Milford Sound and a Snowy Trek

As Sunday evening falls upon us here in Hamilton, I must say that this was my favorite weekend here thus far. Although not having classes for four days can get a little boring around here, by Saturday you can find things to do and people to do them with. Especially in the warmer months. It was a warm and sunny weekend here, so we decided to finally check out the famous Hamilton Gardens. It also happened to be Spanish Heritage Day at the gardens, so that gave us a good excuse to go. Ive never been to such beautiful gardens. I think as the weather gets warmer I might go back just to relax and enjoy the beauty. Because of the cultural celebration there were also a lot of ethnic food vendors, which was great. Saturday night we went to a house party before heading out to the bars for the evening. It was definitely one of the more fun nights that I have had here. And today we went to the local pub to watch the local minor league Rugby team play. All in all it was a really fun weekend. I hope the weekends following will be similar.

Back to spring break....

When I last left off, we were about to head to Milford Sound. In order to get to Milford, you have to go through a series of mountains. Its a long windy road out to the sound, but the views are nothing short of spectacular. You come on to the famous Milford Road with the mountains staring you in the face. The buses that take you out to the Sound are specially equipped with glass roofs, because everything you want to see is staring down at you. We witnessed waterfalls and avalanches, snowfall and rainfall. Its a place unlike anywhere that you have ever been before. To get to the sound itself, you must go through a long tunnel underneath one of the mountains. Its one lane, and if you don't ride right in the middle, you risk clipping your car or bus on the roof. Its a place bustling with wildlife. The call of the world's only mountain parrot, the Kea, cut through the serene silence. And the water is so clear and fresh, that it is good luck to drink it straight from the river. But through it all, the sound remains the crown jewel.

Milford Sound is probably New Zealand's biggest tourist attraction. Cruises are constantly leaving the port and heading out into the sound. Walker and I had our reservations. We weren't as thrilled about the tourist attractions and found that the little side trips and activities could generally be much better. But for all of the hype, this place lives up to it. You are constantly surrounded by penguins, seals and dolphins. Look up and waterfalls are cascading off of the giant cliffs around you. Moss and rainbows are everywhere. If there was ever a place that has been so obviously touched by the hand of God, it was here. As I mentioned a few posts ago, we had spectacular weather when it mattered most, and our trip to Milford was no exception.

After we finished soaking that all it, we headed back to Te Anau. Te Anau lays half way between Queenstown and Milford. There is not much to do in the town itself, but it is surrounded by three of New Zealand's "Great Walks." The Milford, Kepler and Routeburn tracks all either start or end in Te Anau. When Walker spent the night at Abel Tasman he met some other college students that had recently done the Kepler Track and spoke very highly of it. I could tell that after he heard about it, there was nothing that he wanted to do more. I had my doubts. I had read a book about all of the Great Walks and Kepler never really stuck out to me. But in the end, I figured they all must be spectacular and it would be worth doing. Besides, there is nothing cheap to keep me busy in Queenstown, and I could probably use the exercise after all the partying anyways. So we hopped off the bus in Te Anau, found a hostel to stay in, and planned to head up Mt. Luxmore-the first leg of the Kepler track-the next day.

There was just one problem. Snow, and quite a bit of it, was predicted for the top of the mountain and we were not sure if the DOC would let us head out. We figured we would go there first the next morning and make sure it was still feasible.

When we checked in the next morning, they had no problem letting us head up. The reports had gotten a little less intense over the night so it looked as if we were in the clear. We headed to pick up some rental gear, but that took a little longer than expected. For a 14k uphill trek, time was now working against us. We were about to call it quits, but remembered that there was a water taxi service that could cut us across the lake and cut 6k (all of the flat stuff) off of our walk and drop us at the bottom of the mountain. We ended utilizing the service, and began our hike just after lunch.

The 8.4k we had left to do was not easy. It was literally all uphill. At no point did it level out. Switchback after switchback, we slowly worked our way up the mountain. The forest was cool, but nothing to really marvel at. When we finally got to the top of the treeline, it started to sleet. This made the forest look truly enchanted, and it was an awesome site to see. When we exited the treeline, however, we were in for a rude awakening. It had started to snow, and the weather was only picking up. We were soon caught in a tunnel of howling wind and a decent amount of snow. As a Boston kid, a little snow never bothers me. But this was different. At the bottom, it was a mild late winter day. Now we were dealing with freezing temperatures and frozen faces. But we pressed on, despite not being able to see to our left and right. About an hour later we made it to the hut. Luckily a pleasant German fellow had already started a fire and we were able to warm up pretty quickly. When the snow finally stopped, it was quite a site. A true winter wonderland surrounded us.

Our night at the hut was pretty uneventful. We played cards and made some hotdogs, and then woke up the next morning to no fire and bitter cold. We booked our way back down the mountain (14k this time) and made it back to town by lunch. We just relaxed for the rest of the day until our bus came that evening.

We headed back to Queenstown for one more night of mayhem. The next morning, we would be off for the final leg of our journey.


Have a wonderful week!

Wilson

Next time: Lake Tekapo, Christchurch, and the All Blacks game!