Walking along S.I. mountains proves healthy experience

Press, 27 April 1989, Page 7

Walking along S.I. mountains proves healthy experience

By

DAVID CLARKSON

After tramping 1600 km, snapping 1500 photographs, climbing 65 passes, eating 140 dehydrated meals, and wearing out two pairs of tramping boots, Michael Abbott reached Farewell Spit yesterday to end the first solo walk the length of the South Island’s mountains.

He flew in to Christchurch last evening for a celebration with his parents, and some relaxation before- heading home to Dunedin. The experienced tramper, aged 28, got through the four months in the mountains without any injury, and without even a cold. He joked last evening that people kept telling him he had not met enough people to pick up any germs, through all that time. “About six times I went for a week without seeing anyone,” he said. “If you do lots of walking it stops you thinking about it too. much.” He had a mountain radio with him, but has heard little of the news since December 17. “From the sounds of it, it is just as well,” he said. The radio was also used to keep him supplied. Before he left, he packed up his food and stored it at Dunedin and Christchurch. He would then send messages for supporters to put it aboard buses which he would meet as they crossed the mountains.

At Lake Te Anau, he had to hire a boat for $2OO to take him across the lake to get to the food drop. Mr Abbott carried a one-man tent with him, though towards the end of the traverse he ing in huts more often.

At the start though, the country was very difficult for 37 days walking to reach the Milford Track. For one nine-day stretch there was no hut, not even a track, and precious few flat places to pitch the tent. The hardest part -was crossing the Godley Glacier, at the head of Lake Tekapo, when scm of snow fell during the

night, with the tent pitched on the fresh snowfall from the day before. He had to cross several crevasses on the glacier, which he said was “not much fun.” Mr Abbott’s tramping experience stretches back to when he first walked the Milford Track at the age of nine. IJe now hopes to visit schools and tramping

clubs, giving talks and showing some of his 1500 slides and “getting people motivated to get into the hills.” “The South Island is absolutely beautiful,” he said. And that is from a man who has finished a trek in which he climbed 58,000 vertical metres through the passes, and grossed the Main Divide 30 times.