Second hiking trip, part 2

Step by step we got closer to the top and reached the hut after three and a half hour, despite the fact that it had 50cm snow on the upper part of the track. We were the first ones today, but just a half an hour later the warden arrived at the hut too. He’s up here quite often and has climbed Mt. Cook several times. While we were cooking our lunch and trying to dry our socks and shoes, he cleaned the deck from the snow. We offered him some tea and therefore he told us about the possible peaks we could climb today or the next day. We decided to discover the way for tomorrow to Mt. Sealy and after two hours we return to the hut again, well not exactly, we went up on a ridge to look at the sunset. We had lots of time and waited over an hour, until the light was perfect for taking pictures. Up there we met our two Spanish guys again, who started after us, because they had arrived at the village this morning.
When we went back to the hut, however, it was almost full, with about twenty people and most of them would walk down again tomorrow. We had other plans and wanted to get up early the next day and follow our footprints until it would be bright enough.

My alarm clock rang at ten to six, so got up. Surprisingly I slept pretty good, although my sleeping bag’s comfort temperature is fifteen degrees. I wanted to wake up Victor, but he was disappeared with he’s mattress. I finally found him in the living/kitchen room beside the windows. He changed place because in the dorm were too many snoring people.
It was still dark outside and I took my camera to take some long exposure pictures. In the east I could see some brighter stars and I was sure these must be some planets. Later, a woman explained me they are Jupiter, Venus, Mars and Mercury and last weekend they were in one line and now they had already changed their place a bit.

Instead of walking in the dark we took pictures of the stars and the sunset. We finally started after seven o’clock and we went on fast. My legs felt tired and spite of leaving some clothes and the sleeping bag in the hut, my backpack wasn’t that light. After three hours we reached our turning point before Mt. Sealy, because we couldn’t cross the glacier safely enough. From there we had an amazing panorama and a great view down on the huge Annette plateau.
After that we walked down and looked for a good place, where we could cook with our little cooker. We ate pasta carbonara.

On the way back to hut we were even faster and so after six hours we arrived back at the hut. We cooked some food, which was left and we would have to carry it down, when we don’t eat it. This was also the place were we attached the crampons and axes back at the backpack, we wouldn’t use them anymore. At three o’clock we left the hut and went down to the car, where we met a staff member of the DOC (department of conservation), who had driven to the car park and looked now for returning hikers. We brought back our rental equipment and finally drove back to Queenstown.

Second hiking trip, part 1

This time, Victor, Jakub (Czech), Alex (F), Roman (Slovak), Liar (ESP), Shabby (ESP) and I went to Mt. Cook. The journey started on Thursday, when we went to Small Planet to rent crampons and axes. We had asked the day before and wanted now to pick them up, but unfortunately it wasn’t possible! They’ll film a commercial at the weekend, so they didn’t want to rent any equipment. Disappointed, we went back to school and looked for a store in Mt. Cook village, found it and called. The only problem now was that we had to be there before half past four, because the shop is closed by then.
On Friday, we went to school with our stuff and left it at twelve to catch the next bus to the airport. There we picked up the keys and started our drive to Mt. Cook village. At four o’clock we arrived there just in time to get our stuff. After we had signed in for the hut we drove to Mt. Cook Lodge, where we stayed this night. It cost 33 bucks, which was good because this accommodation is something between backpacker and hotel: It has a customer kitchen and you could have a random room mate, but it also has a bar (with beer) and each room has its own bathroom.
Shabby and Liar had to go to Dunedin to pick up their exam results and they would join us tomorrow at the hut.
We got up at six, ate toast bread with Nutella and drove to the car park. There we looked for the beginning of our track and started finally at seven o’clock. A steep, tiny way leads up to the top of this mountain range…

First hiking trip

On this weekend, Victor, Carina and I took a trip to Matukituki Valley.
On Friday, at twelve o’clock, we started our trip and drove to Wanaka. There we got the tickets for Mt. Aspirin Hut, bought some food and had lunch in our favourite café.
The way to the car park, however, was longer than expected and in a difficult condition. In the last kilometres of the gravel route we had to pass several fords, but this was not really a problem with Carina’s a 4 WD Subaru car.
As soon as we started to walk it began to rain. I was glad that I changed my Jeans to Shorts, which could dry beside a fire. Because of the rain we didn’t get on fast and it got dark. In the distance we could see a light from a hut and we walked towards it. Completely wet we knocked at the door and asked if we could stay here, because the hut was quite small, just two rooms with a fireplace and four beds each. After few minutes we’ve had a good fire, put off our wet clothes and dry one on and warmed us up at the fire. We cooked soup and pasta and ate them with Ciabatta bread. Because of the lack of light we wet to bed early and talked until we slept.

We were woken up by a strange noise in the morning. I supposed that it could be a bird and stood up. When I walked outside I could see an almost clear sky, the beautiful mountains, which are covered on the top with snow and a big Kea on the roof. They aren’t shy and try to eat everything they could find!

We ate what we could find in our bags, which were toast bread, salami and Nutella. We went on to the Mt. Aspirin Hut, which we reached after 35min. There we saw that our original way to the Cascade Saddle was snowed in and not passable without crampons. So we decided to go to another hut three hours away. The track was pretty good and led us through the bush. Unfortunately it rained and we got wet again. After one and a half hour we had to decide if we should get on to the hut, which is might not suitable to stay in autumn, or to go back and stay in Mt. Aspirin hut. Of course we decided to go back and tried to dry our clothes (again). The wood wasn’t really good and it took us a long time until we had a good fire. However, we spent the whole afternoon sitting by the fire and eating paste, and bread.

We were preparing our dinner, when we saw a light coming closer to the hut. To our all surprise, there was a family coming with bikes. They were all wet and it was quite cold outside too. We offered them the place in front of the oven and went on cooking our dinner. The family turned out to be a father with his three children and his former Aupair with her boyfriend. The last ones are from Germany, while the family used to live in bay of island and moved this year to Wanaka.
After all had eaten enough and the youngest one’s fell asleep we played a card game called “Oh hell!”:
First you get one card and after you’ve looked at it you bet if you win this turn. If you’re right, you get five points, if not, you loose ten points. You win a turn, when you have the highest card, including trumps. Every round the number of cards is increasing until you have seven cards, then it gets back until you have one card again. So with every round the number of turns increase as well and the chances to win more points.
After all, we got to back late and slept in until half past eight. The weather was good this morning and we had a good trip back to the car, despite the fact that the ground was wet and sooner or later our shoes too. We drove back to Queenstown and ate a Fergburger in Kiwi style: in shorts and bar feet. While we were eating a good amount of beef and drinking a beer, it started to rain! After a whole sunny weekend in Queenstown, it started to rain when we came back. But this couldn’t stop us to eat a cookie at Cookie Time, before Carina drove me and Victor home.

7th weekend

The weather forecast for the weekend was bad; it should rain the next days. In fact of that I looked for another activity then hiking and came across to Bungee Jumping. I heard during the week that it will be a special offer for locals this weekend and so I ask how local you have to be to get the discount (amazingly 50%). The answer was longer then three months, I’ll stay here for three and a half - perfect! I got a confirmation from the school and went to the agency to book for Saturday afternoon. Victor wanted to come with me just as a spectator, but for this you have to pay 50 bucks, which was too much for him.
After dinner we met us in town to go out and during the night, he changed his mind and he will come with me on Saturday.
So, we met us on the next day at twelve in town and he booked his jump. Unfortunately, my group was booked out and he could only book for the group after me. The bus took forty minutes from Queenstown to the Bungy location, called Nevis. Dam is that huge! I put my jacket off, the harness on and had to check my weight again (Oh, I put weight on in NZ!). They started with the heaviest ones and I had to wait, even thought I was heavier than usual. With the second last group I got out to the platform, waited and could see how the others jumped. After a while I got some ankle scuffs and few minutes later I took seat on “the special chair”. They connect the elastic rope to the harness and explained me, how I could release my feet after the jump, to make the coming up more comfortable.

With little steps, (my feet were connected together) I walked to the edge, a quick look down, an “are you ready?” and then 3-2-1-JUMP!

Whooo-hoo!
The first seconds were amazing! I just realised that I’d really jumped and I was still falling – over eight seconds! First rebounce, second rebounce, released my feet by pulling on a red wire and enjoyed sitting fifty meters above the Kawarau River. With a second rope they pulled me up, back to the platform while I could recover from the jump (and adrenalin).

6th week; weekend

This Saturday I stood up at half past eight and felt great (I’m young enough to go out and still be fit at the next day ;-) ). I took the bus at half past ten to Arrowtown with Daniela and Vincenzo, who I met at the bus hub in Frankton.
The reason of this trip to Arrowtown (about 10km away from Frankton) was the annual autumn festival. There was a big market with different stuff to buy or to eat. Furthermore, there were some buskers, a street artist, different kind of live music and for the younger one’s any kind of bikes, except a normal one.
Arrowtown itself is quite small with two important streets, surrounded with shops, take aways and restaurants. On the board of the town is a lovely brook, where they found gold in the early days.
At two o’clock was the parade, with vintage cars, floats for every local clubs and stores and the popular can-can dancers. It was by no means serious, so both the queen and the new married couple were attended. After that a Celtic group performed on the green. They played several songs, such as cover songs from the Beatles and other known songs and it was interesting listen to the bagpipes.
At four the main event was over and we took the next bus back, or better, we wanted to take the next bus. It seemed that the bus company wasn’t prepared for this event and it took a long time until another bus arrived.

At the evening we had dinner in town, to say goodbye to Vincenzo but we didn’t go out long and took a regular bus back home.

On Sunday I met Anna and Anya, who comes also from Germany, and we took the steam ship to visit a local farm. The steamship was really nice and I had seen it many times before in the harbour of Queenstown. Despite the fact that the farm is very touristy it’s still worth to visit. You get a good impression of a sheep farm and they didn’t forget tea time, with something to eat and drink!
There were some sheep, Alpacas and deer. But the most amazing thing was to look at a sheep dog while he’s working. Even when he sat down on the ground, he stared at the sheep, which didn’t risk moving.
So after all, it was a good and interesting but lazy weekend with no sport activities at all.
Hope I can improve that on the next weekend!

6th week

It was only a short, 4 days week, but still too long after such an amazing trip!
The weather was nice during the week and so I spent my time visiting Queenstown Gardens, went running and did paragliding on Thursday and Friday.

On Friday evening I went out with Victor, Vincenzo, three Thai teachers and Gregor, who will leave Queenstown tomorrow. This was the main reason to go out (and to avoid seeing the weeding on TV). I was late, because my first bus passed by without picking me up, while I was standing at the bus stop, waving with my arms!
After the typical locations, the Thai people went home and we changed to a new bar with a large fireplace outside. It was so warm near the fire that we moved the bench back, after our first Cuba Libre. Another beer and a Jägermeister later the others didn’t feel very well and so we took the one o’clock bus, after a quick rest at Fergburger.