So. Five of us, me, Jenn, Zak, Daniel and Brandon packed up our bags and jam packed our car with a lot of shoving and utilizing some tetris skills in the process and set out for Queenstown. We left late on a Friday night due to the Uni's Tea Party celebration during the day. Tea Party is a school sponsored let's all get really drunk, and dressed up like maniacs and listen to crazy music and lay around in the grass all day. It still blows my mind that the school sponsors this kind of stuff but I love it. However, Hayley, Jenn, Sander, Zak and I were some of the few who did not buy tickets and felt a little left out as we were not dressed up like maniacs. But we still had a hell of a good time hanging out with everyone who was participating during the day.
Lisa the smurf :)
The mimes, pre creepy white face paint.
So once the crazy day began winding down we jumped in our car and drove as far into the night as we could before getting tired and setting up camp right next to Lake Pukaki at a random i-site. We're too good for actual campgrounds.
The usual, breath taking views in the morning.
After waking up we proceeded on our drive to Queenstown with a stop in Wanaka and a three hour detour to check out the Rob Roy Glacier that other friends had suggested to us. The weather was somewhat cloudy but we set out on the short track anyway, which was in Mt. Aspiring National Park. The views, and the mountains were beautiful as per usual and I finally got a photo with a random cow!!! :) Dreams do come true, haha.
Rob Roy Glacier (unfortunately the sky was over cast but still beautiful to look at)
Cute cow!!
Wanaka
Next stop after Wanaka was Queenstown, and we were all super excited to get there as we had heard such good reviews of the city from friends who had already been there. When we got there, the weather was absolutely perfect, the sky was a perfect blue. We met up with Drew, Phil and Andrew there and all checked into a hostel-- my first in New Zealand! And we prepared for a night on the town. Queenstown, unlike Christchurch, actually has an amazing night life. The city is right on the water, surrounded by the amazing Remarkable mountain range and walking through the town at night gives off a cozy, home-like feeling at the same time as it is buzzing with young life and energy. Basically, it was a great place to spend an amazing night with good friends. We met a lot of new people and heard a lot of great stories and travelling tales.
Our tea pots at the world bar :)
The next day everyone went sky diving or bungee jumping except Zak and I but we still had a great time, hanging out in the city, relaxing by the water, and enjoying the amazing views all around.
Queenstown
After another great day hanging out in Queenstown we decided to drive to Te Anau the only major town before hitting the desolate-ness that is the Fjordlands to watch the semi-final world cub rugby game between New Zealand and Australia. "The Moose", the bar that we chose to watch the game at that night was absolutely packed with about an equal amount of All Blacks and Australian fans and I had never been as nervous about a game as I was for this one. I wanted the All Blacks to win SOOOOOOOOO badly. And of course they pulled through and destroyed Australia :) Also, in proving how tiny of a country New Zealand is, at this said bar we ran into the hut warden Gaylen who we met at the Copland Track about three weeks earlier. Small world eh?... Afterwards we set out to camp at the trail head to the Kepler Track in preparation for our attempt to do the entire track regardless of avalanche dangers....
Unfortunately the next day had pretty ugly looking skies but we set out anyway, only hoping for the best. The hike was not the most exciting on the way up but once we reached the ridge, about 45 minutes away from our hut the views were beautiful.
There were lots of clouds unfortunately blocking great views of the mountains but it still looked amazing.
At the hut that night Daniel brought Jenn a little brownie cake to celebrate her birthday :)
We had a great time that night hanging out in the warmth of the hut. Since the hut was so high up on the ridge the weather was really cold outside and we assumed the clouds might clear up by the next morning but in fact things only got worse... By six pm it was snowing outside our windows but we just blocked it out of our minds and prayed that things would be clear the next morning so that we could push higher on the ridge for better views. We played some games that night with Jack-from Malaysia-who we had befriended in the hut and before we fell asleep to the warmth of the fire we played a "story game" in lieu of taking Drew's advice and five of us ended up staying up for almost two hours, laughing our hearts out about a story of a dog and a cat with Katy Perry and the thriller dance making appearances at some point....
And the next morning, with great sadness we woke up to howling winds and snow accumulation on the ground. Continuing along the kepler track was out of the question now so all we could was head back to our car. But even that made me nervous as this was the view outside the hut:
Although reluctant, we all bundled up and eventually headed out in the blizzarding weather. The wind was so strong that I was walking at an extreme angle towards the wind to keep myself from constantly getting blown over. I'll admit I was completely freaked out at first and thought that I was going to blow off the ridge but it actually ended up being a lot of fun.
The wind was so strong that Phil's orange back pack cover that you can still see in this photo was just blown off down the mountain only seconds later.
After 30 minutes of blizzard we were finally out of it and began the about 2 hour down hill that awaited us... A lot of the boys ran ahead of us and then we started running down the hill as well as our knees were crying out in pain. And then of course, it had to be my lucky day and even though the path was not covered in many rocks I tripped over the only one that was in my path and twisted my ankle and went flying. I literally flew and due to my momentum my huge backpack flew over my head and caused me to completely flip over and I landed on my back screaming in pain. I was sure at the time that I had broken my ankle because the pain was unlike anything I had ever felt before. Miraculously though, maybe due to adrenaline I was up about five minutes later and walking down the rest of the mountain. My ankle however continued causing me pain and extreme discomfort for the rest of the week but I refused to let it keep me from seeing the Fjordlands.
After all that excitement, we made it back to the car, drove to Te Anau to load up on some food and headed to the Routeburn trail head. It was raining again that day and we just prayed that the next morning we would have at least some sun so we could enjoy the Routeburn. And miraculously our prayers were answered and although it was windy there was not a cloud in sight. We had also stayed in these really nice cabins that Drew and Andrew suggested from their kayak trip and we all got to sleep in nice (creaky) beds that night. On the trail though we were all pleasantly surprised that all the rave about the Routeburn being absolutely beautiful was spot on. The views were breath taking.
View from key summit.
The views for the entire next four hours never failed us. Being surrounded by amazing snow capped mountains was so serene and so breath taking. I tried to pause when I could, tried to forget about the pain in my ankle and how stiff and sore my neck and back were and remember what it felt and looked like looking out at the mountains and at nature at its finest....
Once we did eventually make it to Mackenzie Hut we were so surprised by how beautiful Mackenzie Lake was, surrounded on all sides but one with mountains and as we laid out on the rocks to soak in the sun and read our books approximately every 5-10 minutes we would hear and see enormous avalanches rolling down the mountains all around. It was astounding how much noise the mountains could make. It really makes you think and realize how strong, menacing and dangerous mountains are.
Me and Jenn!
Drew braving the freezing water.
Life is so amazing...
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