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