While Lesley and the girls have been living it up in Australia, I've been having fun in the Southern Alps, NZ. Just got into Hokitika (on the West Coast) after a magnificent 4 days (and 62km) of tramping from Arthur's Pass. I did the Three Passes route, the classic Canterbury tramp which crosses the Main Divide three times, and at this time of year (Spring) is still very snowy and Alpine. In fact I needed my ice axe and crampons on one pass and was (according to the DOC Ranger) the first person to complete the route this season. It was a great trip, and I really enjoyed being out in the mountains on my own - didn't see a soul for nearly 3 days. In Hokitika I'm being put up by Tracey and Campbell Robertson, friends of Andrew and Susie in Christchurch. They've taken a complete stranger into their home and made me feel like an old friend - thankyou so much guys! In the picture you can see Campbell in true Kiwi bloke mode - cooking up venison sausages (he shot the deer himself) on the barbeque. The seafood chowder also went down a treat (ditto the salmon and scallops, fished himself), as did the toffee dumplings. Read more on the tramp below...

I began the walk with a long haul up the huge valley and braided river system of the Waimakariri River. Being Scottish, I managed to keep my feet dry all the way - Kiwi trampers like to take the straightest, easiest line and don't fear wading. In fact, river crossings are an integral part of tramping in NZ. They're also one of the most dangerous aspects. Today however, the weather was perfect and the rivers low. I shared the hut with two hunters. Noodles and cous-cous for tea (not for the last time...)

This was potentially a hard day as the route up to Harman Pass (1321m) lay up a dramatic gorge filled with snow and ice avalanche debris. The Ranger at Arthur's Pass had warned me against it, and the hut book noted that two trampers had failed only days before (IMPASSABLE, DANGEROUS!!...). It turned out not too bad, only a little intimidating in the chill early morning, but care was required, and careful route-finding to avoid dropping into the rushing stream below. Whitehorn Pass (1753m) was next, a dazzling alley of glaring white permanent snow, but it was the descent that was tricky, soft, steep and probably prone to avalanche later in the day (I was up and over by 10am, before the sun had done its work). Earlier in the day I'd waded across the White River - up here in the snow my feet were turning to blocks of ice. Down below the snowline I stopped for an hour and warmed them up, and enjoyed a leisurely brew. The Cronin river was hard going down to the Park Morpeth Hut, a lovely remote spot near the head of the Wilberforce River. The hut book indicated the last people here were 4 months ago!

On Day 2 I'd crossed the Main Divide twice, but was still on the "wrong" side. Today however I was heading over the Browning Pass (1426m), and the rivers on the other side would all be flowing to the west coast. The Browning was another potential problem (the Ranger had said a monster cornice was waiting to fall on my head...). It was however a nice Scottish Grade 1 snow slope with a steepening at the top, not unlike Lochnagar's Black Spout. Just like being at home! The crampons came in useful! The weather was still superb, so I brewed up beside the icy lake over the top, then headed down to the Harman Hut (more rough going). It was still early, so I pushed on another 3 hours down the Styx River to the Grassy Flat Hut. Here the cloud appeared, and lowered, and even had the temerity to drop some rain. The hut was new and comfortable, and even had some tinned food to supplement my now beleagured food supplies (noodles).

Down here in the West Coast rainforests wet feet are the order of the day. Lots of river crossings, boulder hopping, and thrashing through monster tussocks. This is what NZ tramping is all about! These fast-running mountain streams are home to the famous (and rare) Blue Duck. I counted nearly 300 DOC stoat traps on the way down from the Harman Hut (stoats are the ducks main predator)! By now my feet were starting to hurt and food rations reaching dangerous depletion levels. Suddenly I popped out at the road end, but it was another 5km of trudging in drizzle before I managed to flag down a friendly car to take me into Hokitika. Terry and Lou dropped me at the Fish and Chip shop...

I've thorougly enjoyed having access to a proper kitchen, complete with an oven, wide range of dishes, scoops and scales, not to mention cupboardfuls of great ingredients.

A few days ago I made some muffins, a few of which Steve even managed to sell in the coffee shop. Today I made pizza - brave, given that there are two Italians in the house. It's been a truly multi-cultural cuisine week. Yesterday Lesley made Tabbouleh, a traditional Lebanese salad made of bulgar wheat, parsley and mint, tomato, spring onion and seasoned with lemon juice and olive oil. We ate it with flat bread Lesley picked up in a Lebanese bakery just round the corner from her workplace. The Western suburbs, where Lesley and Steve live, are renouned for their multiculturalism and where better to enjoy that than in the kitchen?

The weather has been heating up and I had to buy sunglasses for the girls today, who said their eyes ache a bit when we go outside. I thought 5 years in the tropics would have prepared us for Sydney but we must have readjusted to cooler climes while in New Zealand.

We set off on a 4-day camping trip tomorrow. More news on that by Monday. Meantime I'm hoping Ali will entertain you with some tramping news from the NZ alps.

For years I've wanted to be able to spin out the pizza bases on my hands, instead of rolling them to death with a rolling pin. It normally ends up with my fingers popping through the over-stretched dough. With careful dough- making and some expert tuition from Steve [who used to own his own pizzeria at Bondi Beach], however, I have finally learned how to do it. See more movies for video evidence.

Have you ever designed a dinosaur? Well today we designed our own dinosaur and learned lots of intresting facts. At the museum there were also lots of stuffed animals including a whole room of stuffed birds and lots of beetles in cabinets. We also saw lots of stick insects. In a section called Deadly Australia there was a screen and if you touched the screen in the right place a crocodile or a shark leapet up to eat you. One of the other things we saw was a Sydney funnel-web spider, Live!!!! We also saw some baby fresh-water crocs, they were so small. We had great fun.

Today was an ordinary day with extraordinary little events or things that caught our attention. I'm not sure why, but this sign for a pedestrian crossing was one such thing. Maybe it's the trousers, perhaps the shoe style - I expected John Travolta to come strutting down the street singing "Night fever, night feveeeeer..." Today was also the first time we have seen an automated (robotic) refuse collection system and we discussed how many years it might be until the garbage truck doesn't even need a driver. Think about the implications of that.

[New entry at www.littleleafhousedaily.weebly.com today]

Yesterday we went on a walk on a cliff. There was a big waterfall. We walked to the top of the waterfall then we walked down to the first pool and then down to the second (the second was at the bottom of the falls). When we got to the bottom I got a Tim-tam biscuit. My favourite part of the walk was where we had to hold onto a rope and lower ourselves down. We had to help out a Chinese guy who didn't know how to do it and was stuck. It was great fun. Byeeeeee

Despite the ominously grey sky and drizzle we all ventured down to Sydney Harbour to soak up some classic sights - the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the opera house and The Rocks region of the city centre, where numerous wedding couples were lining up for their photos. One rain shower drove us under a palm tree but the cold and damp didn't stop us indulging in the best ice-cream I've had for 15 years - Lesley's treat. Even after finishing our cones we sat gazing at the mounds of creamy, thick, home-made gelato piled in the chilled cabinet. We even managed a bit of city centre bird spotting, seeing our first wild cockatoos and some grubby looking Australian Ibis [see More Videos].

Yesterday when we came back from our walk to the park we heard lots of squacking and we looked up and saw lots of parrots in a tree and on somone's balcony. Mum tried to get some photos but it was quite hard. Once we had taken enough photos Mum started looking for the door to the flats where we are staying. It turned out that the birds were on the neighbour's balcony. When we got back to the flat we looked in the bird book and discoverd that they are Rainbow Lorikeet. While we were downstairs photograghing the parrots lots of people walked past and looked at us, wondering what the fuss was about (they see them all the time). Great bird exspirience. Great!

The weather might be chilly and wet but it didn't spoil our very warm welcome to Australia from Lesley, Steve and Rita [see picture]. Steve left work work at the crack of dawn, followed by Lesley a few hours later in her cycling gear. The girls and I spent a lovely morning chatting to Rita about her nursing training, snowboarding and food! We are just heading out the the park. I'm the only person in Sydney delighted to hear that hail storms have been forecast - one of the experiences on my tick list. I'd also love to see kangaroos and sharks in the wild - the latter preferably not while I'm swimming.