Our day started with MAJOR DRAMA! The German students were cooking their meal in this HUGE pot every night and the use of this particularly large apparatus resulted in some serious wear and tear on the gas line feeding the burner on the stove. Dave had noticed it the previous evening, pointing it out to the hut ranger, however he was dismissed, with the ranger thinking she was already aware of the problem. Turns out that the damage Dave pointed out was something completely different. This morning, Dave noticed the burner in use once again with the rubber gas line SMOKING! (Yikees!) He prevented near disaster by turning the gas off to that burner. I would have been seriously depressed had I been blown up in the middle of my sleep! Thanks Dave!
Day three of our hike was our full initiation into the Milford Track club. We woke up to rain and had to hike in the rain. Luckily the rain was mostly light, but it was still enough to make up suit up in our rain pants and jackets. Sounds like no big deal, right? Okay ... rain gear is not very much fun to wear. It's supposed to keep you dry, and it does keep the rain out. However, we're hiking ... up hill ... on the side of a mountain ... and over a pass. That kind of thing makes you sweat, not to mention the condensation that builds up!
We spent the first two hours of the morning hiking up, up, up and then up some more, in rain gear. By the time we reached McKinnon Pass, we were all soaking wet from the inside out! There is a hut on the McKinnon Pass to take a break in once you get to the top. We were all sitting in that hut, huddled together, eating our snack and there was literally steam coming off our bodies! Totally bizarre to see and I wish there was some way to capture the phenomena on camera.
Once we crossed the pass, the rain mostly cleared up (yea) and we started our 6 mile hike down hill to dumpling hut. This was the most challenging part of the hike for me. I spent the next four hours negotiating bolder fields, walking over slick, wet, slanted rock, just praying that I didn't misstep and fall to my death. Needless to say, I am super slow on the down hill. I have to give huge props to my patient husband who didn't make fun of me (at least not to my face) as we had to pull over to the side of the trail to let the 80 year couples pass by!
Along the way to Dumpling Hut, we passed waterfalls at every turn. The big treat was a side trip to Sullivan Falls. I missed this little excursion as it would require me to spend an extra hour on my already beaten and bruised feet. However Dave took great pictures so I could see what I missed.
Our last night was spent in Dumpling Hut on the other side of the pass. I believe the Kiwi need to rename this part of the track "Sand-fly Valley" as we were swarmed the minute we stopped moving along this part of the track. Our hut talk this evening seemed more like the ranger's well rehearsed comedy routine. She had us all rolling on the floor. She started by telling us that there wasn't really much to share since Ross (from the first hut) had already told us the the name of every plant and animal we were likely to encounter across every mile of the track.
We had a truly enjoyable last evening with all the friends we had made over the past three days.
No comments:
Post a Comment