My first NZ tramp

No grandpa, this has nothing to do with a girl... In NZ, hikes are called tramps and I found out that it's because tracks (their name for trails) are usually muddy, so you're tramping through mud.  Hiking here means hitch-hiking. Anyway, we went to Jubilee Hut (the Dept. of Conservation has huts throughout the country) in the Silver Peaks Scenic Reserve.  Some one dropped us off at 9am Saturday morning to begin.  There were 5 of us, one of which had done it before and he said it's a 3-4hr walk, then 2hrs past that to some caves.  Sounded sweet.  He didn't tell me that was from the 2nd trailhead, but we came from the 1st one, which was 6km further.  Plus, the trail isn't maintained in winter, so it took forever.  We literally army crawled under branches and had to climb over trees.  It was crazy.  However, the weather was beautiful and the views were amazing of lush green mountains with the ocean in the background.  So, we eventually, exhaustively, made it to the hut around 4:30pm and 15km!  It had 2 platforms with 4 mattresses on each.  It was more of a half-mattress/half-sleeping pad, but it'd work.  Then it had a small counter and table as well as an outhouse and water spigot.  We already drank straight from the stream though--so fresh!  Plus, it was warm, so we ate our weak little dinner and played cards by headlamp.  We could've had a fire, but no one brought a lighter or matches.  I had to leave a lot of that kind of stuff home and out of my pack.  Then, we went to go look at the stars.  It was INCREDIBLE! You could see tons of stars, the entire milky way, and what we believe were Jupiter and Mars.  Just like any other group of college kids, we went to bed at 8:45pm on a Saturday night and I had my best sleep yet.  Wendy, I see why you sleep so well in your cabin.  11 straight hours!  We decided to skip the caves altogether, but we're going to watch the sunrise (remember it rises late here for winter).  At 8am, Will woke us all up to a little surprise--3-4cm of snow on the ground! It was still coming and we figure they probably got 4-5cm today (2inches about), so we made our trek back in the blowing wind and snow, but there's no such thing as bad weather, just improper clothing!  Luckily, we were all prepared, so we made it back, doing the same crawling and climbing, but now through the snow.  While driving back, we saw a sweet rainbow, which was a great sign!  It was the most extreme "tramping" experience I've had, but I'm looking forward to tons more this semester!!