Part 2...
New Zealand is renown for having 9 Great Walks, which
require several days, kilometers, dedication, and blood blisters to get
through. I am proud to say I have
completed my first of these, and am 1/3 of my way through getting to my goal of
walking 3 of them (truthfully there’s 5 I hope to complete but my status as a
full-time student makes this goal rather difficult to achieve).
A little over a week ago, after 3 days and 60 kilometers of tramping, (and it actually turned out
to be more than 60km since we did part of the walk twice), I completed the
Kepler Great Walk, also popularly referred to as “The Walk Above the Clouds.”
I suppose the whole trip took off with an adventurous edge
as I walked out of my flat Thursday morning with no bus, shuttle, or campsite
booked. Funny story, I decided to come
on this 5-day excursion about six hours before I stepped out of my flat to
catch the bus I had no ticket for. My friends, Jamie and J, had already made the plans to go, and J invited me along as we were studying the evening
beforehand. The decisions 8 hours of
studying for a Marketing exam will lead you to make…
On a brighter note, the odds were in my favor as all methods
of transportation and accommodation had availability, AND I even go a student
discount on my bus ticket.
A few fun facts about this trip…
A few fun facts about this trip…
- The 11-hour bus ride from Christchurch to Te Anau (where Kepler’s trailhead is located) is the longest bus ride one can take on the South Island of New Zealand
- I had a 1500 word research paper I had barely even thought about due 2 days after I would get back.
- I’d be missing 3 days of school, which is normally unheard of for a nerd like me
- There was a forecast for rain and thunderstorms during the duration of this trip, which required a 5-hour walk under open sky at an abnormally high elevation. I mean it is the “Walk Above the Clouds.”
Upon arrival in Te Anau around 7PM Thursday night, we had no
place to stay, and were not keen on paying the ridiculous cost of a room in a
motel or hostel. Given the $500 fine for
pitching a tent on non-campsite ground, we slept on Earth’s bed of colda$$
grass next to the lake cuddled against our backpacks. No worries, I was with my very physically fit
friends Jamie and J so I was not that concerned about getting mobbed in the
middle of the night. The cold didn’t
exactly allow for much deep sleep anyway.
Early next morning, we took a shuttle to where we were
camping that night. We reached the
campsite with an ample amount of time, so found trees to climb, streams to
chase and fall into, caves to explore, and even decided to walk up to the top
of the mountain in case of poor visibility the next day (due to the expected
thunderstorms in the forecast). So yea,
we walked up the steepest part of the track two days in a row.
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| Monkeying around HAHA..ha |
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| "A fellowship of three" |
I am actually very grateful we did this, or we would not
have stumbled upon this rather “off the grids” cave that looked like it came
straight from the Goonies. It was quite
stimulating to wonder about the last time a human stepped foot on its
stunningly white rock, or dropped their iPhone from the crystal-like ledge we
climbed onto (yea J did this). I saw
multiple magnificent views throughout this great walk, but the discovery of the
cave and its mystifyingly beautiful depths hold a fond spot in my memories of
the trip.
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| (what am I looking at) |
Dinner on the beach in the company of bratty sandflies was
quite charming, especially when followed by sleeping in-between two smelly boys
in a 1-2 person tent. My writing is
sarcastic and makes me sound like I hated a lot of this. I loved all of this and it kept me very
amused, so please don’t let my sarcasm confuse you.
Woken up to Jay’s clever alarm, “I’m Wide Awake” by Katy
Perry at 6:30AM, we were ready to face the proposed rain and thunderstorms ahead
of us. Before heading out, we also made
friends with a girl from Sweden and two American guys studying at the Uni in
Dunedin, located on the East Coast about 8 hours south of Christchurch, who
travelled the remainder of the track with us.
Our plan was to beat out the rain during the climb up, but
this did not happen. If there’s one
thing I’ve learned about New Zealand, is that its weather is harder to read
than most girls. While it rained in the
beginnings of the early morning, it cleared up and turned out to be a lovey day
in spite of the weather report. It was
rather cloudy, but walking alongside clouds, and breathing in REAL LIFE clouds
is an experience very few get to partake in.
What does inhaling cloud feel like? Well, refreshing in the purest sense
of the word.
A quick shout out to the friends I’ve been travelling with
during my time here – I love them for always being game to wander off the
trail, climb random things along the way, and for making hiking so much more
entertaining than it already is for me. I’m
overly grateful that I’ve found so many people with the sense of adventure and
consistent “happy-go-lucky” attitude I love. That being said, we of course went off the
trail and climbed several random things throughout the second day of hiking. This was along Kepler’s alpine segment of the trail,
and consisted of lots of uphill, downhill, and fast-moving clouds revealing the
beautiful mountain scenery notorious of New Zealand. One of my favorite parts of the track was the
saddle path that leads into the descent to the hut.
Maybe you can understand why…
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| Trying to be cool or something... |
And just our luck, it didn’t begin to start downpouring
until we hit the tree line during the descent.
I’d take 2 hours of hiking within the forest in the pouring rain over 5
hours under the open sky any day. Hey, I
even got a (well-needed) free shower out of the deal.
Upon arrival at the hut, I walked in looking (and smelling)
like a wet dog, and a cute mom-like woman immediately started fretting over
me. Since I’m somewhat stubborn and
refused to pay money for a pack cover (which I now have in my possession due to
this experience), the contents of my backpack AKA all my clothes, sleeping bag,
towel,…everything was SOAKING WET. Ha,
live and learn.
This was the only point in the trip where I was really
unenthused about camping and being outside… mostly because I was soaking wet
and was preparing myself to sleep in a tent in a flooded campsite under the
non-stop rain.
Welp, thank the tramping gods for our site Ranger, who
somehow read my mind and brought in all the campers into the hut as we were
about to go pitch the tent. Never have I
ever enjoyed warmth and walls and good-smelling food that was not mine more in
my life. That’s not an
exaggeration.
The next day’s tramp was fairly easy, minus the fact we
underestimated how long it would take us to get to the shuttle leaving us to
run for some of it (although the race against time definitely added more fun to
the last day). We ran into 3 Keas who
looked like they wanted to peck our brains out (one even walked right up to Jay
and his 7-foot wide shoulders), and travelled through the valley of the Park.
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| One of the Keas |
Our hut Ranger claimed that the valley is actually his
favorite part of the track. While I was
completely stunned by the alpine section and its incredible mountains, I see
where the Ranger is coming from. Every
time we crossed over an open part of the valley, it seemed like we were
entering a whole new forest with an eclectic new breed of trees. “First, I walked through the 7 layers of the
candy cane forest” (Buddy the Elf) kept popping into my head throughout these
last 22km.
The ferns, moss, and waterfalls are such underrated aspects of Kepler. Perhaps, this is because they’re compared to some of the most breathtaking mountains in the world. To be fair, it’s quite hard to compare the various beauties of New Zealand, as they’re all very unique in their own ways.
The ferns, moss, and waterfalls are such underrated aspects of Kepler. Perhaps, this is because they’re compared to some of the most breathtaking mountains in the world. To be fair, it’s quite hard to compare the various beauties of New Zealand, as they’re all very unique in their own ways.
Making excellent time given our poor time-planning that
morning, we finished the track about 15 minutes before our shuttle picked us
up. Here I am about to sound corny, but
the sense of satisfaction while rubbing my wonderful looking and smelling feet
on the shuttle was overwhelming. I
FINISHED MY FIRST GREAT WALK WOOT WOOT.
All three of us also splurged in satisfying our overpowering
sugar cravings, and took one last tramp to the supermarket in Te Anau.
How does one satisfy post-tramp food and beverage cravings?
This is how:
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| (maybe its a good thing I can't read the nutrition labels here) |
Not sure if the elder couple sharing the room in our hostel
with us was disgusted or amused by this…probably mixed feelings of both.
Given my excellent company of my animate and rather animated
(ha) hiking buddies and the inanimate mountains and trees, I couldn’t have asked
for a greater first Great Walk (ha again). Sometimes it’s the spontaneous, somewhat risky
decisions one is offered that can lead to the best experiences. Ya know that saying that’s like “every
opportunity not taken is an opportunity missed” or something? Yea... cliché but
true.
So ANYWAY, I will be embarking my second Great Walk along
the coastal Abel Tasman Track in just a few days with my flat mate, Jena! We’re both super awkward and annoying (to everyone but each other and ourselves) so
let’s see if I make friends again on this one.
Until then…
Keep Climbing,
Keep Happy,
Em
Keep Happy,
Em
