So we have ridden our bikes from Queestown to Franz Josef with a side trip out to Gillespies Beach. We have had 7 days of riding with 4 days of rain, with more on the forecast. It is an awesome way to see the country but is a really gnarly workout and I never knew that sitting on a bike seat could be more painful. With that said so far it has been pretty sweet! Especially wearing our sweet spandex. We are rocking the bib shorts hard!! We have a month to ride up the whole west coast which really isn't that far so we only have to ride 50 to 80 km per day and we don't even need to ride every day. So we can take our time and stop a lot which is really nice. Still we have to eat a ridiculous amount of food which is actually kind of annoying because I am constantly hungry and run out of food very quickly. The past several days I have been living off of peanut butter and nutella. Very nutritious! thank god we just made it to a town and a grocery store!
Right now my mission is to go river rafting and not pay which I am very close to being successful at. But not yet, not yet. Very soon though.
Also if you haven't yet check out Brice's Blog because his tends to be more detailed and have more pictures. Basically his tends to be better. There is a link on the left side of my blog. Yes
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Done with the Tramping
We have survived the final rounds of our tramping adventures. We just completed the Gillespie Pass rout and the Cascade Saddle, both of which were amazing!! These were more like normal backpacking than the Dusky track which was a nice change of pace and both were spectacularly beautiful. Both of these where in Mount Aspiring National park so had much more of an alpine feeling to them. The Gillespie pass took us three days and the last day we were once again running away from an extreme weather warning with gail force winds and rain. We ended up taking a jet boat out rather than walking through farmland and dust storms. Worth the money.
The Casvade Saddle was the more epic of the two and my favorite hike that we have done in New Zealand so far. The first day we hiked out a valley for a couple hours and then proceded up the saddle which was a climb from 400m to 1800m over about 1km horizontal distance. Needless to say it was a lot of fun! But this was alright because we were looking across the valley at Mount Aspiring which is one of the tallest peaks in New Zealand and just amazing. We ate lunch of salami and crackers at the top of the saddle with an awesome view and felt very accomplished. For this tram we had absolutely amazing weather so we decided to camp up ontop. Our site was absolutely amazing and had full views of Mount Aspiring and the Rees glacier as well as some of the other ice covered peaks, including my favorite Mount Barf. That is its real name. Ontop of the views our spot had a stream going through it that you could drink right out of and a 20' waterfall that you could shower under if you wanted an extreme instant brain freeze. That was another thing about both these hikes, you could drink out of all of the streams which was sweet! After coming down off the saddle we went to the bottom of the Reese glacier which was cool and proceeded to the Rees valley to meet up with the Rees-Dart track. Here we camped outside a hut which added to the wilderness experience with FLUSH TOILETS! That was crazy but very nice. Then we hiked about 20 km out to a car park in the middle of no where with no idea of how we were going to get past the car park but luckfully a guy came out to paint and was able to give us a ride back to Glenarky. And now we are back in Queenstown and I want to go bungy jumping.
We get on our bikes in three days and start the final leg of our journey up the west coast. I am stoked and ready to get into some spandex!! Also I am ready to do some river rafting which I hope to do on the Perth River if Eco Rafting tours has room for me. I cant find out till the night before. Or if I have to wait till I get home that will be hard but i think I can do it. I also need some mexican food in a bad way!
Till next time
The Casvade Saddle was the more epic of the two and my favorite hike that we have done in New Zealand so far. The first day we hiked out a valley for a couple hours and then proceded up the saddle which was a climb from 400m to 1800m over about 1km horizontal distance. Needless to say it was a lot of fun! But this was alright because we were looking across the valley at Mount Aspiring which is one of the tallest peaks in New Zealand and just amazing. We ate lunch of salami and crackers at the top of the saddle with an awesome view and felt very accomplished. For this tram we had absolutely amazing weather so we decided to camp up ontop. Our site was absolutely amazing and had full views of Mount Aspiring and the Rees glacier as well as some of the other ice covered peaks, including my favorite Mount Barf. That is its real name. Ontop of the views our spot had a stream going through it that you could drink right out of and a 20' waterfall that you could shower under if you wanted an extreme instant brain freeze. That was another thing about both these hikes, you could drink out of all of the streams which was sweet! After coming down off the saddle we went to the bottom of the Reese glacier which was cool and proceeded to the Rees valley to meet up with the Rees-Dart track. Here we camped outside a hut which added to the wilderness experience with FLUSH TOILETS! That was crazy but very nice. Then we hiked about 20 km out to a car park in the middle of no where with no idea of how we were going to get past the car park but luckfully a guy came out to paint and was able to give us a ride back to Glenarky. And now we are back in Queenstown and I want to go bungy jumping.
We get on our bikes in three days and start the final leg of our journey up the west coast. I am stoked and ready to get into some spandex!! Also I am ready to do some river rafting which I hope to do on the Perth River if Eco Rafting tours has room for me. I cant find out till the night before. Or if I have to wait till I get home that will be hard but i think I can do it. I also need some mexican food in a bad way!
Till next time
Monday, February 7, 2011
Survived the Dusky
So we made it out of the Dusky alive! It was totally awesome but also the gnarliest hike that I have ever done. It entailed seven days of walking through knee deep mud and rock/root climbing with our 50+ pound packs on. New Zealand has yet to discover the wonder of cut backs to go up hills, instead they just go straight up or down the mountain. The result is quite litterally having to climb up a vertical face. Sometimes they give you a chain to use. So as you can imagine the trail was pretty ridiculous and at times it would be a stretch to call it a trail at all. This trail really made me appreciate the Hut system that they have here, because it rained pretty much every night and the there was not a dry place to set up a tent for probably a 100km. Also the huts had fire places so that we could attempt to dry out our socks, but usually just ended up filling the hut with smoke. You totally get a different feeling staying in huts as well. You don't get that same feeling of being totally separated from society and the world as you do sleeping out every night.
The highlight of the trip, however would have to be swimming across a flooded river. On the second night it rained ridiculously hard on us all night and the next day the river we had to cross was flooded. We didn't know the extent to which it was flooded though. We were walking through the bush so we couldn't see too far infront of us. The water started out at our knees and then a couple more steps it was at our waists and then before we knew it, it was at out chests. At this point we were at the point of no return. Then from through the bush I hear Lucas yell "I'm swimming!" So natually I laugh and keep going, then I too was swimming. The curernt wasnt strong but it was there so it was sketchy and luckfully we had pack liners so our stuff was mostly dry and our packs floated somewhat. The next thing that I hear is from behind me and it is Brice yelling "a fucking eel!" and I look back to see a probably 3 foot eel playfully harassing Brice, who doesn't really know what to do with his limited range of movement. We made it to the crossing wire which at this point crossed about half the river and was about 3 feet above the surface of the water and made it to the hut safely where there were 6 other people who were stuck there.
After all this I would still say that this was one of the prettiest and most epic hikes that I have ever done. In the same day you would go from walking through rainforest to walking through alpine crossings above the tree line among giant granite boulders. The scenery and landscape was absolutely unreal.
But I must admit that it really makes me appreciate hiking in the Sierras and realize how special a place they are. I can't wait to get back out into them.
Since the Dusky didn't take us as long as we thought we have some extra time to do some other hikes before we get on bikes. We are in Queenstown now figuring out our plan (one that involves less water) and will hopefully be off tomorrow.
The highlight of the trip, however would have to be swimming across a flooded river. On the second night it rained ridiculously hard on us all night and the next day the river we had to cross was flooded. We didn't know the extent to which it was flooded though. We were walking through the bush so we couldn't see too far infront of us. The water started out at our knees and then a couple more steps it was at our waists and then before we knew it, it was at out chests. At this point we were at the point of no return. Then from through the bush I hear Lucas yell "I'm swimming!" So natually I laugh and keep going, then I too was swimming. The curernt wasnt strong but it was there so it was sketchy and luckfully we had pack liners so our stuff was mostly dry and our packs floated somewhat. The next thing that I hear is from behind me and it is Brice yelling "a fucking eel!" and I look back to see a probably 3 foot eel playfully harassing Brice, who doesn't really know what to do with his limited range of movement. We made it to the crossing wire which at this point crossed about half the river and was about 3 feet above the surface of the water and made it to the hut safely where there were 6 other people who were stuck there.
After all this I would still say that this was one of the prettiest and most epic hikes that I have ever done. In the same day you would go from walking through rainforest to walking through alpine crossings above the tree line among giant granite boulders. The scenery and landscape was absolutely unreal.
But I must admit that it really makes me appreciate hiking in the Sierras and realize how special a place they are. I can't wait to get back out into them.
Since the Dusky didn't take us as long as we thought we have some extra time to do some other hikes before we get on bikes. We are in Queenstown now figuring out our plan (one that involves less water) and will hopefully be off tomorrow.
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