1 hour

As many of you know, over my last few posts I have expressed my love-hate or rather my love-dislike relationship with New Zealand weather. The rain has really dampened my spirits, pardon my pun. Well I think someone up above was reading my blog and decided to do something about it. On the bus ride down to Te Anau from Queenstown there were clear blue skies until there weren't. However, this time there was fog in the valley that obscured the bottom of the mountains while leaving me with a clear view of the peaks. As if to spite me for complaining over the past week about not seeing mountain tops, I finally got to see the tops but no bottom. I could only chuckle at the irony.  Not much to the town of Te Anau but oddly I ran into the Wisconsin and California couples I spent time time chatting with on the ferry ride from Wellington. Small country, small world. Also spent the afternoon chatting with a German teen who is following in her sisters' footsteps and seeing the world after finishing high school. The rest of the world seems to take these gap years between the time they finish high school and start university. Too bad the USA doesn't embrace a similar system.

The following day was relatively good weather on the boat ride to the start of the Milford Track but it was generally overcast. As the day wore on, showers picked up in intensity and I feared that weather was going to ruin my time on the track. They say when hiking the Milford Track that you should just be prepared for rain every day and then if sun happens to show up, then you can be pleasantly pleased. Well the rain we got that first night was enough to flood some portions of the track and delay our days' hike. I hiked the day with a father/daughter pair named Phil and Kristie from New Zealand. She bought her dad the hike for his 60th birthday.  Anyway, this was the first day on the entire trip that I welcomed the rain with open arms. Yes, you read that correctly. I WELCOMED THE RAIN WITH OPEN ARMS. Despite rain for the entirety of the 4.5hr hike, it created a surround sound of temporary waterfalls rushing down the mountains that wouldn't have been present in dry conditions. Rain gear was doing just fine until we had to wade through shin high deep water on 2 different portions of the track. Not a whole lot of fun walking a few hours in squishy shoes and socks, but I was oddly at peace with it because back in the late 1800's when the track was discovered, McKinnon, Sutherland and crew no doubt encountered the same conditions. It just felt right to have to experience some less than desirable conditions. 

The problem in dealing with those conditions is that the huts where we sleep and eat don't have electricity and hot water. There is 1 cast iron fireplace with 1-2 overhead drying racks and a bunch of hooks outside under the covered roofs. In other words, s--- don't dry. Hut living was rather basic and quite communal. There were gas stoves and sinks for cooking and the sleeping quarters were bunks and mattresses like I slept on at Scranton. Some people brought the standard freeze dried food, while others brought food as if cooking at home. I brought Clif bars. We had Israelis, Japanese, Koreans, Germans, Kiwis, Americans, Belgians, Indonesian, Vanuatuans, Brits and Aussies. Everybody was very nice and willing to strike up a conversation with whatever English they knew. With so many people in such small living quarters, those huts got hot and steamy each night. There was snoring, an occasional rat, and sleeping bag rustling. One of the hut rangers even warned of us the potential fragrant 'sox'ygen that sometimes permeates the huts. Didn't end up being that bad though.

I thought I was being smart in just bringing a space blanket for my warmth in the hut instead of a sleeping bag. It was nice to not have to lug a sleeping bag with me all day, but the space blanket didn't cut it. If it wasn't wrapped tightly around my body, the trapped air turned into condensation and was cold and clammy against my body all night. For the last 2 nights of the trip I definitely looked at watch at some point of every hour 'slept.' Consequently, I came down with a bit of a cold. It also didn't help that I only brought 1 pair of shoes that were completely soaked through after the first substantial hike and we had to walk in the rain, uncovered, to get to the bathrooms. I ended up walking barefoot instead of putting on my wet boots every time I needed to leave the huts.

Anyway, the 3rd day is the most grueling day of the hike. The first couple of hours are spent on a steady climb of about 600-700 meters to the highest point of the track, followed by about 4 hours of knee and ankle pounding downhill hiking to about 125m above sea level (about 900m elevation change from the highest point).  We awoke that morning to clear skies but there was the threat of rain. We hustled out of the huts, wearing the same wet clothing from the day before, and made our way as quickly as we could to the top in the hopes that we would catch a glimpse of the surrounding mountains and valleys with nothing but clear skies. Weather can change at any moment from sun to rain to snow on the track, so clear skies at the hut by no means meant we would have clear skies at the peak.

Luckily for 1 whole hour, we had clear skies at the peak and my entire perception of New Zealand changed. All of the crappy weather and similar scenery that preceded that 1 hour seemed like a distant memory. It was easy to see why so many people rave about the scenery in south island of New Zealand. At one moment I am hiking in the bottom of a valley, wrenching my neck to see the tops of the mountains and a few hours later, I am at the tops of those same peaks looking for miles in every direction at lakes, rivers, forests, waterfalls, and mountains. Was quite stunning. After that 1 hour, the clouds rolled in and showers started again.  Didn't matter though. I have seen higher mountains and more dramatic peaks in the Alps, but what sets these mountains apart is that you can be at the base and the peak in 1 day. Most other mountain ranges have viewpoints to the peaks or have walking paths somewhere in the middle of the mountain with views to the top. The rest of the hike was mostly through beech forest with raging rivers, and waterfalls.

Final day today was relatively flat and also with clear skies, but the calves and feet were still burning from yesterday. Knees didn't feel so hot either.  33.5 miles in 4 days. 90 min, 4.5hrs, 6.5hrs, 5hrs. That is alot of time to be on your feet on consecutive days navigating uneven terrain. I rest now and get ready for Asia satisfied with the time spent in New Zealand.