This weekend was so incredible and included irrevocably the best hike/tramp/climb I have ever experienced. I was absolutely exhilarated the entire weekend.
It all started a few months ago when a few friends and I looked at our calendars and figured out that this was the only weekend that worked for everyone, so we were going to go on an adventure. As time passed we all thought about other things but as the time grew nearer, the amorphous adventure focused on Mt. Cook, also known as Aoraki, and slowly the weekend took shape.
The People: you have to understand that there are two cars in this situation. The white car that had JJ, Matt, Garret and Annmarie in it and the blue car that had Simon, Drew, Laura, Jessie and I in it. All Americans. All so keen. I was so fortunate to go with such great people!!
The Plan: The plan was to leave after Laura’s last class on Friday and meet the white car at Lake Pukaki on Friday night. Camp. Get up and purchase passes for the Mueller Hut. Hike 5.2 km up 1000m (AKA 3280 ft). Sleep. Hike down. Walk the Hooker Valley Trail. Drive home. The weather for this adventure was sketchy at best from the weather reports we had looked up.
Everything worked exactly as planned....but better than we could have imagined!!
When we were planning this epic adventure in my living room we ended up with an extra seat in Simon’s car...so Simon invited my flat mate Jessie...and I am so glad he did. She was surrounded by crazy geologists most of the time, but she handled that pretty well. We had some major bonding time over the weekend and I know her much better now. :)
The blue car crew all packed out backpacks into “Magnum” (Simon’s car) and headed north then west.
As we came closer we saw the moon rise and played “Bad Moon on the Rise” by CCR in honor of the situation. We arrived at the campsite on the banks of Lake Pukaki with the sunset. When we arrived we were united with the white car clan and met Annmarie. I still don’t know where she really came from, Otago I suppose. We tossed the fris and ate dinner. I had a chicken and cheese sandwich and a carrot. Then we hung out around a campfire and looked at the stars. Laura learned how to find South using the Southern Cross and she taught me. It’s so cool and tricky...I’m sad that will be one of my new skills that is useless in North America. It was a beautiful clear night with a huge moon barely lighting up the snow capped mountains in the distance. It was like getting a tiny glimpse at something so magnificent, but having to wait to see it in full. We had no idea if clouds would move in over night or if it’d be clear in the morning. Laura, Jessie and I were in a tent on the gravel that was the campsite. It was a little bit of a rough night as far as sleeping goes, but the morning was grand! We had decided to get up for the sunrise, which I never do. [Please Note: I DO NOT get up for things unless I have to, I am not a happy person in the morning....even when I do sleep well.] In the morning when someone woke us up, I stumbled around in the cold tent getting my sleeping bag packed up. I was in the middle so I had to get out first. When I opened the zipper door of the tent I saw the beginning of a sunrise in a perfectly clear sky, I spun on my knees to look at the ghostly mountains from the night before.....and they were huge, beautiful and capped with snow!! Then I noticed how pristine blue the lake was and how the colors of the sunrise were complimenting the lake blue and the mountain white. I exploded with excitement. I don’t think this kind of morning excitement has graced my psyche since Christmas morning at a very young age. I started yelling how beautiful it was to the girls still in the tent and I literally flopped over on the dirt with my arms spread in shock. Ask them if you don’t believe me, it happened. I am learning how the present is such a present from God. I kept saying “Un-Be-Lievable”.
After soaking up the morning sunrise and taking many pictures we packed up camp and headed to the DOC (Department of Conservation) office. The hut passes were first come first serve so we got to DOC at 8am when they opened and purchased our hut passes for $35 dollars each. We started making a little breakfast, the main ingredients of my meal being milo and nutella. It was a chilly morning but we warmed right up when the sun peaked over the ridge into the glacial valley. It continued to be a beautiful, warm day with not a cloud in the sky. Mt. Cook was carved by glaciers and there are still quite a few glaciers in this immediate area that still exist, for example the Mueller Glacier, the Hooker Glacier and the Tasman Glacier. We were completely surrounded by interesting geology the entire time! We tossed the Frisbee, took a few pictures, re-packed our packs for the ascent and started tramping. We were all so keen to get on the trail. [It might be necessary to note that to get to the Mueller Hut we don’t actually climb Mt. Cook. Mt. cook is a very technical climb that we didn’t have the gear or endurance for. But the trail we took goes up half the elevation of Mt. Cook...which is the highest peak in NZ.]
The first 10 minutes were pretty rough as my body got acclimated to carrying a pack and my brain finally became ok with the fact that I would be in at lease a small amount of pain the whole time :) It got easier after those things were sorted out. The climb was part trail and part route. Route means that there are metal poles with orange triangles on the telling you that you are going the right way, put no set path. We took our time because the view was so distracting....at any point in time I could turn around and look at Mt. Cook, or the Hooker Glacier or a glacial lake or a braided stream system or an alluvial fan. After we hiked for an hour or so we stopped at Sealy Tarns for lunch. A tarn is a glacial lake. Here is a picture of one.
After lunch we head up the rest of the track where it changes from being a defined trail to just a route. We climbed up higher and higher. We took breaks to rest our quads and do a 360 to see out incredible surroundings every once in a while. Well before reaching the ridge we hit snow. We had only a few cm, but by the time we were at the top it was maybe 15 cm deep. The snow/slush made climbing a very steep scree slope even more of a challenge. AKA I was slipping down the mountain as I tried to climb up it. It was quite the accomplishment to get to the ridge and we were rewarded by a still wind, a stunning view of the Mueller Glacier and an even better view of Mt. Cook.
JJ broke out his disk and we all carefully tossed it around while we cooled off from the climb....
....until I threw it off the side of the mountain. :( I need to work on my Frisbee skills I guess.Once we were on the ridge the rest of the hike was pretty easy, there was snow on the ground making it a bit slippery, but the elevation was relatively flat compared to the earlier part of the tramp. After almost 4 hours of hiking we caught our first glimpse of Mueller Hut! It’s cute and red and has a deck going all the way around it. We made it to the hut and found places to sleep. The hut has two bunk rooms with mattresses (sleeps 28 people) and one kitchen with big tables and benches.
There was no heat, but we did have gas to cook with. It was like a big slumber party where you don’t know everyone. It was so interesting to see where all these people were from and how they ended up in NZ in the Mueller Hut.
Right after we claimed our bunks we headed out to explore the area. We are talking rocks and snow, that is the only stuff up this high. Laura and I hung out on an cliff face that over looked the valley that the Aoraki/Mt. Cook Village is in and had a great view of the mountain and glacier.
Dinner and Milo as the sun set was next. The sunset was exquisite and delicate on the snow covered peaks.
After the sun set I had my first TimTam Slam experience. A TimTam is a rectangle biscuit cookie covered in chocolate. I brought up a package of Dark Chocolate TimTams and Milo for this exact purpose. The procedure is to bit off two corners of the cookie that are diagonally across from each other, then use the cookie as a straw to suck up hot Milo, then the TimTam instantly melts in your hand so you put it in your mouth asap. It was the most delicious thing I have had in quite some time....warm chocolaty goodness in an alpine hut, who could ask for a better after sunset snack? We played a few games of cards (including Go Fish), talked and were completely worn out by about 8:00pm. I put on three pairs of socks and went to sleep at about 9:00pm. I slept pretty well and I was stinking warm during the night, which is always a good thing when camping.
I woke up and didn’t want to move from my cocoon of warmth, but that always happens. I woke up to see the sunrise (again!) and it was gorgeous. Again we were so fortunate to have yet another clear day. Slowly the sun rose and turned the sky behind the mountain range shades of peach and purple. The pictures hardly show it, let alone do it justice.
The sun rose and peaked over the mountains and started to warm our cold bodies. The wind had picked up a little bit over night and was bringing with it weather for Sunday evening and Monday (when we would be back home in Dunedin). Breakfast consisted of Milo, granola bars, apple and of course a morning TimTam slam! We weren’t in a big rush, but we packed up our stuff and had good morning. The bathroom situation was interesting. There were two alpine “long-drops” that were nasty face....but I won’t go into details ;)
It was a beautiful, beautiful morning and I didn’t want to leave at all. We took a team picture at the top on the deck of the hut before we headed down.
Then we hiked down. It was quite the slippery sliding experience where it was snowy. So the first part of the decent was a bit crazy....then we went down the rest of the mountain. By about half-way down the mountain my quads were shaking with every step. We made it down all in one piece with high spirits! It felt great to conquer such heights.
After having “cookie time” and changing into my shorts and chacos....we headed up the Hooker Valley to find a glacier. It was an easy walk up the valley, we crossed a few swing bridges and the view was incredible! The river was cloudy with glacial flour. Glacial flour is tiny bits of rock from glacier sediment so small it can be suspended in the water. I put my chaco wearing feet in it...IT WAS SO COLD. It’s like there are ice cubes in it or something. ;) The glacier was incredible, you could see some layering from (what I think) were times of regression and times of deposition. There were icebergs floating in the river too. This is the first glacier I had seen up close! It helps all the glacial carved topography make more sense.
The ride home was awesome too! Drew was the DJ and he played so much amazing music I had never heard before and some great classics. We rocked out to a skinny, white, german guy with a ton of soul, Fleetwood Mac, Simon & Garfunkel and CCR. We saw a huge orange harvest moon and listened to all the moon songs on Drew’s iPod. Fantastic music is always a great ending to a fantastic weekend.
This weekend was completely incredible and continuously exciting.
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