Travelling with Mark and Ellie

After Eefje left for Belgium again, I drove back to Christchurch because in all fairness the Van wanted to go home because he was a bit tired. And his brakes seem to malfunction a bit, so time for a pit stop. The next days were ‘all Irish’: catching up with Patrick and later on with Mark and Ellie. Irish as they are (of course I would never do that) it involved some nice wine and beers and loads of talking. Great stuff!

Then Mark, Ellie and me headed of to the South again to do one of the Great Walks: the Routeburn Track.

I hadn’t seen Mark in about 4 years and I had never met Ellie before, but it was one of those incredible matches from the start. We got on very well and I think we were all very happy to spend a week together. Mark informed me about all the people back in Dublin (oooeeei, I wanted to say back home…sorry) and he was quickly reminded again that I always teased the hell out of him. Well, Mark got me back as well, don’t worry. Then again, I think Ellie and I annoyed Mark a bit sometimes because while hiking we were chatting too much and he thought we should walk a bit quicker.


But on the other hand, Mark and I really wanted to have apples during our hikes, which Ellie could not understand (weight wise and its bulkiness), so Mark and I had to team up against Ellie for that.

But in fairness, I think the only reason Mark and Ellie asked me along on the trip was because I had the biggest bag so I could take most of the food…As you can tell; we had the best time together! The track was lovely (see pictures, and no, the one on which we are jumping is not fake…), the weather was excellent and the company was an absolute bonus.


After the track we decided to keep Eefje and my tradition alive, so we had lamb and Ellie made apple crumble…Splendid! The next day we literally spend the entire day drinking coffee in the sun (yeah, they are addicts just like me!!!) and after that we had to say goodbye because they were going to do another track and I needed to find myself a job…