Not many better places to be at 9am on a Monday morning!
Ow!
A DOC worker once said... "don't hide from the storm, dance with the rain!"
so we did.
Last night we got back to TeAnau from or 3 day, 33km adventure on the Routeburn Track. Having left the shelter near Glenorchy on Sunday morning we spent our time walking up and down lots of hills/mountains carrying everthing we needed to eat sleep walk and mend bex's blisters (generally survive!) for our wee adventure in the NZ backlands. Uphill on day one, we made it to the hut just in time to wave goodbye to the sun as he dipped down behind the Mt Aspiring National Park 1000 metres up, coom up our food and get to bed (at 8 o'clock!!).
Then day 2 somebody must've slipped us some drugs in our porridge 'cos we zoomed off over the Harris saddle and into Fiordland where we dropped our packs for a couple of hours to scramble up to to the peak of Connicle hill were we managed a congratulations to ourselves, a few peanuts and raisins, a quick piccy and get back down to our packs before we froze our t*** off! then along the side of the hollyford valey before disapearing back up into the clouds and over the rdge before sloping down into the valley to sleep at Lake Mackenzie hut. By now the rain had set in and the views had vanished, but Evan the warden was a giggle and more food and sleep took us away from our ever-more aching limbs for a few hours..
Day3 started with a steep climb up out of he alley and along o the gorgeous Earland falls where once again stopping to take pics made us so bloody cold we had no choice but to much on a mars and gret moving! We passed by Lake Howden Hut and carred on up to Key summit before stopping for a breather, some salami and chees crackers and then down the the shelter at the side of the road to wait for a lift back to to Te Anau (in the rain yet again!).
We had a fantastic time and met some really lovely people, and depite the pain and the aches and having to sleep in the campavan last night with the overpowering stench of sweaty boots and deep heat, Em is currently planning the next tramp... which will hopefully be the Abel Tasman Tack in Nelson (Sth Island Still). But for now we'll just make do with the odd day walks around Manapouri Lake and Milford Sound- our next 2 stops brought to you by Layla Cynthia Clapton! (when we get a comp with a usb port and put the piccy up of her you'll soon see why she is called that!)
Lots of love and rainbows,
xxxxx