Mother Nature shows off - Week 3 in NZ
As I wrote this out I realized that I should probably do a little blurb on Will so you know a bit about the person I’m spending 24/7 with.
Will is from London, born and raised, but he’ll tell you he’s Welsh. He’s 28 and worked in film before coming to NZ to visit family, family friends, and hike and work.He LOVES cereal bars and sweets; We’ve gotten into some bad candy snacking habits because of it. He knows everything it seems… especially about birds and nature. He claims he doesn’t know much, but literally every time we are out hiking he’s naming birds. I’ve learned a ton from him, and also laughed a ton with him; He’s hilarious, both in a dry British humor kind of way, and in dumb jokes that are somehow clever kind of way.
Anywho! As expected, the morning of February 24th we woke up to rain. Though I can appreciate a good rainy day at home: being cozy on the couch with Ayla, reading books or watching tv, drinking tea, staying in comfy clothes, etc., I wasn’t too stoked on the idea of a whole day of pouring down rain. We’d known this was coming though so we planned a drive day from Fox Glacier to Wānaka, a town everyone said you absolutely couldn’t miss.
The drive to Haast was uneventful, but after Haast… My goodness was I glad it was raining. Haast Pass, which follows the Haast River, is a lush green canyon with waterfalls quite literally everywhere you look: high up on the mountain, far off in the distance, right next to the car. I had never seen so many waterfalls, and I was just at Iguazú!
Around most bends, we were met with water coming off the mountains and hills directly onto the road, making the drive feel like we were in some sort of water experience at a theme park.
Will kept making fun of me for stopping in the middle of the road to look up and out, mouth agape, I think probably because he was worried, but I always checked if there were cars behind beforehand. Plus, it would have been unfair if he got all the views while I just drove!
We stopped a few times to get out and walk to specific waterfalls I’d bookmarked beforehand because they’d come recommended or looked amazing in Google map photos. With all the extra water, they were overflowing, powerful, and creating weather all their own. It was magnificent.
Once through the pass, Wanaka was a different weather story completely, sunny, clear, and beautiful.
One of the primary things to do in Wanaka other than lake activities is Roy’s Peak, a 5-mile, 4300’ ascent, for sunrise. It sounded like our kind of hike, and a pretty beautiful way to start the day! Will’s hostel clerk had told us that it takes 3-ish hours to get up, but “strong hikers” can do it in 2 or so. Wanting as much sleep as possible, and probably being a bit too sure of ourselves, we claimed 2-ish was fine and got to the trailhead at 4:35 am, with sunrise scheduled for 6:45. Worst. Idea. Ever.
Walking straight uphill in the dark and cold was downright miserable and I suffered, a lot. Not giving ourselves any buffer time meant that we had to keep a steady pace and couldn’t really take breaks. Mistake number 1.
Maybe if I had eaten literally anything beforehand, it wouldn’t have been so bad and I’d have felt more energized and capable. But I hadn’t (Mistake #2), and a mile in I got sick and we had to stop (quickly) so I could inhale half my peanut butter and honey sandwich. Few things have tasted so good.
Though I felt somewhat better after some fuel, the trudge up the mountain continued to be basically no fun the entire rest of the way. Will said that was relatively obvious because of my dead-silence almost the whole time… except my occasional sad comment on how far away all the headlamps towards the top were. He tried to lift my spirits by reframing them as little glowworms we were following, paying homage to our time in Hokitika. It somewhat worked. Bless his heart.
We made it to the viewpoint, which cruelly enough is NOT the top, and I got a view of Mt Aspiring. My mood changed immediately; I love me some mountains. It was beautiful, and that meant I was almost there!
We made it to the top, where, of course, it was windy and cold. I’d learned by now to bring dry layers to change into, so I did a quick change and hunkered down on the hill with Will to watch the event we and the other 40 people up there had worked so hard to see. It was a good sunrise, shared with lots of other whiny, cold people who couldn’t feel their fingers, and then we headed down. I wish I had more, but it was just that, a good sunrise after a very not good hike up. The morning hasn’t quite turned into Type 2 fun* in my mind yet, apparently.
*type 2 fun is something that’s not fun while it’s happening, but after it’s done you think of it and remember it as fun.
The rest of the day was spent around town, eating - I had so much ice cream that day- and hanging with Pierre, finally!
A new day typically meant a new place, and so we headed to the Aoraki/Mt Cook area to see the landmark of all landmarks for New Zealand. We planned to camp and to do the Mueller hut hike as a day hike. Mueller hut is often booked out for months, because it’s on top of a mountain with sweeping views of Mt Cook, Mt Sefton, and the surrounding mountains and glaciers.
We arrived to one of the most stunning camp spots I’ve had the pleasure of staying at, close enough to the base of Mt Sefton that we could actively watch hanging glacier avalanches from our table.
The weather was beautiful and it was late enough that all the day trippers were gone, but early enough that we had lots of daylight, so we figured we would do the Hooker Valley track, which takes you 3.5 miles through the valley toward Mt Cook and to a glacier lake. It was an easy walk and one stunning way to spend the end of a driving day.
Will touched his first piece of glacier ice, and I perfected my rock skipping. Most notably, I taught him the card game Cambio that night. It became a staple in our evenings and a great way to pass the time and talk smack.
Then it was Mueller hut day! All our other hikes had surely prepared us for 6 miles round trip and 3500’ of elevation gain… sure thing, if the first half of the hike hadn’t been 2200 stairs. Literally. The only saving grace was the views while we stopped to catch our breath and the slight cloud cover that kept us cool-ish.
The second half was just as up, just all rocky and no stairs. It hurt, like every other hike we’d done, and we wondered why we continued to do this to ourselves.
When we got to the top we really wondered, because the view was completely covered by clouds. Again.
We chose to hang out in the hut for a bit and see if they would clear, knowing rain was forecasted for later and that it wasn’t likely. We got a tiny glimpse for a minute, just behind what I assume is the most magical place to pee in the world.
The clouds up top never cleared enough for us to see the panoramic views, and so after lunch we headed down. Luckily, the clouds down low were mostly gone and we got sweeping valley views at least.
While in the hut I wrecked my puffy while trying to make hot water to stay warm. I held the very hot pot lid to my chest and melted away the front of my jacket, leaving 4 gaping holes from which the down continues to escape. I tried to patch it with tape from the hut and then back at the car, with superglue, but it looks a mess and definitely needs a proper patch job.
Sadly, our time at Mt Cook was done, and after a second night at the campground from heaven, we headed out to Clyde, where Pierre lives. We were overdue for some showers, and very ready to do laundry and cook with a real stove.
Along the way we detoured to Lake Tekapo, which is known for its blue waters, geothermal activity, and amazing stargazing opportunities. Being there during the day, we missed out on the latter, but the water lived up to the hype.
Once in Clyde and clean, we went into planning mode. The rain was coming again and both Will and I had impending flights to other places. Our time was limited and coming to an end and we wanted to try to get as much in together as we could!
After much going back and forth, and anxiety on my part about doing something difficult with bad weather coming (one of the options was longer and more difficult than anything we’d done yet), we settled on two nights doing the Routeburn Track, one of NZ’s Great Walks. We thought we were settling for the less ideal of the options, sacrificing views and type 2 fun adventure hiking for dryness and safety, and we couldn’t not have been any more wrong.