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
