This emulated the description of type 2 fun, a challenge that seemed to be never-ending. It was tough going We crashed through the forest, our pace slowed to a mere 0.5km/ hr. It’s brutal. We’re dehydrated and hungry, but we’re out here in our element getting amongst the very best of what New Zealand has on offer as part of our ‘Extreme Tramping’ trip.
7 days earlier, in a rush of logistics and gear we’d set out on an epic Covid inspired adventure into the heart of New Zealand backcountry. As the Air NZ bird descended into Queenstown, we got our first glimpse of the terrain we were heading into. Our trip was ambitious, but one that had been loosely spoken about although never planned and with international travel off the cards we decided to look a little closer and explore our backyard. We were embarking on a traverse through the Olivine Wilderness Area to Neil’s Beach on the West Coast ‘when we arrived’.
The 2 of us, myself, Mike Dawson, and Alpinist Alex Hillary, were out on a bit of a mission to journey to the hallowed ground of New Zealand adventure in the heart of the remote untouched and isolated wilderness zone. A place filled with stunning scenery, steep terrain and home to many good adventures. This trip had a few moving parts; land in Queenstown, pack as much Radix into our packs as possible, sort pack rafts with Queenstown Packrafting and get to Glenorchy. It couldn’t have been an easier start into the elusive Olivine. We’d barely bought a Ferg Burger before Huw and Harry from Queenstown Packrafting had tee’d up our logistics and kit and had us standing at the start of the Routeburn Track on dusk ready to get amongst it.
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