Fauna and Flora

Day started well within my comfort zone, a dawn kayak trip down Milford Sound. Within minutes our tiny flotilla had been all but consumed by the leviathan landscape. Perhaps it was our lack of significance that afforded the opportunity to get up close and personal with the local aquatic life - both dolphin and seals

The photos might have been better, but it took a while to get Mel C, in the front of my double kayak, out of shot

Jimmy, our leader, reckoned we'd struck gold - with beautiful weather and a competent group, all of whom were strong paddlers (we were amongst the very few to complete the 20km trip)

During the paddle Jimmy kept raving about a local high walk - Gertrude's Saddle, being the best in NZ - so I thought...why not? It also gave me the excuse to ride a way back up the fantastic Milford road

Left bike in gravel car park, at base of mountain, where the walk started. Wonderful approach, striding through dense rainforest and exotic flowers - at this point was feeling a little like Indiana Jones. Sadly, the feeling didn't last. In fact, the reality was, the climb beat me

Both equipment and operator failure. My kayaking shoes struggled to provide any meaningful grip and I lost confidence about 30mins from the 1500m summit. In the middle of nowhere, on my own and with clouds descending rapidly, I decided to descend rapidly too. Right choice, my feet absolutely shredded by the time I got back to the bike

Given the trip's casualty count, beaten but not broken, was a reasonable outcome