Muse Concert, Mt. Sommers, and Pam Problems

I’m back now from our latest trip. On Saturday our friend Andrew came back in town after traveling around and so we all BBQed and watched a few movies. Then on Sunday Xander and I drove up to Christchurch. We checked into a hostel and walked around the city a while, and then went to the Muse concert at the Westpac Arena (apparently the big concert venue in Christchurch). It was an amazing show- they were epically good live. They had a pretty good kiwi band open for them too, which was cool. After the walk back to the hostel we got to bed, ears still ringing. Then on Monday we checked out and on our way out of town saw a Denny’s and stopped there for breakfast. We’d always talk about how we wanted to eat at a classic American dinner type place and at this juncture, Denny’s satisfied our craving perfectly. After our glorious meal, we headed into central Canterbury.

We drove out on this sketchy dirt road to the Lord of the Rings filming site of Edoras (the main city of Rohan in LOTR). In real world language the area is called Mt. Potts. But yeah, we walked out to Edoras and took some pictures but didn’t get all the way up to climb it since there was a rather dubious looking river crossing and cows looking at us like we were invading their land. After our LOTR fun, we headed back down the road a little way and came to the carpark for the Mt. Sommers trail. We hiked for 3 days around the Mt. Sommers area. The first day was pretty short and we stayed at a brand new hut called Woolshed Creek Hut. We talked to a Canadian couple for a while that evening. Then the next day Xander and I headed to Pinnacle Hut, which was another short walk. We had planned to drop our packs there and try and summit Mt. Sommers that day, but for most of our hike into the Hut, we were inside a cloud. We got to Pinnacle Hut around 10:30 am and it almost immediately started snowing. It snowed until dark, which is around 9pm. So we basically sat in the hut for 22 hours, most of the time in sleeping bags sleeping, talking, or reading. Wednesday morning was clear, however, and most of the snow was melted except on the high peaks. That day we walked about 10-11 book hours on the south face trail, leading back to the carpark. It took us about 7 hours to walk the trail, which had two huge ascents and two equal descents. By the end our backs and knees were in questionable shape. Also we ran out of water about an hour or so before the end of the hike. We drove thirstily towards Timaru (on the east coast about half way between Christchurch and Dunedin) stopping once in some tiny town to get water and fill up our left rear tire, which had been deflating on and off throughout the semester. This is foreshadowing for a later part in the tale. We got into Timaru a little before 5pm and stopped by the visitors center there to check on conditions of another possible hike we were planning on doing. Then we ate at Burger King (the 3 restaurants we dinned at this trip were Subway, Denny’s, and Burger King- yay America). Say what you will about Burger King, but it was the perfect meal after 3 long days of hiking. Anyway, we decided not to head to Mt. Cook to do another hike and started the drive back to Dunedin.

It was a smooth ride back and everything seemed to be going well, until we heard the sound. At first we thought the left rear window was falling down. This seemed probable since the motor had broken over the weekend and we had to take of the door panel, remove the system holding it up, and jam some stuff in the door frame to keep the window up. Unfortunately the noise we heard was not coming from the window, but rather from the aforementioned left rear tire. We pulled over off the road and inspected the tire; luckily at this time we were within the Dunedin city limit about 10-15 minutes drive from our flat. As we expected from the sounds it was making, the tire had shredded and was indeed flat. We tried to put on the spare, but to our dismay the spare we’d been carrying was actually the wrong size. It did not fit on the car. Blast. So we packed up most of our stuff into our packs and tried to hail down cars. After only about 4 cars had gone by, a guy stopped (who happened to be a mechanic) and we told him the situation. We hitched a ride with him into Dunedin, taking the messed up tire with us, and leaving Pam on the side of the road. So the plan for today is to find a second-hand tire of equal size for as cheap as possible and get back out to Pam to put the new tire on and drive back. Always something exciting with the car.

So that’s the latest from what’s been happening. I’m not sure when we’re leaving for our next trip- need to get the car sorted out before such things can be contemplated. Good times.

Our Big Hiking Trip and Thanksgiving

So a lot has happened since my last post. The term is officially over here at Otago and most of my friends and people I know have left. My two flatmates and good friends Xander and Rob are here still, as well as a few other people who we see on and off. The Sunday before last (Nov. 11) we said goodbye to most of our friends that were leaving to come back to the states. Then Rob, Xander, Julie, and I started our epic tramping trip through fjordland on the 12th (my birthday!). We drove to Te Anu on Monday morning, which is about a 4 hour drive from Dunedin. We had lunch and then drove to the wharf where we took a boat across Lake Te Anu to the start of the Milford Track. At the wharf we met up with Ross and Neil, two other Americans we knew from Otago and had done at least one other hike with earlier in the term.

The Milford Track was really pretty- especially the alpine views on the third day and all the valleys we walked through. It rained a lot the first day, but other than that we had really great weather. Even with the rain, we could see lots of neat waterfalls, and speaking of which- we took a side trip to see the highest waterfall in New Zealand. That was really cool and the highest waterfall I’ve ever seen (not that there are too many of those in Illinois). Apparently on the last night we were being too loud in our room and some German dude yelled at us and told us we were acting like “school children.” Since we actually weren’t being that loud and the whole old German guy possie had woken us up loudly in the morning on the second day, and they annoyed everyone with their constant smoking at every hut, we didn’t really feel too bad. Also, the third day was Julie’s birthday so that was fun especially since Rob carried in a 12 pack of beer (on top of the 6 pack of bottles he carried in for my birthday- also we both got cakes). Anyway, we finished the Milford Track and got a boat across Milford Sound to the little town there. The view of the sound was blocked by clouds so I didn’t get too great a view, but it was nonetheless very pretty. I’m looking forward to going back there on the sound cruise with the family, which is only in like 4 weeks. Wacky. But yeah, so we said goodbye to Neil and Ross and from the drop off point we took a bus to back to Te Anu Downs where we had the car parked.

Then we drove to The Divide (the ending point of the Routeburn and the start and finish of the Greenstone/Caples track loop). We got back on the trail and walked a few hours to McKeller Hut at the end of the Greenstone track. The next day we met Julie’s friend Claudia where the Greenstone splits off onto the Caples track and then we climbed McKeller pass and finished out the Caples track, which constituted 2 of our hiking days. The night at Mid-Caples Hut we shared the space with an evangelical youth group type thing. They were cool until they pulled out the fire and brimstone talk on Rob and Xander, luckily I was in bed by that time. We took their pamphlet and had a good laugh reading it the next day.

Anyway, we hiked out of the Caples track and got a bus to take us a little way down the road to a wharf where they took us on a boat across Lake Wakatipu to Glenorchy (about an hours drive westish from Queenstown). We had lunch and took a nap in the sun (it was a beautiful and warm day). After our nap we got on our bus to the start of the Routeburn. We hiked about 3 hours up to Routeburn Falls Hut- great view of the valley we walked through to get there. The next morning we said our goodbyes to Julie and Claudia since they had booked another night at the next hut. Rob, Xander, and I skipped it since we didn’t want to spend the money to book the hut. It was a sad parting, but we burned trail the rest of the day until we got to the car. All in all, it was in the upper 70s for miles walked, including 3 alpine crossings in our 7-day adventure. It was a glorious time and a good way to cap off the term.

So since we’ve been back we’ve been dude-bro-chilling, renting movies, golfing, eating, and things of that nature. Yesterday was Thanksgiving here so we cooked up a glorious meal- Turkey is expensive so we had chilli instead as our main course. Our menu consisted of the following: chilli/chilli dogs, green jello salad, mashed potatoes, deviled eggs, bread, and green bean casserole. Also later on we had an Apple pie. Our neighbor Alexis joined us for the meal and the following movie we watched. It was good to celebrate Thanksgiving and have at least some semblance of the traditional foods.

I’m definitely glad I chose to stay longer here- really looking forward to doing a bit more hiking, etc. and it’ll be great that the fam can come in December to see some of this sweet country. If I had to pick one day though Thanksgiving would be the one that I wish I was back for. I think that’s about it for now. This Sunday, Xander and I are driving to Christchurch to see a Muse concert and then do a little hiking around Canterbury. This trip will also include a visit to the LOTR filming site of Edoras. Good stuff.

Schedule

It's currently 4am here. I am up, because I registered for classes back at good ole' U of I a few minutes ago. So I'm posting my schedule now, because for some reason I can't get to bed. As shown, I only have classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which will facilitate a good schedule to work at the Daily Illini. Good times.