A big welcome to guest blogger, Jan Roberts of Breakers Boutique Accommodation. Jan and her husband, Stephen, love the outdoors and are passionate about the West Coast. Here’s a recent adventure they had in their part of New Zealand:

Sitting on top of the world, watching the time roll away, sitting on top of the world, wasting tii -iii, iii, iiimmme..I left my home in Greymouth and travelled out the Coastal road.  Parked up at the 10 mile and hiked up to the top of Mount George  ooohhh, sitting on the top of the world…….

Sitting on the Dock of the Bay

Ok, so you have to be with me on the tune here, and yes I’ve changed the words but thanks to Otis Reading and his “sitting on the Dock of the Bay” for the melody cos with these views that was all that was going through my head!

This is a fantastic hike – must be described as a hike as it is true blue back-country tramping.  Not a long hike but a good climb up the mountain, through NZ native bush with some fantastic examples of our wonderful flora and fauna.  There was a beautiful  NZ Falcon souring above us at the top and a couple of cute little fantail following us on the way back down.

Climbing the Ridgeline…

The trail starts out straight into climbing up through the dense native bush before popping out on a ridgeline covered in Keikei, manuka and young beech trees (still climbing!!!).  Another section in the native bush (and yes, it is up, up, up) before we have to clamber our way up a crag to reach the rock face and gain the rewards of the top.  There is a trig at the top so we know we’ve made it – that and you can only go down again from here!

The views though – WOW!  360 degree – out to the Tasman (we could see at least three fishing boats), all up and down the coast, our house!, out the back to Runanga and you can just make out the outskirts of Greymouth, the towering peaks of the Southern Alps off in the background including fabulous views of Mt Cook and Mt Tasman – did I mention WOW!

360 Views after going up there…

Have to admit, it was a grunt to get up here – certainly got the blood pumping and the heart rate up.  I felt muscles in places I didn’t know I had muscles!  Worth it though.  Surprisingly – given the elevation we were climbing, it didn’t actually take that long.  All in all, we were only away for a couple of hours – including our snack stop at the top.

What goes up, must come down…….

After some careful foot placement we eventually make it back down to the bottom. Very cool looking back from the car up to where we were – wow, we just climbed that.  Fantastic!

On the top of the world!

Sitting on top of the world, watching the time roll away, sitting on top of the world………

Happy travelling the West Coast of the South Island.