I’m currently house sitting on the beautiful Kaikoura peninsula for the next 10 days. My host Brian and Ruth are headed to Perth, Australia and have left us in charge of their home and dog Scooter. The house sits up on the hill of the peninsula and has nice views of the Kaikoura mountain range and Pacific Ocean.

I recently did a hike to the top of Mount Fyffe. It’s a steep climb to 1600m (5250ft), just shy of a mile above sea level. The path is wide and clear up until the Mt. Fyffe hut, then it narrows off in the higher elevations with a thick layer of snow on the track. The trip to the summit is around 6km (3.7 miles) and took me just shy of 4 hours. Weather changes quickly at higher altitudes and I lost most of my visibility for the last 1.5k due to the clouds. On a clear day you can see the North Island from the summit but no luck for me. The descent back took just over 2 hours so that gives you an idea on the steepness of the climb.