Simon's 2nd depatch:
After a day of washing and sourcing food & sleeping bags we began our first big adventure - a three day tramp in the "wilderness" along the route burn track. It's a old route through the lowest pass in the humboldt mountains, with glorious views of the area as the whole 2nd day is spent above the tree line >1000m.

However as the 1st hut's warden pointed out, NZ's fiordland is the 3rd wettest place on earth after Hilo Hawaii (2nd) & someplace in India (I'm sure Beth's already booking the flight). So day 2 was a bit of a washout. Luckily thanks to the miracle of meteorological forecasts we knew this was going to happen and so overshot the 1st hut on day 1 to get to the top and see all the views. It was a breathtaking view (thanks to the altitude) best described as north Wales but bigger!

We met some really nice people along the way including Tim who's a British doctor who was living in Christchurch during the earthquake. Suffice to say I'm glad Britain is now geologically boring and hope no more bad hands are dealt to Christchurch.

Finally it is with great sadness I report the loss of my slr camera. It turns out volcanoes are dangerous places especially when located in the 2nd wettest place on the planet. It's currently having CPR applied by Sony in Auckland so we've all got our fingers crossed it'll pull through. In the meantime I've got a new little camera to play with so all's not lost!