I just got back from yet another weekend trip! This time the program I came with, IFSA-Butler, planned and organized an adventure weekend for us. Our group was split in half, so 20 of the students took a trip in the beginning of the month and the rest of us went on a trip this past weekend.
On friday, we all traveled to Te Anau. We stayed at the YHA Hostel and decided to go enjoy a beer at Moose Bar after the long bus ride. I went to Moose Bar earlier in the semester and had a beer after sky diving and absolutely loved it! Well, the beer was still good, but not great- I think the adrenaline and happy emotions played a part in making that beer taste so delicious. haha-
We woke up early on Saturday and headed to the a bird sanctuary. We saw all kinds of endangered birds and nz birds. We enjoyed lunch on Lake Wanaka and then boarded our first boat. We were taking an over night cruise on Doubtful Sound, but we had to take a couple different modes of transportation to reach this isolated place. The only way you can get to the sounds is by air or with a tour company. First, we took an hour boat ride across Lake Wanaka. Then we boarded a bus and traveled 22 km. This is the most isolated and expensive road in new zealand. it cost $2 per centimeter to build! The population was 1! haha. We finally arrived at the sounds and boarded our overnight boat. We cruised around the sounds for awhile. They reminded me of Milford Sound (the other fiordland sounds, that i visited with my mom and sister), but they were much more isolated. I loved them. I felt like we were in the middle of nowhere, surrounded with mountains.
We had the opportunity to kayak at night. We all jumped in kayaks and paddled around the area. it was beautiful! so calm and amazing. when we got back on the boat, the sun was setting, but we had the opportunity to go swimming. of course, we all decided to... and the ones that didnt swim were bundled in hats/sweats/winter coats haha.just to give you an idea of the temperature... we jumped off the second story of the boat. When I hit the water, I had trouble swimming to the top because my body was numb/in shock. haha- we jumped a couple of times and then enjoyed a nice shower. They served us a delicious meal and then we spent the night just hanging out/playing games. We all cuddled into one tiny 4-bed room (about 10 of us) to hear a bedtime story. Our friend, John, likes to tell good bedtime stories... He told a good one about a boy named jack from neptune who was trying to get to earth but had trouble getting past the talking/dangerous tree. haha
The next morning we woke up to a rainy day, which is great in the fiordlands becasue it means sweet waterfalls! We all put our rain gear on and rain out to the front of the boat. we spent a good hour playing in the rain... It was so windy, we had trouble standing up- it was a blast! After the end of our cruise, we took the bus ride and boat ride back. We drove to a farm for the last part of our adventure.
When we arrived on the farm, the family cooked us a traditional kiwi barbeque of sausages, coleslaw, bread and butter (not buns), carrots, etc. Then we had 5 races throughout the afternoon. We had to herd sheep in the field...ha we were running around chasing sheep. it was quite hilarious- sometimes the sheep would turn towards us and we just had to run, there was no stopping them! It was fun running around with the sheep, but even better to be a bystander watching the other teams! needless to say, we found out that it is easier to control the dog and let him get the sheep, we just get in the way standing in the field... obviously we arent farm kids. We also got to watch a sheep shearing. It was cool to see, but I did not like it. ick. The professional sheep sheerers were so fast! Out of the top ten fastest sheerers in the world, seven of them are from new zealand!
It was a great weekend, and now we are back in the swing of classes- its crazy to think only 5 more weeks of classes and then finals. Next weekend, we are going to take a hike around mt. cook, the tallest mountain in nz. i'm getting quite used to leaving on the weekends and working during the week...!
Pictures from the weekend: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2076134&id=21105072&l=60d8e1c431
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Mid-Semester Break!
So I returned from mid-semester break on Monday night... this marks the halfway (a little over halfway actually) point of my experience abroad. I have one more month of actual classes and then a month for finals... I have finals on June 10, 20, and 24. and then I am done and kicked out of my housing. Over a lovely Thai dinner last night, a couple of friends and I discussed this craziness. We decided that we still wanted to travel the north island and australia before this time was up... so I think we are all going to stay till mid-late july and travel (we have to look at money and all of the logistics still). I'm not ready to come home yet! I miss all of my friends and family, but I am having the time of my life. I probably won't find work at home in this economy and I don't want to sit around for 2 months... so yea, ill keep you posted on my post-travel plans!
For mid-semester break, Lynsey and I took a bus up to Christchurch for a night. We went and had a couple of drinks at our hostel bar and met some funny people! This was the night before good friday, so many people were out because they did not have work the next day. We asked a man if Easter was big in new zealand because everyone was off of work on Friday. He said, "well, easter is a three days off of work. big barbeques and games going on this weekend" So different than home. I would not have known it was around easter if the cadbury factory was not in dunedin. I have been surrounded with chocolate eggs for a month now. haha We met a guy with a mohawk who was just traveling. I asked him how long he has been traveling and he said, "about three years now". crazy! he just picked up and left England and has been working/traveling. Talk about living day to day and check to check.
The next day we got back on a bus and traveled to Nelson, which is on the northern coast of the south island. We met Lynsey's boyfriend, chris, at the bus station (he is studying in wellington and took a ferry to the south island). The three of us went to our hostel, Bridgestreet Backpackers.. which was a little sketchy, but cheap! We went to get dehydrated meals for the 6 days we were going to be in the wilderness... and found out that all the camping stores were closed for good friday! We also discovered that I had left my debit card in dunedin at MacPac (a camping store that I was shopping at on thursday)... so I was without money and without a bank and we were all without food for our trip due to good friday! The supermarket isn't even open on good friday, but my kiwihost told me they were open on christmas. We went out to eat and the place charged an extra 15% because it was a holiday. It's cool that employs have off on holidays and are not overworked, but in our situation, it wasn't so cool!
We woke up the next morning and ran to the supermarket at 7 am before our bus at 7:30... they didn't have dehydrated meals, so we got some other stuff and took a bus to the start of the Abel Tasman National Park. We stopped at a convience store to see if they had dehydrated meals... no such luck- but we found some other stuff for the last couple of meals. Then we finally started hiking! We hiked for a good four hours and the track is right along the coast. It was in a rainforest and beaches were over our shoulder. Sometimes the track went along the beaches, which seems like a cool idea- till you walk with 30 pounds on your back wobbling all over and sliding... haha We camped at torrent bay and went to play on an island at low tide. The three of us squeezed into a 2 person tent all week... it was quite the close quarters.
The next morning (Easter!) we had some oatmeal and then started hiking. The tide came in and now the island was back to being... an island. the tides here are insane! we had to plan our trip so that we would hit certain parts at low tide or we would have to wait hours because the tides came and filled up bays with waist deep water. This was our longer day. We ran into a couple friends doing the track hte opposite way and they got stuck by a tide and didnt start until 4 pm... needless to say they still had along way to go and the sun was about to set. We also met four boys studying in dunedin (from the states) while hiking. at our campsite at night, we cooked an easter dinner of rice and mexican spiced meat ( I missed the traditional big ham dinner!) there was a family staying at our campsite and the little kids invited us to their bonfire. it was so fun to hang out with a family from new zealand, they were so nice and the kids were hiking the track for a couple days and loved it- they even had little backpacks.
The next morning, I enjoyed breakfast on the beach and we headed off. We had an easy day today, as we were only going to the end of the track (about 3.5 hours). We hiked to our next campsite which was on Mutton Cove and we were the only ones there. We had all afternoon to hang out, so we went swimming (in the freezing water!) because we felt dirty and smelly... and I read while lynsey and chris hiked a little further to separation point. At night, the moon lit up the entire beach it was crazy! I tried to capture it with my camera, but it didn't work. We thought someone was there with a flashlight it was so bright. We were camping right on the beach. It was so nice to go to sleep hearing the waves crash... In the middle of the night chris heard something and woke up to find a wild boar on our campsite. haha.
We had some time to kill the next morning becasue we only had a two hour back track hike to catch the water taxi. We went swimming again and hung out. We were on the beach and there were sea lions swimming right infront of us! We hiked for a little while and then ran into some friends also waiting for a taxi and made plans to meet up later in the week. The water taxi was fun. It was just a boat that took us to the start of the track. When we got to the end, a tractor with a boat lift pulled us out of the water (it was lowtide) and drove on the street to the little taxi office... we got a sweet ride in a boat... on land. haha it was funny. We spent the night at Old McDonald Farm and made oodles of noodles (ramen noodles) for dinner... for some reason they tasted amazing! The farm had all kinds of animals and birds, we went on a walk to look at them all. We opted to stay in a three bed cabin to give ourselves some space for a night haha.
the next day, we were set to start kayaking. After our briefing, repacking, etc. etc. we were back on the track, only this time we were in the water! It was beautiful. There were a couple islands that we paddled out to and we listened to the birds, and watched sea lions play on the rocks. It was fun to be on the water, I thought i was in a completely different place. We got to our campsite at night and there were 6 more guys from dunedin staying there as well. They were also from the states- so we hung out with them for the evening. It was a blast. we sat around talking. I talked with a boy who biked across america with his members of the same fraternity from all over the states and raised all this money for his philanthrophy. I love hearing stories about what other people do... definitely makes my before-i-die-list extremely long though. haha. That is my favorite part about traveling, meeting all these cool people. At night we heard these loud crying sounds, so we decided to grab our torches and go explore. We went in a cave on the beach and there were glowworms! and then we figured out the crying sound were penguins!! We were on the beach in the middle of nature watching penguins... it was awesome.
The next day we got back in our kayaks and it was rainy and windy. The swells were over 2 feet and hard to paddle in. We did out best in the rain and had fun, but Chris had a lot of trouble keeping balance in the single kayak. He went to the beach and we continued kayaking because we wanted to go to split apple rock. Going there was easy, but as soon as we took a picture, lynsey and I turned around and saw a black sky, pouring rain, and white caps (4 ft swells)... oh no. we just looked at eaachother in pure panic. We did our best and maneuvered back... haha it took awhile and we were exhausted, cold, and wet. haha. At night, we were back in nelson and we took warm showers. Much appreciated after 6 days without one. then we went out to eat and had delicious, real food. yummm... There is nothing like the feeling of enjoying a good meal after camping.
The next day we went east to picton. Lynsey and I took a mailboat cruise in the marlborough sounds. It was fun, we delivered mail to people living in this remote area. People lived in these houses, without neighbors, and no road to drive out of... all by boat! talk about isolation... We got to see dolphins on our way back in. At night, we styaed at the sweetest hostel with our friends david, john and laura. We had a blast. We all cooked dinner and just hung around listening to music. At 8 the hostel gave us free chocolate pudding (it was more like cake) and then we went in the hot tub. We had a big sleepover in our room and stayed up talking, it was a blast to hang out with them.
Lynsey and I were headed to Blenheim to do a wine tour the next day. We found a hostel and started our wine tour by bike around 1. We had four hours and hundreds of wineries on a map. We visited seven in that time. It was a blast! The wineries were beautiful, the wine was amazing, and the people were great. The vineyards were right infront of the mountains, and it was so sunny! We actually ran into the four boys from dunedin that we met in the beginning of our hike... they were doing the tours by bike as well! haha. small place. We didnt feel the effects of our alcohol intake because we biked so much inbetween, but it sure was a blast.
At night we went out to eat and hung out at our hostel. We met people that were living/working in the area... they were all travelers, but they have been in new zealand for awhile, just working for a week and then traveling to the next place. It is crazy to think about all these people just leaving for a couple years to explore a new place. I asked a guy if he liked doiing it and he said, "yea, its great... sometimes its lonely and i wish my friends were here, but they will be there when I get back and i wouldnt exchange this experience for anything." Its not like these people are just traveling, they are living by traveling. Lynsey and I had a good laugh that we had an itinerary for a 12 day vaca and these people don't have one for years. haha...
The next day we took a bus to kaikoura. It was really foggy out and windy. We went and swam with the dolphins. There is a huge crater in the ocean floor, producing nutrients, which brings all the large mammals closer to the shore. We were in wet suits (once again, the ocean water is FREEZING!) and we would sit on the back of the boat. The captain would toot a little horn and we woudl jump in the water. We swam in circles, sang songs, and attracted the dolphins. They would swim right past us or in circles around us. It wasn't like sea world, we didnt grab their fins or touch them. These were wild dolphins, unfed, untrained, living in their natural habitat! It was awesome. at one point, I had three dolphins just swimming around me! haha... at night, lynsey and I went out for thai food and then watched a movie- we were exhausted!
And that concludes my amazing break! I came back and told my kiwihost that I needed to catch up on life. a phrase, I often use... she laughed and said, "it seems to me that you were just living life and now you need to catch up on all your sh*t. this isn't life. what you were doing the past week was life."
i'll end on that note!
Pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2075908&id=21105072&l=4b9a0627bb
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2075912&id=21105072&l=61dd79ce80
For mid-semester break, Lynsey and I took a bus up to Christchurch for a night. We went and had a couple of drinks at our hostel bar and met some funny people! This was the night before good friday, so many people were out because they did not have work the next day. We asked a man if Easter was big in new zealand because everyone was off of work on Friday. He said, "well, easter is a three days off of work. big barbeques and games going on this weekend" So different than home. I would not have known it was around easter if the cadbury factory was not in dunedin. I have been surrounded with chocolate eggs for a month now. haha We met a guy with a mohawk who was just traveling. I asked him how long he has been traveling and he said, "about three years now". crazy! he just picked up and left England and has been working/traveling. Talk about living day to day and check to check.
The next day we got back on a bus and traveled to Nelson, which is on the northern coast of the south island. We met Lynsey's boyfriend, chris, at the bus station (he is studying in wellington and took a ferry to the south island). The three of us went to our hostel, Bridgestreet Backpackers.. which was a little sketchy, but cheap! We went to get dehydrated meals for the 6 days we were going to be in the wilderness... and found out that all the camping stores were closed for good friday! We also discovered that I had left my debit card in dunedin at MacPac (a camping store that I was shopping at on thursday)... so I was without money and without a bank and we were all without food for our trip due to good friday! The supermarket isn't even open on good friday, but my kiwihost told me they were open on christmas. We went out to eat and the place charged an extra 15% because it was a holiday. It's cool that employs have off on holidays and are not overworked, but in our situation, it wasn't so cool!
We woke up the next morning and ran to the supermarket at 7 am before our bus at 7:30... they didn't have dehydrated meals, so we got some other stuff and took a bus to the start of the Abel Tasman National Park. We stopped at a convience store to see if they had dehydrated meals... no such luck- but we found some other stuff for the last couple of meals. Then we finally started hiking! We hiked for a good four hours and the track is right along the coast. It was in a rainforest and beaches were over our shoulder. Sometimes the track went along the beaches, which seems like a cool idea- till you walk with 30 pounds on your back wobbling all over and sliding... haha We camped at torrent bay and went to play on an island at low tide. The three of us squeezed into a 2 person tent all week... it was quite the close quarters.
The next morning (Easter!) we had some oatmeal and then started hiking. The tide came in and now the island was back to being... an island. the tides here are insane! we had to plan our trip so that we would hit certain parts at low tide or we would have to wait hours because the tides came and filled up bays with waist deep water. This was our longer day. We ran into a couple friends doing the track hte opposite way and they got stuck by a tide and didnt start until 4 pm... needless to say they still had along way to go and the sun was about to set. We also met four boys studying in dunedin (from the states) while hiking. at our campsite at night, we cooked an easter dinner of rice and mexican spiced meat ( I missed the traditional big ham dinner!) there was a family staying at our campsite and the little kids invited us to their bonfire. it was so fun to hang out with a family from new zealand, they were so nice and the kids were hiking the track for a couple days and loved it- they even had little backpacks.
The next morning, I enjoyed breakfast on the beach and we headed off. We had an easy day today, as we were only going to the end of the track (about 3.5 hours). We hiked to our next campsite which was on Mutton Cove and we were the only ones there. We had all afternoon to hang out, so we went swimming (in the freezing water!) because we felt dirty and smelly... and I read while lynsey and chris hiked a little further to separation point. At night, the moon lit up the entire beach it was crazy! I tried to capture it with my camera, but it didn't work. We thought someone was there with a flashlight it was so bright. We were camping right on the beach. It was so nice to go to sleep hearing the waves crash... In the middle of the night chris heard something and woke up to find a wild boar on our campsite. haha.
We had some time to kill the next morning becasue we only had a two hour back track hike to catch the water taxi. We went swimming again and hung out. We were on the beach and there were sea lions swimming right infront of us! We hiked for a little while and then ran into some friends also waiting for a taxi and made plans to meet up later in the week. The water taxi was fun. It was just a boat that took us to the start of the track. When we got to the end, a tractor with a boat lift pulled us out of the water (it was lowtide) and drove on the street to the little taxi office... we got a sweet ride in a boat... on land. haha it was funny. We spent the night at Old McDonald Farm and made oodles of noodles (ramen noodles) for dinner... for some reason they tasted amazing! The farm had all kinds of animals and birds, we went on a walk to look at them all. We opted to stay in a three bed cabin to give ourselves some space for a night haha.
the next day, we were set to start kayaking. After our briefing, repacking, etc. etc. we were back on the track, only this time we were in the water! It was beautiful. There were a couple islands that we paddled out to and we listened to the birds, and watched sea lions play on the rocks. It was fun to be on the water, I thought i was in a completely different place. We got to our campsite at night and there were 6 more guys from dunedin staying there as well. They were also from the states- so we hung out with them for the evening. It was a blast. we sat around talking. I talked with a boy who biked across america with his members of the same fraternity from all over the states and raised all this money for his philanthrophy. I love hearing stories about what other people do... definitely makes my before-i-die-list extremely long though. haha. That is my favorite part about traveling, meeting all these cool people. At night we heard these loud crying sounds, so we decided to grab our torches and go explore. We went in a cave on the beach and there were glowworms! and then we figured out the crying sound were penguins!! We were on the beach in the middle of nature watching penguins... it was awesome.
The next day we got back in our kayaks and it was rainy and windy. The swells were over 2 feet and hard to paddle in. We did out best in the rain and had fun, but Chris had a lot of trouble keeping balance in the single kayak. He went to the beach and we continued kayaking because we wanted to go to split apple rock. Going there was easy, but as soon as we took a picture, lynsey and I turned around and saw a black sky, pouring rain, and white caps (4 ft swells)... oh no. we just looked at eaachother in pure panic. We did our best and maneuvered back... haha it took awhile and we were exhausted, cold, and wet. haha. At night, we were back in nelson and we took warm showers. Much appreciated after 6 days without one. then we went out to eat and had delicious, real food. yummm... There is nothing like the feeling of enjoying a good meal after camping.
The next day we went east to picton. Lynsey and I took a mailboat cruise in the marlborough sounds. It was fun, we delivered mail to people living in this remote area. People lived in these houses, without neighbors, and no road to drive out of... all by boat! talk about isolation... We got to see dolphins on our way back in. At night, we styaed at the sweetest hostel with our friends david, john and laura. We had a blast. We all cooked dinner and just hung around listening to music. At 8 the hostel gave us free chocolate pudding (it was more like cake) and then we went in the hot tub. We had a big sleepover in our room and stayed up talking, it was a blast to hang out with them.
Lynsey and I were headed to Blenheim to do a wine tour the next day. We found a hostel and started our wine tour by bike around 1. We had four hours and hundreds of wineries on a map. We visited seven in that time. It was a blast! The wineries were beautiful, the wine was amazing, and the people were great. The vineyards were right infront of the mountains, and it was so sunny! We actually ran into the four boys from dunedin that we met in the beginning of our hike... they were doing the tours by bike as well! haha. small place. We didnt feel the effects of our alcohol intake because we biked so much inbetween, but it sure was a blast.
At night we went out to eat and hung out at our hostel. We met people that were living/working in the area... they were all travelers, but they have been in new zealand for awhile, just working for a week and then traveling to the next place. It is crazy to think about all these people just leaving for a couple years to explore a new place. I asked a guy if he liked doiing it and he said, "yea, its great... sometimes its lonely and i wish my friends were here, but they will be there when I get back and i wouldnt exchange this experience for anything." Its not like these people are just traveling, they are living by traveling. Lynsey and I had a good laugh that we had an itinerary for a 12 day vaca and these people don't have one for years. haha...
The next day we took a bus to kaikoura. It was really foggy out and windy. We went and swam with the dolphins. There is a huge crater in the ocean floor, producing nutrients, which brings all the large mammals closer to the shore. We were in wet suits (once again, the ocean water is FREEZING!) and we would sit on the back of the boat. The captain would toot a little horn and we woudl jump in the water. We swam in circles, sang songs, and attracted the dolphins. They would swim right past us or in circles around us. It wasn't like sea world, we didnt grab their fins or touch them. These were wild dolphins, unfed, untrained, living in their natural habitat! It was awesome. at one point, I had three dolphins just swimming around me! haha... at night, lynsey and I went out for thai food and then watched a movie- we were exhausted!
And that concludes my amazing break! I came back and told my kiwihost that I needed to catch up on life. a phrase, I often use... she laughed and said, "it seems to me that you were just living life and now you need to catch up on all your sh*t. this isn't life. what you were doing the past week was life."
i'll end on that note!
Pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2075908&id=21105072&l=4b9a0627bb
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2075912&id=21105072&l=61dd79ce80
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Mt. Somers
I just got back from a weekend trip with a couple of friends. It was a blast!
On Friday, we packed up and left around one. John, Julie, Laura, and I planned to do a tramp (hike) 4 hours north of Dunedin. John brought along his guitar, Baby Blue (its a bright blue guitar), and played us tunes in the backseat. He just bought the guitar off trade-me and is learning how to play... haha, he likes to sing too- ill have to upload a video of this. On the way, We stopped at the boulders and played around. We all set our cameras on one boulder, started our timers, and sprinted to the other boulders to take a picture of ourselves. We looked like nuts trying to run and jump on the other boulders. Some of the pictures were hilarious. Then we continued our journey north to Mt. Somers Holiday Park, where we camped for the night. We set up our tents and then made a delicious dinner. We made chicken stirfry with fresh vegetables and rice... yum. We drank some wine, played the guitar, looked at the stars, and called it a night. It was a little chilly at night so we opted to squeeze into one tent and cuddle to stay warm.
The next morning we woke up, and Julie made us oatmeal (with brown sugar, cinnamin and apples!). Then we piled into the car and headed to the trail head. [Side story: Laura bought an old car in NZ and she has been having trouble with the battery. She took it to a mechanic who realized that her battery was draining her power when it wasn't on, so he installed an on/off switch on her battery. So anytime we wanted to turn the car on, Laura had to say, "Can you pop the hood? I need to turn my car on." For some reason, I thought this was hilarious. I am still laughing about it. I love that this is completely acceptable in new zealand.] So we got to the trail head and decided to do the tramp the opposite way so that our long day was on Saturday, not Sunday. When we started hiking, John and Julie were moving quite quickly, and Laura and I were falling behind. After about a half hour, Laura and I told them to go ahead and do the summit climb (it was a turnoff of the path and an hour climb straight up to the top of Mt.Somers) and we would meet. The plan was to either meet them at the bottom or put an x over their packs if we were moving on (climbers leave their packs at the bottom of the summit just off the track because it is hard to climb with all that weight). So after a good hour, we come across a sign that says distances/times and start taking pictures with our shadows... We only saw one path so we started hiking. It was a straight path up hill (over loose rocks). We were dying! At points we were on all fours trying to climb up. We stopped a couple times and opened the guide book trying to figure out if we were on the right path. It said the summit was well marked with orange poles and rocks... well we looked around and we were surrounded by orange poles and rocks. We started to worry, but didnt want to turn back incase it was the right path. After a good hour and a half of this intense climb, we saw john and julie at the top (without packs haha). We screamed up and this is how our conversation went:
us: ARE WE ON THE SUMMIT?!
them: Yes, were on the summit.
us: NO ARE WE ON THE SUMMIT?
them: YES
us: $%&%#$#@#!!!!!!!
So they came down and met us... We had a good laugh that we just climbed the summit with packs (no sane person does this) and had no clue that we were even on the summit. We missed the sign and their packs! oh lord! the summit is 1687 meters, and we climbed a good portion of it. this is what the guide book says about the climb "No matter where you begin, this is a demanding climb for phsycailly fit trampers with experience in New Zealand's mountains." haha. story of our trip! We had to slide down the rocks, which was not an easy task with our packs on. We were slipping all over the place. We arrived at the bottom to see the big sign and their packs, literally in the middle of the path.
We continued on because we had another good 6 hours until we arrived at the hut. About an hour in, we wanted to stop for lunch and heard from other trampers that there was a little rest hut closeby... well we got tired before that and John said we should go 15 more minutes and then stop if we dont see the hut. We got impatient and stopped before then (I dont think i could have moved another leg without some food for energy)... John refilled our water bottles (yes right from the stream) and got attacked by a bird! haha. It was shaking its tailfeathers at him... oh it was one of those days! So we continued on after lunch and what do you know... ten minutes later we found the hut! haha.
We continued hiking the rest of the day and had beautiful mountain views! it was epic, but the climb was hard. There were so many up/down hills... I thought my legs were going to give out. There was one point where we saw a cliff face and were taking pictures, only to realize 20 minutes later that we were climbing it! I almost cried. haha. We finally arrived at the hut just before it got pitch black (after 10 hours of hiking) to find it was family fun night at the hut. All these little kids running around. The huts in nz are awesome. They have tables, bathrooms, a fire, sinks, and beds and it is pretty cheap. We went to make dinner and our stove didnt work (go figure) haha but a nice lady let us use hers to make some pasta. We went to bed shortly after, we were beat! Sleeping with 20 people in one room reminded me of the cold dorm back at Theta. It was like two long rows on bunk beds all conjoined. haha. It was great, except for the fact that 5/20 people snored, so we had a little band playing through the night.
Since it was daylight savings, we woke up extra early to get a head start on our day. We were sore. We found these cool rocks that were carved out by water and then continued on our day of hiking. it was extremely windy today so we were happy that we did the route the opposite way (otherwise we would have been swept away!) You would lift your leg to walk, and the wind would put it somewhere else. We were tripping all over the place... haha. These are the times I wish i had a video camera. After descending for awhile, we were in a rainforest, next to a river. It was beautiful! But we kept slipping and sliding becasue our feet got wet in the rivers and then we were climbing rocks. I had a couple nice bruises from falls- it was a good laugh once again. We made great timing and arrived in the parking lot around 1:30 (only about 6 hours of hiking today). We changed clothes and headed out. We stopped at mcdonalds to feast on some good food (notice our translation of good food). haha.
I got back to my flat last night and just layed around and watched greys and private practice. nz is starting to finally catch up to the spot in the season right before i left. In two weeks, I will be seeing the episodes that I missed! woot woot.
Today I am catching up on school work, etc and I leave on Thursday for mid-semester break!
Check out my pictures from the hike and some from dunedin (copy and paste the link):
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2074927&id=21105072&l=63b1bf0eb0
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2074957&id=21105072&l=79fda584c8
On Friday, we packed up and left around one. John, Julie, Laura, and I planned to do a tramp (hike) 4 hours north of Dunedin. John brought along his guitar, Baby Blue (its a bright blue guitar), and played us tunes in the backseat. He just bought the guitar off trade-me and is learning how to play... haha, he likes to sing too- ill have to upload a video of this. On the way, We stopped at the boulders and played around. We all set our cameras on one boulder, started our timers, and sprinted to the other boulders to take a picture of ourselves. We looked like nuts trying to run and jump on the other boulders. Some of the pictures were hilarious. Then we continued our journey north to Mt. Somers Holiday Park, where we camped for the night. We set up our tents and then made a delicious dinner. We made chicken stirfry with fresh vegetables and rice... yum. We drank some wine, played the guitar, looked at the stars, and called it a night. It was a little chilly at night so we opted to squeeze into one tent and cuddle to stay warm.
The next morning we woke up, and Julie made us oatmeal (with brown sugar, cinnamin and apples!). Then we piled into the car and headed to the trail head. [Side story: Laura bought an old car in NZ and she has been having trouble with the battery. She took it to a mechanic who realized that her battery was draining her power when it wasn't on, so he installed an on/off switch on her battery. So anytime we wanted to turn the car on, Laura had to say, "Can you pop the hood? I need to turn my car on." For some reason, I thought this was hilarious. I am still laughing about it. I love that this is completely acceptable in new zealand.] So we got to the trail head and decided to do the tramp the opposite way so that our long day was on Saturday, not Sunday. When we started hiking, John and Julie were moving quite quickly, and Laura and I were falling behind. After about a half hour, Laura and I told them to go ahead and do the summit climb (it was a turnoff of the path and an hour climb straight up to the top of Mt.Somers) and we would meet. The plan was to either meet them at the bottom or put an x over their packs if we were moving on (climbers leave their packs at the bottom of the summit just off the track because it is hard to climb with all that weight). So after a good hour, we come across a sign that says distances/times and start taking pictures with our shadows... We only saw one path so we started hiking. It was a straight path up hill (over loose rocks). We were dying! At points we were on all fours trying to climb up. We stopped a couple times and opened the guide book trying to figure out if we were on the right path. It said the summit was well marked with orange poles and rocks... well we looked around and we were surrounded by orange poles and rocks. We started to worry, but didnt want to turn back incase it was the right path. After a good hour and a half of this intense climb, we saw john and julie at the top (without packs haha). We screamed up and this is how our conversation went:
us: ARE WE ON THE SUMMIT?!
them: Yes, were on the summit.
us: NO ARE WE ON THE SUMMIT?
them: YES
us: $%&%#$#@#!!!!!!!
So they came down and met us... We had a good laugh that we just climbed the summit with packs (no sane person does this) and had no clue that we were even on the summit. We missed the sign and their packs! oh lord! the summit is 1687 meters, and we climbed a good portion of it. this is what the guide book says about the climb "No matter where you begin, this is a demanding climb for phsycailly fit trampers with experience in New Zealand's mountains." haha. story of our trip! We had to slide down the rocks, which was not an easy task with our packs on. We were slipping all over the place. We arrived at the bottom to see the big sign and their packs, literally in the middle of the path.
We continued on because we had another good 6 hours until we arrived at the hut. About an hour in, we wanted to stop for lunch and heard from other trampers that there was a little rest hut closeby... well we got tired before that and John said we should go 15 more minutes and then stop if we dont see the hut. We got impatient and stopped before then (I dont think i could have moved another leg without some food for energy)... John refilled our water bottles (yes right from the stream) and got attacked by a bird! haha. It was shaking its tailfeathers at him... oh it was one of those days! So we continued on after lunch and what do you know... ten minutes later we found the hut! haha.
We continued hiking the rest of the day and had beautiful mountain views! it was epic, but the climb was hard. There were so many up/down hills... I thought my legs were going to give out. There was one point where we saw a cliff face and were taking pictures, only to realize 20 minutes later that we were climbing it! I almost cried. haha. We finally arrived at the hut just before it got pitch black (after 10 hours of hiking) to find it was family fun night at the hut. All these little kids running around. The huts in nz are awesome. They have tables, bathrooms, a fire, sinks, and beds and it is pretty cheap. We went to make dinner and our stove didnt work (go figure) haha but a nice lady let us use hers to make some pasta. We went to bed shortly after, we were beat! Sleeping with 20 people in one room reminded me of the cold dorm back at Theta. It was like two long rows on bunk beds all conjoined. haha. It was great, except for the fact that 5/20 people snored, so we had a little band playing through the night.
Since it was daylight savings, we woke up extra early to get a head start on our day. We were sore. We found these cool rocks that were carved out by water and then continued on our day of hiking. it was extremely windy today so we were happy that we did the route the opposite way (otherwise we would have been swept away!) You would lift your leg to walk, and the wind would put it somewhere else. We were tripping all over the place... haha. These are the times I wish i had a video camera. After descending for awhile, we were in a rainforest, next to a river. It was beautiful! But we kept slipping and sliding becasue our feet got wet in the rivers and then we were climbing rocks. I had a couple nice bruises from falls- it was a good laugh once again. We made great timing and arrived in the parking lot around 1:30 (only about 6 hours of hiking today). We changed clothes and headed out. We stopped at mcdonalds to feast on some good food (notice our translation of good food). haha.
I got back to my flat last night and just layed around and watched greys and private practice. nz is starting to finally catch up to the spot in the season right before i left. In two weeks, I will be seeing the episodes that I missed! woot woot.
Today I am catching up on school work, etc and I leave on Thursday for mid-semester break!
Check out my pictures from the hike and some from dunedin (copy and paste the link):
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2074927&id=21105072&l=63b1bf0eb0
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2074957&id=21105072&l=79fda584c8
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