Australia does not live here

After surviving some of the hottest, sweatiest days of my life in Australia, I thought that New Zealand would be a relief, a chance to finally put my strategic layering system into use. Most days in NZ I am wearing some version of every piece of clothing that I brought on this 7 month journey--tank top, sweater, pants, dress, socks--you can only imagine how hip I look. So as we prepared for our first overnight tramping trip we realized that we needed even warmer, faster drying clothes and a good bit of gear that we didn't yet have. A few shopping trips later and we had new hats, gloves, thermals, a billy to boil water in, light weight mugs and food to last us three days--bread, nutella, muesli bars, rice, tea and hot cocoa. With all of this and our sleeping bags on our backs, we were each walking with 10-12 kilos on our backs.

We chose the Kepler track, a 50K trek in Fiordland in southwest New Zealand. The first day was 6 flat kilometers followed by a steady 8K uphill climb that brings you out of thee tree line to exposed ridge. We made it to the first hut in about four and a half hours, just as the rain started. By morning the weather had cleared and we had a perfect day in front of us which was key as the second day was chock full of views of mountains, fiords and gorgeous skies. By perfect weather I mean 3 degrees Celsius and 55 mph winds. At times I resembled a drunken sailor, weaving back and forth, often unable to stand or walk straight. We gained 1300 meters by the second day and saw some really sweeping alpine views from the track, a thin path cut into the rock with breathtakingly steep cliffs on one and sometimes both sides. I thought the wind and cold made the day hard but there are folks who brave the path with snow up to their knees. By the end of the second day we descended down 100 switch backs in the bush before reaching the second hut.

The third day should have been the easiest--a flat 22 kilometers back out to civilization. I learned quickly that flat has a different meaning in New Zealand--it also includes steep ascents and descents. Funny how English works differently in different places. It took us six hours of fast walking before we finally crossed the swing bridge that brought us back to the world where things other than feet count as transportation. The three days were full of beauty, nice folks and exhilarating climbs, but by the end each step hurt, all my muscles were sore and I was cursing not having stretched more along the way. Lessons for next time...