The Grand Finale

Well, I guess all good things must end.  So, let’s get into it—my last blog covering my 9 day road trip from Dunedin to Auckland.

On day one, I just hired my super flash campervan from Christchurch and drove all the way up to the start of Abel Tasman—almost 14 hours of driving.  It never ceases to amaze me how generous people are though.  I had a guy in Christchurch walk with me to close to where I had to go then another randomly offer me a ride

because my bags were so big!  Then, I’d been keen to pick up a hitchhiker all along, but never had a chance.  About 4 hours away from Abel Tasman and nearly 3 from Christchurch, I passed a young kid with a sign to Abel Tasman, so I gave him a ride and he kept me company, so it worked out great!  We got in to Marahau around 10:30pm, so I slept in the back of the camper at the Abel Tasman trailhead.

On days two and three I hiked along the Abel Tasman coastal track.  It’s very different than the rest.  I took

a water taxi about halfway out then would walk back, but it just follows the coastline with some amazing beaches.  I took several opportunities to go for a dip in the ocean and just relax in the sun—it was hot!  I passed one friend from Uni along the track, then coincidentally was staying at the hut with another one (who I ended up hiking out with and giving a ride to Nelson).  The coast here was so beautiful—white granite cliffs, golden beaches and blue oceans.  Along the taxi ride, we even saw two dolphin pods, a seal colony, and heaps of little blue penguins!  What a great start and such an amazing, yet different part of the country.

On day three, after hiking out, I drove on to Picton following the scenic Queen Charlotte Sound—one of the many sounds that make up the Marlborough Sounds.  Again, so beautiful with green rolling hills and bright blue water heading out to the sea.  Once I get into Picton, a little early, I got on the standby list to take the n

ight ferry, rather than wait until the morning.  While waiting I met a very friendly guy from Vermont who was here visiting his daughter who also did exchange at Otago.  I was able to get on the ferry that night meaning I would meet up with my mater in Wellington on the North Island that night! 

The following day, he showed me around Wellington—NZ’s capital.  It was a very fun city, with lots of young people, right on the harbor.  I checked out the national museum of NZ , Te Papa, and walked up Mt  Victoria which overlooks the city and was where some of Lord of the Rings was filmed.  The next morning, bright and early, we were off to Tongariro National Park to do

another Great Walk.

This walk, once again, was extremely different than any others.  It’s in a very barren, desert-like landscape formed by volcanoes.  It would be empty barren rock, then out of nowhere a snow covered, volcanic

mountain.  The first day was raining extremely hard, but after that, the weather was great!  There are also “emerald lakes” there, which are literally turquoise colour due to the minerals from volcanoes.  On our final day, I climbed Mt. Nguaruhoe, which got famous for being Mt. Doom in Lord of the Rings.  After three days of walking (nearly 10 hours the last day), we stopped in Taupo at natural hot pools and spend the night relaxing and sleeping in the camper there.

Now, for my last trip, it was on to the Coromandel Pensiula.  While we only had a day and a half and one night, we still got to see and seim at Cathedral Cover.  This is a beautiful beach made famous by being in the Narnia movies.  We then camped by Hot Water Beach, which was really unique.  During low tide, you can walk out on to the beach and dig into the sand and there are puddles of hot, and I mean really hot, water.  This was very unique, but Andy and I preferred swimming in the ocean rather than spending too long in the hot tubs.  The next morning, after one more dip in the Pacific, it was on the airport.  We had outstanding weather the entire time and it was really amazing to see how varied the landscapes are around Aotearoa.

This is probably the last blog I will write, and I do it with mixed emotions.  I am thrilled to see everyone and not be travelling for a while, but saying goodbye to friends and the landscapes is miserable.  Going abroad has changed me completely and opened my eyes to the world.  It was the most powerful thing I’ve done, and tested my comfort zones at time, but at the end of the day, is the most rewarding and memorable thing I have ever done. 

Before I went abroad, I read an article about how, after living abroad, you almost lead two lives because a part of you will stay there.  There is a part of me tied to the friends, the beaches, the mountains, the lakes, and the deserts that make NZ amazing.  I feel so fortunate for having had this opportunity and support!  Cheers for reading all along and I hope to see all of you in the next few days or weeks!  Hopefully I’ve encouraged you that there is so much more to see outside of America, and people are amazing, and the world really is accessible,

so go see it!  As the hut warden in the Welcome Flats Hut told me—“just follow your compass.  Don’t worry about what society says you should do, do what you truly want to do and you’ll never have regrets.” Captions: my van, a tropical beach in Able Tasman, Queen Charlotte Sound, the Beehive, Emerald Lakes, Hot Water Beach, a rock in Cathedral Cove

The Finest Walk in the World

So, exams are done (finally!), and now it was time to travel.  After a rough goodbye with some good friends, my mate from Colorado State who is in New Zealand (Lisa) and I headed off to the bus to Te Anau for the
Milford Track, dubbed the "finest walk in the world."

The bus left Sunday afternoon, but we wouldn't start tramping until Monday morning.  However, our bus broke down, but after a short delay, we were on the road and made it to Te Anau.  Lisa has used couchsurfing many times before, which is a social network for travellers, where you can meet people to travel with, host them in your place, or found hosts to stay with, all for free.  I had never used it, but she organised it to stay with a guy in Te Anau and it was an amazing experience!  He was 53, semi-retired, and full of information.  He has hosted over 50 people and has heaps of fascinating stories, pictures, and gifts (including a rock from Antarctica), but he even met us at the bus stop, walked us to the DOC office, and really made us feel at home.  There was also a German kid, 20 I believe, there who was really friendly.  Des, the host, knew the area like the back of his hand and was Maori, so he told us a lot about their culture.  Anyway, we spent

Sunday night at his house, then were to catch a bus to Te Anau Downs, where we would catch a ferry to the track--it's quite the trek before you even begin!

Now, Des warned us that a few days ago he had two Aussies stay at his house and they were required to pay a helicopter deposit because avalanche danger was high, but we didn't have to pay when we got there!  The track is fully booked (40 people/day) from now until March 27th and on the ferry, we already made some friends--a Dutch kid travelling around the world called Robin and a German named Christian.  So, once we finally got to the trailhead, Lisa and I, along with our new mates headed off!  Unfortunately, they regulate the track heavily during peak season, so you're required to stay at the first hut, which is a mere 1 hour walk from the trailhead.  Once we got there, though, we went down by the river and were going to swim, until we got our toes wet and decided laying on rocks in the sun sounded more fun.  I was a little uneasy about sharing a hut with 40 people--so far, I'd had nearly every hut to myself, but as the time went on, I really grew to like it.  Part of what made the trip fun was the social aspect.  That night at the

hut, we met an Aussie (Otto), who was there with his dad as a college graduation gift and a group of 3 Australian couples in their 50s, who were super friendly!  Throughout our 3 nights together, we got to know nearly everyone, but Otto, Robin, Christian, and the Aussies were the best!  There were people from all over the world--America (us, a couple from Cleveland, and a couple from San Diego), France, Aussie, NZ, Germany, South Korea, and Holland.  Back to the day though, once the sandflies (NZ's mosquito) got bad, we retreated from the river back to the hut to eat dinner and socialise.

The second day was slightly harder, but still not too bad.  The hut warden told us that if the weather is nice when we get to the hut, we should continue up to the pass--the highest part of the track because it'd be a pity if we didn't go then the weather was bad on day three.  This day's walk was fairly easy through the bush with a few very scenic openings, and then a bit of an incline towards the end.  When we woke up, there was a great deal of cloud cover, but by midday, the sun broke through.  So now, we've had two days of sunshine

in a row.  This area is notorious for its rain--the ranger told us 28 rainy days/month isn't unrealistic!  So, we arrived at the second hut around 3pm and, since we're in summer and at low latitude we have long days (light until 9:30pm), so we took a short break.  Afterwards, the sun was still shining strong, so Lisa, Otto, Robin, Christian, and myself walked up the pass, which was about an hour from the hut (without packs it felt great!).  The views were unreal.  Even after 5 months here, I was speechless.  Surrounded by peaks in every direction and most of them have waterfalls running off of them (and two of them had avalanches coming down while we were there)!  I'll let the pictures do the talking!  After trying to climb a little side peak (and getting about halfway up) and relaxing on the rocks a bit, we headed back down.  Same kind of routine--dinner and socialising before bed!

     Now day three is a special one.  1-it's my birthday! 2-it's when you are "supposed" to go over the pass. 3-you go to Sutherland Falls--NZ's highest waterfall.  After waking up, and getting a few birthday wishes from Otto, Robin, Christian, and Lisa, we were going to head off.  The keas (one of my new favourite animals), the world's only mountain parrot, were out in full force picking our scraps off the picnic tables and

hanging in the trees!  They caused a brief delay, but eventually we started and going up the pass was much worse with a pack on, but the sun was shining again and the views made it all worth it, even for the second time.  At the top of the pass, I had my first birthday task--a friend had given me a beer and told me to chug it at the most scenic place I go on my birthday, so it got skulled on top of McKinnon Pass.  That was, however, the only beer I drank on my entire 21st!  We continued on a wee bit further and got to a little shelter at the junction to Sutherland Falls.  First of all, they had tea and coffee in the shelter, so that was satisfying, but the falls, NZ's highest at 580m were stunning!  And, since by this point we had worked up a sweat, we were able to walk behind the falls, which was really thrilling.  The water, of course was chilly, and is splashing and blowing, so you can't really see as you walk on slippery rocks, but there are mini-rainbows everywhere from the splashing of the water off the rocks and the sun hitting it!  By the time we got back to the shelter, the 3 Aussie couples had gotten word

that it was my birthday, so I got my first wee serenade there (and reminded how young I really was still)!  After singing, they reminded me how young I was (the youngest on the track in our group), and how as you grow, life changes, but there are always new adventures to keep it interesting!  They continued to joke with me the rest of the day about my knees hurting and back hurting and so on, but once again, we finally made it to the hut.  This one was covered in more sandflies than the others, so we stayed inside and cooked and socialised some more.  Now, I did run back to my bunk to grab something from my bag and had a surprise when I got back!  Lisa had carried a brownie and candle with her and, while I was gone, lit it and told everyone to sing, so once I got back I had 40 people singing to me with a brownie and candle!!  I'm not sure how she carried a brownie 2 days without eating--certainly a feat I'd be incapable of--but it was much appreciated!  And that's how my 21st birthday was spent.

     The fourth and final day is a long, but easy walk back through the bush to be picked up by the boat.  Pretty uneventful on this day.  Just had to say goodbye to our new friends and Lisa and I went back to Des's house for the night before catching our buses and going separate ways, so now I'm back here in Dunedin to pack up before heading on my last adventure.

Milford Track was the very first thing I had booked in New Zealand and it was everything I had hoped for and more.  I was skeptical of the "crowded-ness" of it, but grew to love the socialising aspect.  As I mentioned, the weather here tends to be pretty awful--28 days/month of rain with rain coming as fast as 6 inches/hr at times.  We, however, had 4 straight sunny days with temperatures reaching 28 degrees (that's upper 80s, Americans)!  What an incredible trip to wind down my time in this amazing place and I can only hope my final roadtrip will be just as good!

Thank you all for the birthday wishes!  I don't know when my next blog will be--depends on internet access, but I will definitely post one, hopefully two, before coming back to the stars and stripes.  See yall soon!! Captions: Hidden Lake, A Kea, Waterfalls along track, McKinnon Pass (5), Sutherland Falls (2)

Getting Our Feet Wet

I know this is a saying, but over the last few days, I've literally been getting my feet wet (more like drenched)
with my friend in Westland.  Well, I've got 5 days of adventures to cover, so let's get going!  In case you didn't know, I've discovered that if you click any picture on the blog, it makes it bigger.

The trip started off a little rough.  We had to cross Haast Pass to get to where we wanted, but the pass closes at 6pm, so we decided to not stop at the grocery store until we crossed the pass.  Odd thing is, there is no grocery store on the other side of the pass--it was a little more rural than I expected.  However, the convenience store loved us (despite the lady laughing when I asked where the supermarket was).  Anyway, we got all sorted and planned to spend the first night at the carpark for the track we planned to hike the next day.  We got there and the track was closed for flooding (they had 200mm over 24hrs--they average 800mm/yr), but no worries, we would just rearrange our schedule and do our glacier walk the next day and tramp in 2 days.  So, we registered for our glacier walk and went to a random turn off next to a farm in the middle of no where to sleep in our car (if you're wondering, Subaru sedans are not comfortable for sleeping two people).  Anyway, after a night of no sleep, we went to the glacier tour office for our tour, which was cancelled due to a rock slide.  As I said, we started off with a bang, but it gets better!

At the Department of Conservation office, an extremely nice lady looked up several weather reports for us and made a few phone calls to check on the Copland Track conditions.  The track was reopened for the day, but would be re-evaluated the following day as a new storm was supposed to move in.  Anyway, the lady basically told us we're young, dumb, and fit (not quite her exact words), so we could do it if we wanted, but beware of high rivers that we'd cross and be ready to get very wet as it was still raining.  So, of course, we went ahead and gave it a try.  The track really wasn't too bad, except the very first part that involved crossing knee-deep water.  Despite being rainy, there would be breaks for 20-30 minutes of sunshine between rain showers, which apparently is typical for that region and we made it up in 4.5 hours, whereas the "average time" is 7, so that was good!  The best part of this track is that right next to the hut is a natural hot spring around 95 degrees F, so that felt amazing, with beautiful mountain views!  Finally, we met Joe.  Now I could go on for an entire blog about this character, but he was the hut warden up there and I'll try to sum it up in one sentence.  He's a 32 year old American, who was a successful real estate agent, then started his own real estate firm in Seattle, but at 28 decided he wasn't happy with his life (suicidal in fact), so he divorced his wife, sold his real estate company, bought a plane ticket to England and had no plans of when he'd come home or where he was

going.  Besides providing us wood for our wood stove, he made us breakfast the following morning, gave us lunch (we had a 5 hour chat between breakfast and lunch with him), and then gave us an updated weather forecast, so we could hike down before the next storm came.  The whole hut warden gig was enticing though--he gets his own cabin, with electricity and hot running water, and gets food and firewood helicoptered in for him, while he volunteers to help maintain facilities up there.  So, we took Joe's advice (and food) and hiked back down with similar on-and-off rain showers to finish an overall successful trip (other than the fact that our boots were still soaked, so our feet remained wet).

The following day, after another horrendous night of sleeping in the car, we were actually able to do our glacier walk.  It was really cool as they took us into crevasses and through ice tunnels!  Our guide, another American (although he claimed he "wasn't American, he was Texan"), was wild as well--studied abroad in Australia, come to NZ for holiday, loved it, and never left!  Regardless, like I said, we were out just walking around checking out a lot of the features of Fox Glacier.  In the morning, the weather was beautiful and sunny, but, in typical Southwest NZ fashion, storms rolled in.  And, just in case I forgot that I'm getting a full year of winter, this storm brought snow!  Luckily, though, the company provides plenty of warm, waterproof

gear (even dry boots!), so it was still pretty comfortable actually.  Anyway, after talking to Tex (that's what he went by because he's Texan), we found out that the annual Bruce Bay Ball was that night.  My friend and I discussed leaving to head to the carpark for our next tramp, but instead decided to take Tex up on his offer and check out the Bruce Bay Ball (plus we wanted to stay, as we hoped to catch a glimpse of Lake Matheson in the sunshine and the next morning was supposed to be sunny)!  Now, the Bruce Bay Ball was an experience.  Fox Glacier township has about 200 residents, yet managed to fill a bus of 55 people to go to this Ball.  All the locals dressed up classy (we wore our hiking clothes, including our soaked boots, because that's all we had) and go to this community center for live music and dancing and heaps of food (now you see why I went).  I can't describe it other than an experience.  All people, from ages probably 18-70 acted the same.  You could definitely tell that it was something the locals really looked forward to and got excited about, but they were all super friendly and we met heaps of people including a British girl (also not dressed up), who is backpacking though here and got invited randomly as well.  My friend, her, and myself definitely enjoyed the feast, which included everything you can imagine, as a change to our cheapest-thing-possible diet we're used to.  And, after all those festivities, it was back to the car for one last night's sleep (or at least trying to sleep).  We did see stars for the first night, though!

Okay, now hopefully you're still with me (and have nothing more to do urgently because we're only halfway done), but I've lost track of days of the week, which is why I just keep saying "the next day."  However, staying in Fox Glacier one more night paid off--we got to see Lake Matheson in the sunshine!  The lake is

famous for its reflection of Mt Cook and Mt Tasman, NZ's two highest mountains and it was stunning!  Actually, even from our little gravel turnoff where we slept in the car, we woke up to a view of the white mountains up in the blue sky behind the green pasture!  So, after taking a walk around the lake, we were off to do the Brewster Track, which leads to what I heard was an amazing alpine hut!

Now, this Brewster Track is only 2.7km, but super steep and takes an average of 3-4 hours (NZ measures most hikes in average hours).  Anyway, it too started with a river crossing, but it didn't matter much because my boots were still drenched from the Copland Track.  After crossing the river, we climbed and climbed, but, like the glacier, there was fresh snow on top of the trees here too, which was melting in the sun, so it felt like it was raining.  It wasn't too bad though because it was sunny and blue skies,

which I hadn't gotten in my last 4 trips, so I was thrilled and warm!  Eventually, we reached treeline and the view were unreal!  I won't even try explaining them, you'll have to just see the pictures.  The hut was awesome, as well, but didn't have a wood stove heater like many of the more popular huts have.  Regardless, we just hung out there for the evening and enjoyed the views.  It tied the cabin in Alaska for the most beautiful place I'd ever slept (the view from the toilet was even spectacular!).  Also, I learned a survival tip--if you ever find yourself on a tramping trip with two guys, neither of which brought toilet paper, but needing to wipe and conveniently in a toilet surrounded by snow, just use the snow (warning: it works well, but is very cold).  We watched an amazing orange sunset, ate dinner and got in our sleeping bags.  Never in my life was I so thankful just for the ability to actually fully extend my legs while sleeping.  I assume the stars were beautiful again, but neither of us were determined enough to leave the warmth of our bags to check, as we've seen plenty of starry nights here.  Shortly, we fell asleep, but that 6am alarm came quick!  Our plan was to attempt to summit Mt. Armstrong, weather

permitting.  Although neither of us were to keen to get out of our warm bags, we both agreed that the sky was bright blue and we had to give it a shot, so off we went.  Unfortunately, we had to turn around about 500 feet short of the true summit due to a steep icy slope that we didn't have proper gear to climb, but the views remained amazing!  We then came back down to the hut, ate lunch, and, for the final time, put our drenched boots on and walked back to the car!

Finally, I got some sunshine in the mountain though and it was spectacular!  We heard from several people, however, that this is a very unusually wet spring, and snow this late in the year is almost unheard of, but I've made the most of it, nonetheless.  I am happy to be back with dry feet, though.  As usual, more pictures on Facebook for those of you with access.  Now, time to study for two finals in the upcoming week!  Happy Halloween to all of you!! Captions: Copland river crossing, Copland Valley, Hot pools at Welcome Flats, Fox glacier water, Lake Matheson, Brewster Track

I have no creative title

Sorry for the lack of a title, but since I couldn't come up with anything, I thought I'd be straightforward.  Anyway, last week was week 1 of finals, but I didn't have a final, so I had the week off.  Don't actually have my first final until Thursday of this week.  So, here's what I did with my time.

Now, I don't have pictures of all of this, but last Friday I went spearfishing.  I was mediocre, but it's hard to hold your breath that long!  Anyway, I hit one of the three fish I shot at, but it wasn't the right type of fish.  We were going for butterfish (aka greenbone), which is a herbivore, so can't be caught on a hook.  The friend I went with got 5, so he gave me three and I cut them up for dinner.  We also stopped at a beach on the way home and got some clams, so I had clam stew and fresh fish--delicious!!  Saturday I went surfing, but didn't do so well.  Sunday, however, I went back out and did much better!  Then, my friend got Paua (a giant sea snail) and gave me some, so I had that along with some mussels I went out and got Sunday for dinner.  After dinner, a group of us headed to Long Beach to camp out because the weather was beautiful.

While I wanted to go away for the week, the weather in most places was awful, so I decided to hang around

town.  I'm kind of glad I did because the three groups of friends I know that went places were stuck in pouring rain for their entire trips.  Wednesday, though, I did head off to Lake Tekapo, Lake Pukaki, and Mt Cook National Park.  Lake Tekapo is an International Starlight Reserve and the sky was amazing, even though the moon was really bright.  Lake Pukaki is a crazy colour of turquoise blue and was very scenic with the  mountains in the background.  Mt Cook National Park was also amazing--definitely a place I wish I could spend more time in!  Unfortunately, we couldn't get to the hut we wanted to, so opted for a 3 hour day walk.  The weather was awful--pouring rain and driving winds that were literally blowing me across the track.  Anyway, the area was beautiful with huge peaks and glaciers everywhere.  Plus, I saw my first iceberg!

And, finally, last night was the All-Blacks rugby game.  It was extremely fun!!  They played the Wallabies from Australia and we had a great time there!

Now, for the most shocking part of my entire time abroad!!!  I read a book.  Like one of those things with words on the pages.  I read it from left to right, top to bottom, through all 350 pages.  It was the first time in nearly 5 years that I've achieved such an accomplishment.  Now, it's time to study for a few days unfortunately, but I'm sure I'll squeeze some fun in there too! Captions: sunrise on Long Beach, Lake Pukaki, and iceberg, All-Blacks vs. Wallabies scrum

Salt Life

Ok, so this one is actually going to be short but sorry it's later than usual.  It's mostly videos, so hopefully they work!

Friday, after going to class of course, we drove up to Kaikoura, which is about 6.5hrs north.  It was my longest road trip so far, but wasn't too bad.  We made a pit stop at Moeraki Boulders--large, perfectly

rounded boulders on the beach.  There were two car fulls, and the first car went earlier and already had a fire going on the beach at our campsite too!  Saturday morning, we got up and went to SeaFest, which is a big festival of local beer and seafood.  I had scallops, fish, and paua (which was my favourite) and a few other things too!  It was delicious, then after that, we went to Ohau Stream, which is where seals often have their pups.  There is a pool at the base of a waterfall where there were at least 20 of the pups playing around!  Then, we went back and had another bonfire on the beach, and Sunday morning we went swimming with dolphins!

Swimming with the Dusky dolphins was incredible!  There were literally about 200 of them and the boat gets you in the best position, you swim, then when they move, you get out and repeat the process.  They are small in dolphin standards, but still at least my size, if not larger.  Also, it was really cool because they are curious, so they'll come right at you (but I didn't freak out like I did with the sea lion).  They're known for being acrobatic, so after doing four snorkels with them, we got about 30 minutes to just follow them on the boat and watch them.  And, to top it off, on the way back, we saw albatross (a huge and rare bird), the captain saw a penguin (I didn't see it), and we got to see a humpback whale breach!

Like I said, pretty short post.  After two nights camping without a sleeping pad, my mattress felt great!  The weather was really nice this weekend, but back to cold and dreary this week unfortunately.  Anyway, this is my last week of class--can't believe how fast it flew by! Caption: Moeraki Boulders

Going Coast to Coast

No, this has nothing to do with the Sam Adams song for the few of you who even know who that singer is. Instead, it has to do with my weekend starting in Dunedin on the Pacific Ocean (east coast) and going to Fiordland and the Tasman Sea (west coast).  This one may be long, so let's get started (but at least read the P.S. at the bottom). And I haven't gotten picture formatting perfect, yet, so sorry!  Working on it still!

We began on Friday morning at the ripe hour of 6am--the sunrise in Dunedin was beautiful!  Unfortunately, the forecast for our trip was not.  Like last weekend, this one was calling for steady rain Friday and heavy rain Saturday.  Our plan was to hike up to the Luxmore Hut along the Kepler Track (one of NZ's Great Walks) in Fiordland National Park on Friday night.  Sounds eerily similar to last weekend, right?  Well, luckily we had daylight this time--sorry, I was willing to sacrifice going to class in exchange for hiking in the daylight.  And, there's no such thing as bad weather, just improper clothing.  This time, equipped with a waterproof pack cover and rain pants (I had neither last weekend), we hit the trail head around 10am.  For this trip, there were 5 of us--myself, Jeanne, Craig and Abbie representing America and Graham being the lone Canadien.  Oh, I forgot to mention our other companions, the hundreds of sandflies (NZ's version of a mosquito) at the trailhead, but luckily, they stayed behind in the car park.  I guess they are a sign of summer approaching, though!

Anyway, enough rambling.  The trail to Luxmore Hut begins in the bush, but climbs up above tree line with a

2,250ft elevation gain over 8.5 miles, which the sign said is expected to take 6 hours.  So, off we went.  There were drizzles along the car ride and it was cloudy at the trailhead, but no rain for now.  Shortly after entering the bush, that changed.  Just as expected, a steady rain came down, but luckily, the trees helped protect us.  It's a great thing NZ has this hut system because a forecast like this would've most likely forced us to cancel a tent-camping trip.  Regardless, we continued, had a wet lunch break and broke tree line around 2pm!  As we were exiting the bush, the clouds opened and the rain cleared for the final 30 minutes of our walk!  Hint: you'll notice a trend.  However, we made it to the hut in just under 4 and a half hours, so we were feeling great!  Well, actually we ached.  We ached a lot for a group of five 20+ year olds, of which 4 (all but me) are or were NCAA D1 athletes.  Craig and Jeanne ski at Colby College in Maine, Graham skis at St. Lawrence in NY and Abbie did play field hockey prior to back surgery for St. Lawrence.  Anyway, after a short snack and stretch, we went to explore the Luxmore Caves.  By this point, the rain had begun again, but the caves were only 10 minutes

away and, obviously, covered.  So, we went in and it was really neat!  You are free to go as far as you want and explore as much as you want, but there are signs warning you that it can get dark and don't touch stalactites or stalagmites.  When we were done and got back to the cave opening, we were welcomed by a beam of light coming through--the sun returned!  Hint: start catching the trend.  With the clouds broken, we took the opportunity to catch a few photos of the area around the hut.  It was stunning!  The mountains surrounding the hut were so jagged with Lake Te Anau just below.  Anyway, we went back to the hut, relaxed, met the others staying there (1 girl from Dunedin and 2 English couples), lit the wood stove, hung our wet stuff to dry and made dinner.  For the rest of the evening, the clouds would come in and block all views, then clear for just a few minutes, so we could snap pictures.  After dinner, we lit the wood stove and all decided to sleep in the common room in front of the fire, rather than in the cold bunk room, so we dragged our mattresses (foam pads) out and played some

cards then were in bed by 9pm.  Yes, 5 college kids, in bed by 9pm on Friday night.  And boy did we sleep--at 8am, 11 hours later, the sun was shining in our faces as we finally awoke from a deep sleep.

After an oatmeal breakfast and a long stretching session, we were off to conquer Luxmore Peak.  We weren't going to do the entire Kepler Track, due to deep snow and not having enough time, but we did want to wander up to the peak, which is the highest part of the track.  Some friends went last weekend and said the conditions were good enough to make it up.  So, with the sun out, we wandered up.  Leaving our heavy backpacks at the hut felt great!  We made it up to the summit in just over 1 hour, with much more of

the same cloudy-then-clearing weather.  In no rush, we sat at the top for a few minutes, then wandered back down and as soon as we left, of course, the clouds came in heavy and eliminated all views.  If you haven't caught on to the hints yet, we hit the weather clearings perfectly for everything on this trip!  We ate lunch, stretched again, and talked to two new folks who showed up.  Both ladies, in their 40s or 50s, were breathing heavily and in running clothes, but there's no way that they could've possibly just run up the trail that five athletic college kids just struggled with, right?  We got up in 4.5 hours, when the sign said it took six.  Well, they did, and it got even worse.  They kept coming.  There ended up being 7 or 8 people, between 30 and 50, who had just run up the 8.5 mile trail in 2.5 hours.  Boy, did we feel dumb.  One proceeded to tell us that she once ran the entire 36 mile trail in just over 10 hours!  So, we stretched our aching, decrepit bodies in awe and began to walk back to the car park, which took only 3.5 hours, but

of course the group of runners passed us again going down.  We got back to the car just around 4pm and were going to drive towards Milford Sound (2hrs away) to camp because we had to be at the sound at 9:30am for a cruise.  This time, we were in a tent.

Since luck was with us, we got to the campsite during a break in the rain and set up the tent alongside a river with occasional glimpses through the clouds at the surrounding peaks.  Once the tent was set up, the rain returned, so we sat in the car and ate dinner with the sandflies who were waiting for us at this campsite too.  Anyway, it worked out fine, and we were in bed now at 9pm.  Unfortunately we didn't sleep as well, and had to get up at 7:30am.  We finished the drive into Milford Sound, which is an amazing drive.  The sound was even better.  I'm not sure I can describe it in words, so I've attached several photos and a video.  All I can say is it was definitely worthy of a World Heritage Site status.  Imagine sheer mountain cliffs raising 2,000m out of the water (and they told us they continued down to depths of 200m below the water) covered

with waterfalls, as this is one of the planet's rainiest regions.  By the time we actually got to the sound, many of the clouds have lifted and we had a beautiful day in Milford Sound standards.  We saw seals and dolphins, who loved to swim in front of the boat and put on a show!  They are so playful!!  Oh, and the sandflies were here too, but one sign told us that the Maori (native New Zealanders) believed god put sandflies here to make sure that humans wouldn't stay too long and mess up the area.  Anyway, Milford Sound with Mitre Peak is often the iconic image of New Zealand and it lived up to its name!  Milford Sound leads out into the Tasman Sea and is actually a fiord, not sound, because it is glacial, but the original settlers didn't know that.  Our cruise took us to the Tasman Sea, then we drove across country back to Dunedin (it only takes 5 hours in this country) in time to make fajitas for dinner!  Milford Sound may be the most beautiful place I'd ever seen and this was one of, if not the, best weekends I've had here!  Couldn't be happier.

With all that said, if you're still with me, next weekend I am off to SeaFest in Kaikoura on Saturday, then swimming with dolphins (and potentially whales if they come through) on Sunday in the Pacific.  Oh, and my final touch rugby game is Wednesday.  I do have a two sliced fingers, not from opening tuna this time, but from opening a bottle (I'll let you decide the type of bottle).  I may be dumb at times, but you can't say I'm

not experiencing life!! P.S. The time changed here, so we are now 1hr ahead of what we were before and 1 hour further from all of you, so keep that in mind.  And Happy Birthday Grandpa Schaefer and hope you're having fun in NoLa ma and pops.  Hard to believe I've been here over 3 months and only have 2 months left.  We only have 2 weeks of class left and I've never been so upset to be done with school... Last random thought: I actually liked coffee for the first time, which I'm not sure is good or bad, but maybe it was just because it was free and I loaded it with sweetener...Captions: Lake Te Anau, Luxmore Hut, Luxmore Cave, Luxmore Summit (2), Mitre Peak/Milford Sound, Waterfall in Milford, Milford Panorama, bottlenose dolphins!

Wild Weekend

Well, this weekend was an adventure.  Our plan was to hike 2hrs to Aspiring Hut on Friday, then Saturday try to climb up to the Liverpool Hut if the snow was passable, then come back Sunday afternoon.  Simple as.

However, there were 9 of us (and it wasn't even majority Americans--1 S. African/Kiwi, 3 Germans, 4 Americans, 1 Kiwi!), and we had to wait for one of them to finish their group project before we could leave on Friday.  They said it should be done around 1--we got going around 2:45pm.  It's a 4.5hr drive to the trail head, but is a simple hike so should be easy even in dark.  Surprise!  There are fords (or stream crossings) along the road and our car sits fairly low.  Keep in mind it's been pouring all day (and still was), so the river is running high.  We got across the first one and evaluated if it was safe to continue.  The sign saying "beware, river may rise and become impassable" didn't apply to us, so we continued on.  One girl who had been here before said it's only 3 ford crossings anyway.  After the 7th crossing (2 of which were close), we made it to the trailhead at 9:00pm--the ideal time to begin a hike.  Suited up in our rain gear, we tramped off into the darkness and should be at the hut by 11:00.

Maybe the trail is easy if it's daylight and you stay on it, but somehow we veered off.  We, of course, didn't

know that because it was dark.  Our route, the more adventurous one, included walking through the river about 10 times, in some areas that were nearly knee-deep. So, our legs and feet were drenched from that and our upper halves were drenched from the relentless rain.  At 12:30am, we made it to the hut! There was a wood stove and dry wood, so we lit a fire, hung our wet stuff, talked a little bit, and went to bed.

After waking up, and seeing it was still raining, we had to decide our plan for the day.  No one was really interested in going to the higher hut since most of our stuff was still wet.  We also were worried that if the rain continued (it was supposed to die off Saturday night and rain hard Sunday) the stream crossings would be challenging to walk through and drive through.  So, we decided to walk back and head home to be safe.  Interestingly, when you stay on the trail, it was in fact easy, and there are bridges to cross the stream (one was maybe 20m from where we crossed, but was too dark to see it).  The skies finally cleared a bit to see the beautiful mountains surrounding the valley we were in.  Some people jumped in the river, then we continued on.  We decided to try to take pictures with a sheep, so we actually cornered one and tackled him to get some pictures. Relatively easily, we made it back to the car with no problem and saw that our wrong turn the night before was maybe 200m into the tramp.

Now, we took a rental car and some other people's car (named "Russell") on this trip--not my car because the others took it elsewhere.  Apparently, Russell has been nothing, but trouble.  After getting through all 7 fords, and driving about 5 minutes more on a dirt road in the middle of no where, Russell shut off.  They weren't sure why, but apparently this is common, so they let it sit for a minute, then restarted it.  No more then 2 minutes later, the hazards came on again, and off went Russell.  This time, he was apparently making noise.  He was bone dry on oil, but luckily they noticed before it destroyed the engine.  So, we were to take the rental car to town (about 30min each way) to pick up oil, but a few minutes in we passed a farm, so I went up to the house and met an extremely friendly farmer who gave us oil.  So, we started up again.  About 3 minutes later, Russell stopped again.  This time, the engine oil temp gauge was going through the roof.  For some reason, the coolant was flowing into the radiator.  We were right outside the same farmer's house now, and he came out and helped and we got the radiator cooled off eventually.  In the mean time, we checked the transmission fluid--bone dry.  However, after all this, we made it back to Dunedin, trouble-free around 11pm with a great story to share (and a free Sunday, which I will spend playing rugby on the beach)!  Captions: Aspiring range (2), NZ's wildlife!, Rob Roy Glacier