Start of the South Island and a fairly gentle Cook Strait crossing although you wouldn't have believed it from the state of Johno's green face! Ha ha. Got a boat out to Ship Cove after staying the night in Picton to the start of the Queen Charlotte Track and the first point at which Captain Cook first landed in NZ. 
Track has stunning views, beautiful bays and is a well graded wide track; they have just recently opened it up to Mountain Biking so thinking that it would be a good option for a fun adventure later on (always planning the next one!). 
Some nice people on the track which made for a nice sociable change to each other! Heaps of Wekas and a horrible possum at 2am with its head firmly planted in our food bag just outside the tent (it didnt even move when Johno put his head out and shouted at it).
At the end of the Queen Charlotte we were out at Anakiwa to follow a bit of a link footpath on and off to the start of the scenic reserve, a track which runs under the power lines some 400m straight up with some awesome views of Havelock at the top. We resupplied our food there with our biggest shop yet and 8 night, 9 day stretch. As our bags were so heavy it was slow progress out to Pelorus Bridge where we camped overnight before heading down Maungatapu Road, a 13km backcountry road stretch to the start of the Richmond Ranges, a 35km section linking to an Alpine section to come out at St Arnaud. 
We had a couple of swims in the Emerald Pools of the Pelorus River (summer has 
finally come!) in between climbing steeply and carefully amongst the tree roots and river to overnight in huts en route. Chrismas Day 
saw us walking 'suprise' up to Starveal Hut some 1200m up (great views out to the sea at Nelson and all the surrounding mountains) through bush, along rivers (awesome as was so hot) and through a forest that looked like a tornado had passed through it, trees everywhere; we were very grateful that DOC had cleared the track and rerouted some of it (yes it was that bad) prior to us arriving.
Starting our Alpine section the next day, the wind was a bit gusty in places which made our scrambling sections a bit of a challenge but by the time we were walking on the ridge tops it had died down a bit; however, the cloud that had been hanging around Mt Rintoul all morning had now moved in and we were in and out of cloud for the afternoon. 
We could still see the markers and the edge thankfully as there were some steep drop offs but we got through to the Old Man ridge and dropped down to the hut there for the night.
Today we waited until mid morning, the weather (cloud and rain) had completely closed in around us overnight at the Old Man Hut some 800m lower than the Mt Rintoul we need to be up at (1700m above sea level). We decided to head down to the Goulter huts with the plan that we might do a detour back up the other side of Mt Rintoul on a different track the next day thus avoiding the high point but after a further night down the valley and visibility just as bad the next day (if not worse) we decided to head on out of the Richmond Ranges. 
The weather was just not behaving, we needed a good clear day to get over Mt Rintoul and the subsequent Red Hills peaks for the full Alpine circuit. 
Not having enough food left to wait out more days for a 'good day' that might not come any time soon we navigated our way out to keep on moving South (we'll not get there till December next year otherwise!). Ended up on a 4WD track alongside the Wairau River then out to the SH where we picked up a foot track under the pylons running adjacent to the road; the weather had turned out to be a beautiful hot day. We overnighted and walked the last 15km along the highway (in rain again) to St Arnaud where we are now having a day off. - What will the weather do next, we need a nice clear spell for our next section too???
Animals seen: black pig, 2 goats on the ridges, about 10 goats at the Old Man Hut, tails of deer and more goats in the bush
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