Day 2 dawned quite chilly and we awoke to a snow-covered tent. No more than a couple of centimetres had accumulated overnight, but the frosty white hills all around made for a spectacular sight at sunrise.

One of the added bonuses of having guides and cooks is the luxuries that they provided that we would never have bothered with had we been looking after ourselves. Each morning, the guides would come by our tents with hot coca tea, and we also each got a small basin of hot water to wash with in the morning and afternoon. We all thoroughly enjoyed our post-hiking "foot spas" while basking in the afternoon sun!

Our group of seven hikers was quite a good size in terms of group dynamics and staying reasonably close together on the trail. At the first camp, there was another trekking group of roughly 15-20 people that had paid appallingly low prices for their trek. Part of the reason we went with Eco Ice - which was definitely not the cheapest option - was to ensure that the staff would be fairly compensated for their efforts, that the pack animals wouldn't be mistreated, and that we wouldn't end up in a massive group of far too many hikers per guide. The first morning was great evidence that we had made the right call, as several of the hikers from the large group suffered greatly from altitude sickness on the ascent out of camp and weren't able to continue on the trek, and this caused massive confusion over how to proceed with splitting up the group and getting them back to the city.

Although each day of the trek starts with a steep ascent to cross a pass, the day's hike wasn't overly challenging, especially since we stopped for an extended lunch break in front of a beautiful lake before continuing down to our stunning campsite with million-dollar mountain views.

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Our last month in New Zealand

#wagonlife

Our last weeks on the South Island

Hiking, kayaking & cricket

settling down under

The Heaphy Track and Golden Bay