Homeward bound for Christmas

Zac, Jamie and I found our white Christmas at Mt Cook National Park

It was never my intention to return home over Christmas, instead my visiting family had been missioned with finding me. Quite an unrealistic ask when you consider last minute travel in peak season when even I didn’t know where I’d be. So to avoid a logistical nightmare I made plans to spend Christmas at home with my visiting brother and sister-in-laws family and then road trip south with my hubby and his (twin) cousin, Zac. What a whirl wind of love, laughter and long drives.

Christmas vibes began with Jamie & Zac baking Grammies Cape Cod famous Linzer tarts. A yummy Austrian Christmas cookie make with ground almonds, jam and plenty of butter. Thumbs up from my family they tasted dam good!

Post cookie fest and in order to make room for our Christmas dinner, I took Scott & Alisa for a run along the Queen Charlotte Track. This track is actually part of the Te Araroa Trail and leads straight to our doorstep at Outward Bound... More about my 71km Ultra trail run later!

Outward Bound put on a fab ‘schools out’ Christmas party with Brazilian party band SambaXé. There was some awesome shakin & a’groovin…and skipping action too!

‘3 in the van and the little one said move over’… with paddle boards, mountain bikes and camping gear packed there wasn’t much room left in Jamie’s Bongo for the 3 of us. Christmas Eve we headed south bound for Christchurch to stay the night with the lovely Dave & Meg at her parents home. An impromptu climbing trip to Cattlestop Crag gave us fantastic views over Christchurch and out to the coast. It felt great to get the body moving before more road tripping past the stunning blue of Lake Pukaki and onward into Mt Cook National Park.

Lake Pukaki with Aoraki/Mt Cook in the background.

Christmas morning we woke early to get a head start on our hike to Mueller Hut. Falling asleep the night prior you could here the rumble of avalanches up in the mountains, knowing we were quite safe it sounded very entertaining. About 500m before the hut we made the collective decision it wasn’t worth the risk continuing over snow without crampons and ice axes, it was at that point we heard quite a loud rumble which didn’t have the same entertainment value as the night before when there was now a very real possibility of an avalanche approaching. The mountain had spoken and we promptly butt skied back to safety!

Wanaka we adore, so naturally Jamie wanted to spend a few days there showing Zac around. We had a stunning day up Roy’s Peak and found probably the best longdrop toilet with a view…

Reflecting on so much fun it’s just easier to share through photos…

New Year’s Eve up at the coffee shack, what a beautiful part of the world we live xx

With Jamie returning back to work I took the opportunity to push myself and see if I could run the entire 71km of the Queen Charlotte in a day. Prior to this my furthest ultra had been a 50km, I figured running without a 10+kg pack on anything now seemed possible, and I’m happy to say I did it! Running into Anakiwa I was greeted by Jamie holding mint tea and choccie to a back drop of gorgeous sunset. What an angel. A perfect way to start the new year and focus my thoughts on returning north back on the trail.

— Go GALLANTLY —