure came late last week, after a couple of weeks of prelegal danse macabre. Anyhow, it’s there now, and the final preparations can begin in earnest.

For begun they have well before this time last year, when I was originally planning this trip. There have been plans and preparations, and prices to compare and check again. One of the most comprehensive questions covered was that of photography, although that was no longer a question of what camera to take, but rather how to deal with all of the eventualities that hacking the current set of three cameras has brought with it. I now own not just a couple of cheap Canons, but a couple of cheap Canons pimped with CHDK, which turns them into little photographic wonder machines. The possibilities (as I will detail in a later blog) are truly awesome, and nothing is quite as awesome as the thought of rephotographing the South Island with them, processing all of the shots in as near to real time as circumstances will allow, and assembling them into short films.

So now the cat is out of the bag: This trip will be mainly the South Island, and the barebones details are:

• Auckland: February 3-8, 2013
• Christchurch: February 8-9
• Invercargill – Stewart Island (North-West Circuit) – Christchurch: February 10-23

From there I will hire a car and go on a number of tramps in Fiordland, near Wanaka, and possibly the Heaphy and Abel Tasman Great Walks.

Return date is set for around March 30, but not before traipsing through Dunedin to do an interview (more as details become finalised), and back to Christchurch for a final couple of days.

Apart from the photos, quite a bit of time and effort has been put into the question of the North-West Circuit of Stewart Island. This is a tramp that I have been wanting to do ever since I attempted hiking from Oban to Mt. Anglem in 1974. Needless to say we never got past Big Bungaree on that occasion – and indeed in 2009 Big Bungaree was again visited as a stop along the extended Rakiura Track, on my way to North Arm. The complete North-West Circuit is estimated at around 125 km in 9-11 days and involves taking everything with you. This will includes not just having enough food and enough fuel to cook it with, but also suitable gear and equipment for everything from laundry logistics through GPS tracking to emergency procedures and the inevitable photos. Again, for the barebones details: I’ll be toting everything around in a 38 L Moorhead Evolution rucksack, and have reduced the sleeping bag weight from 1.8 kg to just under 1; likewise the tripod. And, of course, having to be able to go all those miles, and the extra one if necessary, was demonstrated on four long distance hikes of 13, 9, and 9 days, and the crowning jewel of an Alpine crossing from Heidelberg to Milan in 30 days, all within the last 15 months.

So if I don’t get completely bogged down in the mud, there’s a good chance I’ll make it around the island alive.