There and Back 2005

We made our way from Te Anau to Invercargil yesterday afternoon--stopping at the Clifton Caves (which would have been great had I had a flashlight. Without the flashlight it was basically just a short, nerve-racking walk in complete darkness) and the Totara forest (which was incredible and luckily didn't necessiate a flashlight). There's something very cool about standing at the base of a huge, 1000 year old tree. I think Andy is posting a picture of it, so take a look. But I have to say the best part about yesterday was the fact that we weren't in a rush! It was great to be able to stop whenever we wanted and not feel like we had to constantly be on the road zooming to our next destination! And I must say that after 4 days with a 40 lb. pack on my back all day it was pretty great to put that bag in the trunk and hit the road in the Corolla!

Despite, and in some ways I think partly because of the 40 lb. pack, the Milford Trek was a wonderful experience. The terrain was not very difficult, the summit was only 1154m so we've done much steeper hikes, but the duration of the hike was the challenge. Suprisingly, since that area is one of the wettest on Earth, we only had one day of hard rain. It was the third day, the day we reached the summit (the Mackinnon Pass) that we had the rain. Until I got freezing cold, I was loving the rain. It added a bit excitement to the day and it made the waterfalls even more spectacular. There was one waterfall in particular(Sutherland Falls) that was amazing. It was gigantic--608 m high!--and it was so powerful and loud! We were probably 20 ft from it and we were getting totally soaked by its spray! Shortly after we left Sutherland Falls, continuing on the trail towards our next hut, we met a morepork (a type of owl)which was definitely one of the biggest highlights of the trek for me. Andy spotted him first and at that point I was about 15 feet from him. I tried to slowly get a little closer but he flew off to a nearby branch. His flight was almost silent. He just appeared to glide from branch to branch. In the end we got about 5 ft. from him and Andy got loads of great pictures. The bird was so curious about us and was watching so intently at how Andy was using the camera. It was fascinating. I could have stayed looking at the moreprk for hours, but we moved on so that other people who had come along the trail behind us could get a good look at him as well. In addition to the morepork we met quite a few interesting birds on the trip--the South Island robin actually pecked my toe! There is a large number of big, flightless birds in NZ and I love them all! The takahe is a beautiful one, but those are endangered so we only saw one in captivity. But we saw loads of wekas on the trail--funny looking brown birds that kind of remind me of ducks. Unlike the rest of my family, I have never been much of a bird person, that is until now. I can't get enough of the birds here and am sure that I now know more about rare species of NZ birds than I know about any bird at home! Oh, and speaking of birds, you all need to look at the picture of the crazy seagull. That bird was wild! He was screeching and chasing all the other seagulls away--I was laughing so hard I almost peed my pants! Okay, back to the Milford Trek--another highlight of the trip was the people we met. There were actually quite a few other Americans (even 2 other people from Boston) which was strange since before that Andy and I hadn't met any other Americans on the trip. Andy and I had both been missing home a little so it was really nice to have some Americans to talk to--especically ones from Boston! There were also some pretty serious hikers in our group and it was interesting to hear all the places they'd been. Some had done 2 week hikes in Nepal and a few had hiked the Austrian Alps on multiple occasions. They were full of great stories and since there was quite a bit of down time at night we had more then enough time to hear them! There was also a German guy on the trip named Toby who we ended up running into last night here in Invercargil! We had a few beers with him and had a great time thinking back on our Milford Trek experience! Now onto the one outstanding lowlight of the trek--FOUR days without a shower. Hadn't ever gone that long without a shower and don't plan on going that long again. The bunk room full of unshowered hikers was absolutely repulsive on the last night! Andy didn't seem to mind but I was seriously grossed out! There's so much more I could write about Milford, but will save some stories for when we get home!

A couple days before we left on the trek we had the incredible experience of climbing Fox Glacier. What a great time! We got to the town of Fox Glacier around 1pm and were lucky enough to get pulled from the standby list to take the 1:45pm hike up the glacier. They gave us each some extremely well-waxed boots, wool socks, and a pair of crampons and we were on our way! The first part of the hike was about an hour or so up through the rainforest just to the left of the glaicer. Imagine it---glacier and rainforest, side by side! The we got onto the ice. Unlike most glaciers which are very slow moving, this glacier moves about 1 m a day so each day the guides need to go out and carve a new path for us to take across the glacier. Even as we were walking our guide was carving out some steps in the ice where it was particularly difficult to walk. The crampons were awesome though and I always felt like my footing was sure. The ice was incredible--it had a beautiful blue tint to it (due to the high density of the ice and the fact that the blue wavelenghts are the only ones that get reflected.) We were on the ice for 2 hours, just walking around and taking in the views and then we made our way back down. It was definitely one of the most exciting things we've done on the trip!

Alright, I think I am going to sign off now. We're hoping to make it to the Invercargil museum this afternoon, but are feeling a bit lazy today.

As always, I miss you all and hope you're doing well! Thanks for the comments, we love reading them!

xoxo