Hey all, I'm going to be in New Zealand from March 22 to April 10 or so, and I am feeling a little overwhelmed with the vast number of potential awesome treks to do. A little about me first is neccessary so you know my expierence level and what I am capable of: Back home in the states I like to think of myself as a very expierenced backpacker who is pretty handy with a compass and map to the point of not ever getting (really) lost when I have those two items, but my actual mountaineering expierence is unfortunetly limited to only a summer in colorado where I climbed ten of the fourteeners and fell in love with peak bagging. I also have a fair bit of technical rock climbing expierence, but no ice or glacial travel knowledge, which unfortunetly exlucudes me from doing Mount Cook (unless someone wants to take me up ). Right now I am looking at doing Avalanche Peak, Angelus Peak, maybe Arthur's and spending sometime in and around Mount Cook (the Copeland track looks nice.) But I need more to do, especially a longer backpackping trip that features some scrambling and crazy scenery.
Also, I have a list of questions.
How feasible is it for me to get around and do all this without renting a car (just taking buses)
What are some other fun/challenging treks that I could do? (especially around Mt. Cook)
What's the situation on food in New Zealand? (aka what's the best backpacking food to buy since here in Australia the staple of my diet, cliff bars, doesn't exist.)
Thanks all and have a great day!