25 days till go time: An update on our Southern Alps Traverse preparations
In 25 days, Conor, Tōrea, Maddy and I are setting out on a trip that has been over a year in planning. In a nutshell, the plan is a traverse of the New Zealand Southern Alps (Kā Tiriti o te Moana), from Arthurs Pass to deep Fiordland, over a period of 3 months. The trip will take us across glaciers, up peaks and to many of New Zealand's most remote and rarely visited locations. This post is a bit of an update on how the planning and preparation is coming along for this trip. Route planning From the middle of the year, we have slowly been piecing together, a red line (or planned route) through the Southern Alps using mainly google earth. Our route aims to stay as closely as possible to the spine of the main divide, taking us through some incredible tops. A summer of perfect weather will take us through incredible places such as Ivory Lake, Bracken Snowfields, the Gardens, West Coast Neves, the Lower Balfour and the Copland, the Landsborough, Dechen, the Volta, the Olivine Rang...