Day tripping

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Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore. We took a day hike in Mount Cook National Park on a perfect day with beautiful views.  Two rangers recommended it to us as “easy” with fabulous views of Mount Cook and the glacial valley.

Well, if you climb high enough, everything is beautiful. And climb we did. Straight up boulders and timber stairs. For two hours. There is something about getting to the top that makes it better.
I guess it is about getting there.

Besides there aren’t many tramping options. This park is for serious mountain climbers with all the gear. People fall off the cliffs with some regularity.
We heard and saw two avalanches and Tim watched a glacier calve.

Our view

Lord of the rings?

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Our last day on the Milford Track was a bit of a slog.  We had a boat to catch, our longest walk, 11 miles, in the rain and met a local celebrity along the way.  Maybe. I thought he was a sweet old man on the track who I hadn’t slept with.  (I slept with our group of forty hikers for three nights).

He was very helpful and told us where we were most likely to slip on the wet rocks and fall off a cliff into the Arthur River.  Then he told us to stop because he was going to make a loud noise.

He pulled a ram’s horn out of his pack and blew into it.  The echo reverberated for nine seconds in the canyon.  He tod us he made the horns for the movie and helped rock climbers set up the cameras. Then he walked with me for about a mile.  Later, Tim pointed out  he wasn’t wearing any pants.  He did have gaiters on though.
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Post Milford Track

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We are relaxing after our four day, 33  mile walk on the Milford Sound. We experienced two days of rain and debated the meaning of the forecast: showers clearing or showers, clearing.  Either way, we got wet.  

I didn’t tackle side trips so opted  not to climb McKinnon Pass, elevation 1000+ meters, when the sky was clear the day before we really had to climb it. It was clouded over by the time I got there the next day and then we had to climb down it.

Naturally, my camera broke for good on the boat ride across Lake Te Anau en route to the start of the walk and I was left with only my phone.

We slept in huts with 38 other walkers.  I won a top bunk most nights, which was a challenge to get out of in the middle of the night.  I am looking forward to the Routeburn Track, where we get to share a bed with eight other people.  But tonight, a hot shower, glass of wine, private bed and lots of ibuprofen.

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Away we go

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We are heading out for the first of our two long walks.  The first on the Milford track, from Lake Te Anau to Milford Sound, will take four days to travel about 50 kms.  

The brochure says to expect rain one day but it looks like we hit the jackpot and may get wet three days. Then the weather should be “mainly fine” during the five days on the Routeburn track. We bought all our food and will drop half at the start of the walk.  I won’t be writing about these meals.
Lake Te Anau

If this Wednesday, it must be Te Anau

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Our travel pace has quickened. We saw five cities and towns in five days.  We are among people and germs  again and we both caught colds.  We saw Launceston, Hobart, Auckland, Queenstown and Te Anau, where we are poised  to begin our walk on the Milford Track.    

We littered New Zealand with our stuff.  We downsized in Auckland and left our huge duffel bags.  We left a change of clothes in Queenstown.  Now we have the clothes on our backs and a spare set…for the next fourteen days. I’ve learned not to care when camping because I do not want to carry the weight of extra clothes.  So much for my sense of style.  I did bring a spare set of earrings, however.

It will be enough to carry all this delicious freeze dried food.

Freeze dried food

Hello New Zealand

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We flew over the Bass Strait yesterday and saw Deal Island out the window. Now we are in beautiful Queenstown, New Zealand where planes, helicopters and hang gliders are constantly flying overhead.

I hope we will leave this behing when we hike the Milford and Routeburn tracks over the next couple of weeks. I look forward to Lord of the Ring vistas. I spoke with guides here an there are no snakes, leeches or toxic spiders.

I guess the main challenge will be getting over the mountain passes.

Our last night in Tasmania

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We’ve said a lot of goodbyes lately. Goodbye to the islands of the Bass Strait-Deal, Dover, Erith and Flinders; goodbye to the people we met; and now goodbye to Tasmania after four wonderful months. We loved how people here know how to embrace life with clean air, wonderful food, beautiful water and islands.

We spent a few days outside Hobart and I got to visit a fiber guild and then a day of dyeing. I needed a fiber fix with ladies. I’ve spent a lot of time hanging out with guys this summer doing manly things.

The wildlife is different from Deal Island, but interesting nonetheless. I never got any good photos of the Black Swans in Hobart.

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These ladies laid some glorious eggs for breakfast.

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We spent a morning in the brand new MONA in Hobart, the Museum of Old and New Art, which displays an interesting private collection. Tim’s favorite was the poo machine, which mimic’s the human digestive tract. It’s fed twice daily and produces once a day like clockwork, with the aroma to prove it.

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Mine was the goldfish juxtaposed with a huge knife. P3170130.JPG  

Dunno about dunnies

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We spent our final day in the Kent Group demolishing a dunnie on Erith Island. We went over on the Strait Lady with a boatload of tools. Naturally, we had a lot of laughs because of the risk we were taking working around poo. I think a dunnie is only an outhouse. I don’t think I could ask for a dunnie in a restaurant but I dunno. (oop)s See what I mean?

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When we got back to Deal, Kim had made a delicious stew and later in the day, we had a lovely barbecue on the jetty and I had a chance to sample muttonbird, abalone and wallaby schnitzle. All were delicious and I can appreciate being able to live off the land and sea. I took my last walk along Barn Hill.

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We had almost as much fun as the night before when we ate outside in the rain. We finally gave in and went back up the hill, the rain stopped the moment we got there. But then the skies blazed red and orange during the sunset.

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The weather cooperated and we had a fairly smooth ride on the boat back to Flinders. We enjoyed our first meal in a restaurant and then, after an interview with ABC radio, flew out the next morning to Launceston.

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We were reminded there are some good things about city life.

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A beautiful ending

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We are poised to leave Deal island on the 15th of March. The Parks manager arrived with the new caretakers today and we are officially off duty. And the weather couldn’t be better. It’s warm, like summer. It was calm this morning for their trip out. We’ll see how we fare in two days. We’ve spent the past couple of days cleaning and getting everything in order. Now we’ve moved over to the visitor’s house and are visitors. Yesterday we walked to the lighthouse and had fun looking at our shadows. P3120147.JPG

At the end of the day, I had a home brewed stout, which had a creamy foam.

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Today, I put the work gloves away. It’s official.