We took the West Manuherikia Track on our way down here, today we takee the East Manuherikia Track back towards Omarama, this is pretty much at the start of the track

Closer to the ridge, looking back at where we just came from

It’s a lot steeper than it looks and difficult to drive (mostly in first gear)

Some flower

We’ve made it to the other side of the mountains: the Mackenzie Basin

What a beautiful sight

The St Bathans Range

Almost back in Omarama

We’re having a little break at a campsite just south of the the Benmore Powerstation

Lots of people practicing for some competition

Photo taken from the Benmore Dam

The Great Little Jimny on Benmore Dam

We though about camping here, just off the Te Akatarawa Rd, but in in the end decided to move on

And so we ended up at this awesome spot at Lake Aviemore that was only reachable by 4WD, thanks Jimny!

Though clouds already start drifting in

The Hawkdun Range where I was flying not that long ago

Quite a strong wind today as well

But not strong enough to not fly the drone

The St Bathans Range

What a lovely little campsite

We decide to walk the Homestead Track

The Hawkduns again, and Rachel

Looking north towards what glider pilots familiar with Omarama call Hugo’s Elevator, Omrama is behind the mountains pretty much straight ahead

Great colours

Manuherikia River East Branch, with a 4WD you can make it from here to Omarama, but it’s got to be a proper off road 4WD, it’s too demanding for my X-Trail, unfortunately

Mutton Creek

We are really lucky to be here today with this light

Mutton Creek again

St Bathans Range in the far distance

On the way back to the campsite, nearly there

More clouds again, it’s dark one minute

And the next minute you are reminded of Fields of Gold

Rachel is getting better and better at crossing streams without getting her feet wet

This is the kind of track (at least the part on the right) that I would not like to drive in my X-Trail, just too demanding

We stop at Butchers Dam, last time I was here was with Jasper

The weather back then was better though, lots of cloud today and rain is expected

We did indeed get quite a bit of rain, this is the bridge over the Manuherikia River at Omakau

And again

We ended the day at the Homestead Campsite

Which was really awesome, Rachel got the fire going to keep us warm as it was a cold night, we just threw our matrasses on the floor and had a good night’s sleep