In "Training"

In the tall grass, walking up hill,  you can hardly tell that it is about 10 degrees!

In preparation for our 50 km, Milford Track excursion on Thursday, we have been trying to do a bit of walking in the hills around Dunedin.

(I'm sure that these 3 to 5 hour hikes are helping to make up for some of our winter sluggishness, but I wonder if it will be enough.)

Never mind...we have seen some very nice hilltop scenery. 

The big cypress trees (macrocarpa) and the yellow ragwort are imports that love NZ.

The view of Dunedin from the top was great -- things fell apart on the descent!

I would love to have been able to have taken pictures of the worst of today's walk -- slogging down hill through ferny undergrowth under giant tree ferns. It was muddy and slippery and dark, too dark for photographs.