Author: neil

Our vague South Island plans had been to arrive via ferry to Picton (in the northeast corner) at the turn of the new year, and then do a roughly counter-clockwise loop of the entire island before returning to Picton and the ferry back to Wellington. A few weeks ago it had become clear that the…

Pre-dawn rain was in the forecast, and packing up camp while it’s raining is something we literally haven’t done in years because it sucks so much. But it was supposed to clear out by 7 or 8am at the latest, so hopefully we could keep that streak going by either staying in the tent or…

In this sleepy town of less than 200 people, the midnight peace and quiet was bludgeoned away by the thumping roar of a helicopter, circling closer until it had to be low and directly overhead, before shooting off again to wherever it came from. I groggily recalled that yesterday as we were exiting the high…

All of the thru-hikers who ordered dinner last night were like us, counting on the Lodge to provide breakfast. Somehow we were lucky enough to be the first who Jack asked for an order from, though ordering the “big breakfast” made our wait longer than others. This morning “the chef” (presumably the guy who designed…

Today, we ride. Ride for ruin and the world’s ending! Oh wait, no, hopefully not all that, but we ride into the heart of the horse-nation of Rohan, to find Theoden, son of Thengel, within his Golden Hall at Edoras. Except, Theoden died a hero at the end of “The Return of the King”, and…