All,
Here are the links to our two-part first installment, which also should be linked at the Friends of the Earth website by now. It’s up on Gather.com.
Part 1:
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976821714
Part 2:
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976821718
We just got off the Milford Track, “the best walk in the world,” and were scheduled to hike the nearby Routeburn Track but it’s closed for avalanche danger. So we’re headed south the Catlin Mountains instead. More later.
2HeadedTurtle.com 
November 3, 2006 at 7:30 pm
Milford: Tired of waterfalls yet?
The Catlins are outstanding. Make sure and hit the Cathedral Caverns at low tide. Say hi to the yellow eyed penguins and albatrosses!!
If you have time, do the Kepler Track. The first day is a rough climb, but worth it. The second day is like walking a day amongst the gods, on the spine of the world, aretes and keas, glacial lakes on all sides. fantastic stuff. Of course all pales before Stewart Island, the closest NZ has to what it actually looked like(read: the land before time), so I am hopeful you are headed that way after the Catlins. On the way, remember that Mick Jagger once called Invercargill the “***hole of the world.”
(Lisa, the good fight misses you here in D.C. but we go on…)best wishes to you and Mark, George