Mid-winter 2022
A mid-winter hiatus in blog posts.
Reasons? Well, the usual.
I’ve been down to the deep south on yet another “research trip” for my tramping.net.nz website. Around six weeks when you include the time getting down and back.
My Nelson Building Reports business has reduced demand in winter and I’ve figured out over past years that little benefit is gained by sticking around, patiently waiting for work to arrive.
Much better to do something positive, particularly as my body is starting to show wear and tear, and I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be able to crack out these two week + expeditions. I need to carry a bundle of food.
Mid-winter has the benefit of not having too many other residents in the huts, and that suits me.
As it turned out, I shared only two nights out of the 26 spent in DOC huts.
The first was a group of five young Americans, who, being from upstate Vermont, were as pleasant as you could wish.
The second, the following night, was with a successful solo hunter of a similar age as myself, who had plenty of stories to recount in the course of the long winter evening. It’s dark from 6 pm to almost 8 am at this time of the year down near 47° south.
After that, the huts were my own.
Just the way I like it.