Our year started in Richmond, near Nelson where we stayed in a beautiful and quiet Airbnb property. It was very warm and we spent most of our time there walking in the early part of the day and sleeping in the afternoon. We drove down to Greymouth at one point to take the Tranzalpine railway trip to Christchurch and back. Later we stayed in my sister's house in Motueka, which was also lovely and quiet.
My big plan for 2018 was the trip to Nepal to complete the trek to Everest Base Camp. My trekking buddy John and myself had been spending quite a bit of time in late 2017 preparing ourselves for this trip. The last part of our prep was to complete the Tongariro Northern Circuit, which is one of New Zealand's Great Walks. There's a separate post on that.
We left for Nepal in late April, returning three weeks later. That was huge, and I've written a (quite long) trek log plus some personal reflections.
In July we went skiing on Mt Ruapehu with the family. The youngsters are progressing well in that skill and a great time was had by all.
On early October we cooked the last meal in our old kitchen, before the place was turned upside down and reassembled into something a bit more modern
Late October with kitchen still unfinished we headed off to the South Island for three days of luxury tramping on the Hollyford Track. Spike was worried that she wouldn’t be able to walk 20km in a day, but in the end she was a champ, and a lot more confident in doing longer walks.
So it was a busy and full year, and that's without getting into the exciting things that happened with the business.
I'm looking forward to a great year 2019, but the year just gone will be hard to beat.