TA update: going up! – again

I received a short message from Alison:

“Nelson Lakes conquered. Heading back up to miss rain. More in a week”

She sent it after arriving in Boyle Village to find very limited connectivity. It came in via satelite to my email. I thought I should explain a bit of the behind the scenes technology we are using to stay in touch. While making plans for this journey, I encouraged her to purchase a GPS tracking device with satellite communication. It allows me to follow her movements each day.

She can send a message when she starts and stops hiking and the unit automatically updates her position (currently in 2 hour intervals) as she moves along. It also has an emergency SOS button that will deploy search and rescue if needed which is, of course, my favorite feature! And we can send short messages back and forth as a backup to email when no cell service or wifi are available. Something I took advantage of to make sure she had a birthday greeting waiting for her last month.

So, she is on the move again in the most remote region she has encountered so far. The ‘posse’ she has joined for this section of the trail decided to keep moving to get ahead of the forecasted rain. Rain that swells the river and makes the myriad crossings more challenging. We will have to wait a few more days for the NZ eye candy and engrossing narrative we have come to expect.

-Richard