April Adventures II

I thought I would get all my blogging done before August began… but that obviously did not happen. I have been too busy enjoying the rest of my summer! School starts in a week… and I’m not sure I even wanna think about that…

After Otehake Hot Springs, the real first South Island Road trip began. The triumvirate reunited (being Stephen, Jon, and Geoff) plus Emily and I piled cosily into Blue. On our way down to Aoraki/Mt. Cook! Unfortunately, the weather was not being kind that day. My first views of Lake Pukaki and Lake Tekapo were filled with raindrops but you could still see what an amazing blue color they were.

When we got to the visitor centre at Mt. Cook, there just happened to be a severe weather warning… the lady at the desk basically made it sound like we were taking our lives into our own hands if we decided to hike up that day. We almost went. I was pretty happy when we decided not to. But I bought rain pants there anyway! So we decided to explore the Mt. Cook area as much as we could in the rain and walked around the Tasman Glacier. The rain ended  up stopping, so we actually went back to the visitors centre and tried to catch a better view of Mt. Cook. The tip of it was still covered in clouds but I remember how excited Jon was just to see it (I mean everyone else was excited too, but he was more excited that usual… it was fun to see him all giddy lol). That night we just had a relaxing night trying to keep dry, playing cards, and Geoff still trying to scare Emily after he was so successful at Otehake! We woke up to a non-rainy morning…woo hoo.

Now, let the climb begin to Mueller Hut! I was nervous about this one. I knew it was supposed to be harder than Avalanche Peake. You basically climb stairs for a couple hours and then have to scramble up some loose rocks to the top!  So yeah, it was no cake walk for me. My gluteus maximus was screaming at me to stop. When we were nearing the top, Stephen being the nice guy he is stayed with me and just talked to make sure I didn’t stop lol. Otherwise, he would have been literally running up the side of the mountain I’m sure.  I told him I couldn’t talk back because I was trying to breathe and he just kept goin! It was definitely helpful. Anddd….

The views were so worth it.Mt. Cook and the Tasman Glacier are behind me in this one!

It was soooo windy at the top!!!

We even got to see and hear an avalanche!!

Ahh I miss these guys!

Then. It was about a 20 minute walk across the windy ridgeline to make it here…

My parents asked what the little red thing was… that was the outhouse

Mueller Hut can sleep up to 30 people and when we got there, there were just a couple Germans (of course) and 2 other American who were studying in Auckland. I was disappointed to find out that there was noooo heating device in this cold hut. Guess they don’t feel like helicoptering up wood… but there were built in gas stoves which was nice. When we got settled in ready to play a game of Hearts, the weather started to pick up again. It got colder and the rain/sleet/snow began! A couple hours later, two guys from Israel walked in looking a bit like wet icicles. The wind got so bad you could feel it shake the hut during a big gust. and the noise from the wind sounded like children screaming outside. This made walking to our hut toilet verrrry interesting. Now the boys just ran outside underneath the deck, you know because they can do that. Emily and I had to prepare for battle to go out there. All layers possible, check. Hat and gloves, check. Headlamp, check. Then unlatch the ginormous, heavy door to the hut and run as fast as you can! Okay, so I admit, it was kinda fun- definitely the most adventurous time I’ve had going to the bathroom!

At night, they radio in the weather from down below. It was not looking too good for the next day- 90 km/hr winds and freezing temps. So when we woke up the next morning, we hung out in the hut still wrapped in our sleeping bags trying to wait it out. The boys actually played an interesting game of poker with puzzle pieces… losers had to stand outside. hahhaa. But we finally just decided to go. The wind was almost knocking us down. It was intense. anddd I thought this was pretty fun too. Except Jon lost his orange pack-cover. As soon as we got past the ridgeline and started going down the rocks, the wind noticeably died down. Then it was just flying down some stairs the rest of the way down! It was still raining though, so it was a bit slippery and I think we all slipped at one point. It only took us an hour and a half to get down. I think we were all motivated by the idea of getting warm and dry.

Remember that blue, cloudy lake in the beginning? We got a better view on the way out…

Next stop, Queenstown.

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~ by Juli on August 15, 2010.