After a lovely weekend in Denver with The Sister, I’m heading back to a campground at Utah’s Indian Creek. We’ve had nice coffees, gone for groceries at the Whole Foods Market, and watched a few DVDs (Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette, the best of them). But now it’s time to get back to the tent—and I’m not complaining. In the last few weeks while traveling in New Zealand, campsites served as the launching point for some beautiful adventures, so that’s why this post is devoted to those stellar stopping points. And in a week or so, when I get back online, I’ll have more news from this week’s camp.
New Zealand’s Southern Alps are full of little mountain huts, and most are equipped with cooking areas and bunk-style beds. The cost depends on location and cush-factor, but it averages out to be a few dollars a night. Rock bivouacs (bivys) are also common, as are opportunities for old-fashioned, sleep-on-the-dirt-type camping. These are, as I like it, free. The first photo above is an example of a rock bivy located outside of the Colin Todd Hut at the base of Mt. Aspiring. To the upper left here is a photo of my dear pal Cece inside the score cave-style bivy where we slept en route to Mt. Earnslaw.
And below, the sunset from that rock bivy, which is perched above New Zealand’s Rees Valley:
After the cave bivy, Cece, the Brit, and I proceeded to the Esquilant Bivouac, which is really a sheetmetal hut at the base of Mt. Earnslaw. It sleeps six:
Okay. So just a bit of campsite revelry today. Surely other more deep, you know, and organized posts to follow…
1 response so far ↓
Shawna Macnamara // March 26, 2007 at 4:23 am |
Screw the camps…get somewhere cozy and read Marie Antoinette: The Journey, by Antonia Fraser. The movie is one thing, her life is another.
It was a good DVD but I know you posted this before you fully watched and appreciated ‘The Holiday’
‘The Holiday’
Holidays are a concept. A good concept, but a concept that needs full appreciation, you know that better than I. Kill my blackberry, but save my soul. Where is my Graham???