Soooo this is a really long time in the coming – I do apologize! There is just so much going on that Carie can’t get me to sit still long enough to write anything for the blog. Thank you to all who harassed me : )
About spring break – it was crazy! To begin, I had an essay due the week of break (what???) that I frantically finished the night before our big trip began, so I only got three hours of sleep…when in New Zealand, right? But that’s ok – we were only chilling in the car for the day. As Carie mentioned, she got up early to see us off and Dale, PT, Alex, Matt, Nora and I piled into our ghetto van and hit the road. We made it all the way to Te Anau that first day, past Queenstown – the whole drive was about 7-8 hours I believe. We stayed in a hostel for the first night and all crashed hard. It didn’t help that a violent hurricane/storm/cyclone was raging outside our window. Alex made the comment “So, the trail is going to be a little bit muddy tomorrow…” and we all went back to sleep.
The next day we woke and went to the NZ DOC (dept. of conservation) to see about the Kepler Track that we were about to do – 3 nights and 4 days of tramping with beautiful views! When we got there we were informed that we couldn’t do more than a day of the track because of avalanche danger, so we decided to do the first leg of the track to Luxmore Hut. Trust this first leg to include ALL of the incline needed to reach the top of the mountain for the rest of the track. I don’t know how Matt, PT and Nora did it but somehow they convinced me to keep going. Alex and Dale had raged on ahead, of course, and were at the hut an hour and a half before us. But what a great hut! It was 56 bunks, probably one of the largest in New Zealand, and we had it all to ourselves. That first night and every night after we played poker in the dark with trail mix for chips – it was great!
After a pretty decent night’s sleep (not so much for the boys who stayed in a drafty room) we all got up and hiked to some caves that were nearby and descended into them for a pretty long ways. This involved lots of kneeling and squinching – it didn’t help that there was a sizeable creek of snow melt running down the length of the cave. Post-caving we booked it back to the car then had to decide on what to do with all this time we now had. We opted for driving to Milford Sound, about three hours away. Just before Milford we had to drive on roads that were constantly covered/shoveled because of avalanches – this was a little nerve-wracking. We literally stopped for a bathroom break at Milford then drove back up the road (there’s only one way in and out) to the Routeburn Track. We hiked for about an hour (in the wet dark, btw) to a hut because it was close to the road. We woke the next morning and there was snow everywhere! On the way back to the van we went up to the summit – on the way up there was enough blue sky to see the surrounding mountains, which were awesome, but lucky for us, when we got to the top there was not a patch of blue sky in sight and clouds covered every mountain peak. Win.
A little dejected we got out of that mess and hit up a microbrewery where everyone was happy to have warm stomachs for a few minutes : ) After this we drove more (another 3ish hours) to Mt. Cook, thinking there was a hut we could stay in there, according to the nice lady at the local DOC. Well, she was utterly wrong. We found that the huts there were private, so instead we went to Mt. Cook Village to check on the hostel situation - $30 a person for a night. We were all way to cheap to pay that, so instead we went for the option of sleeping in a covered picnic shelter (which had running water) on picnic tables for the night. I think we all got about 2-3 hours of sleep – it certainly did not help that snow blew in every once in a while to land in our faces. But oh well – we all had the chance to do a Tim Tam Slam the night before. I was pretty happy.
We woke to crummy, rainy weather outside, and like idiots decided to tramp a bit to see the nearby glacier. By the time we got there we were soaked to the core, even under ‘waterproof’ clothing and such. This didn’t stop us, though, from walking another hour and a half to a few suspension bridges in Hooker Valley. Hail, sleet and snow greeted us on this little sidetrip, and possibly some of the coldest, strongest wind I’ve ever encountered. We made it out, though, and headed for Mt. Somers after calling and confirming that the weather was bright and sunny.
A couple of hours later we arrived at Mt. Somers, this time dropping off Dale and Alex at one end of the track. PT, Matt, Nora and I slept in a different hut that night, intending to meet Dale and Alex sometime in the middle of the next day and hand off the keys as we passed them. After almost being blown off the mountainside (stronger winds than at Mt. Cook? I don’t know…) we arrived at our hut, which was practically brand new. We went to bed around 9:30 and at 11 woke to the sounds of people outside. That’s right – about 40 people showed up after at least a few hours hiking in the dark. Some set up tents, some came inside, but the really crazy ones slept in their sleeping bags on the cold ground. Nuts!!!
The next morning we got up early and hiked to the saddle of the mountain, around where Dale and Alex stole the keys from PT. We hiked for a while and then found an awesome waterfall where we stopped for about 20 minutes, knowing that the boys would have to wait a bit for us at the end : ) We continued on the trail that was winding up and down, over and under crazy roots. We had a few close calls but no one seriously wiped out. By the end, though, all our legs were trembling from fatigue. I swear my muscles were sore for at least 3-4 days after our trip. The experience was awesome, though, and a great way to spend 6 days! That night we returned to Carie, our guardian angel, who made dinner for us all. It was spectacular! Thanks Care Bear : )
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