I'm Alive...
Trip Start
Jan 20, 2005
1
6
37
Trip End
Sep 10, 2005
GreyMouth,
New Zealand
Sunday, January 30, 2005
But enough philosophical discussions. First , I got my "Hit" card which will allow me to sleep at peoples houses for free! Well , almost for free. Basically , it's a group of people who like Israelies and will have them in their home for a few nights. Hopefully I will take advantage of this later on, but for now it's time to trek
At the top
! (Or Tramp as they say here in New Zealand) Off we went, stopping first at Kura Towhiti which is basically a huge grassy field with big rocks that look like sculptures but are actually just scenic limestone. The location is also sacred to the Moari. Actually , everything in nature that is a little interesting becomes sacred to them and you better not mess with sacred Moari stuff. I didn't think they would mind if we climbed and took fun pictures though , so we did. We continued some more and got to a cave and then some more to get to Klondike Corner where we pitched our tent. We ate our high quality dinner in the back of the car and went to sleep in an amazing spot with snowy mountains and a stream trickling nearby. You know that you are an experienced traveler when you hear a trickling stream and think "I know where I'm brushing my teeth tomorrow".My tent withstood the world renowned sand fly test. What is a sand fly you ask? Well , let me tell you. They are little bugs that fly around , fly around and land on you , land on you and bite you, bite you and make you bleed, bleed and later itch, itch like you've never itched before and finally die. Ok , all except the dying part. My tent was used to deter these evil creatures and it worked very well. In the morning we brushed our teeth and left towards Arthurs Pass village, where all the hikes begin. Arrived at the huge information center which explained about the pass
Franz and I
. New Zealand has many mountains separating it's east and west coast. East coast'ers searched for gold and jade which was found on the west coast. The only way to get from one side to the other was to build a pass. A difficult task because of the rough terrain but they did it. A popular hike and also very difficult is Avalanche Peak. We chose this hike and began gearing up. The hike is two days long and there is a hut called "crows hut" where you can spend the night. We took the hard way up because the starting point was closer to us... go figure. My heart rate was about 182 just like in spinning for the first hour. The nice thing about this tramp is that whenever you get tired or take a break , you can just turn around and get an amazing view of the mountains. We had good meusily bars that we ate along the way and after four hours , we reached the summit. You could see everything up there and it was nice and breezy as well. Four experienced mountaineers were sitting at the top taking in the view . We chatted for a while and told them where we were headed. Then we got a good piece of advice which I will take with me, which was "always make sure you can see the bottom before you begin descending". To comfort us on our planned two hour tramp up ahead he proceeded to say "Don't worry , You will be just fine." and for a second, I did. "Just use your training" he said..
Jacksons Tavern
. hmmm... Did he mean to trust my instincts? or to use my head? I have instincts and a head but unfortunately no training. None at all. My smile turned into a frown and then my shoulders shrugged and we continued. It was difficult finding the way down but Franz thought he had found it and we began. We found out the hard way that 'Avalanche' is not the name of the man who first reached the peak. We actually kind of 'rode' the avalanches down. Whenever there was a ledge, Franz would go see if it was safe to continue and if so then I would join. The packs on our back started feeling really heavy and it was frustrating seeing the hut but not getting there. Your thoughts are confined to how to be careful and only when you stop to think about it do you realize how dangerous it is. Finally, after another four and a half hours, legs shaking and back aching, we got to the crow hut just as night fell (around nine PM). We were tramping heroes at the hut and were reassured that what we did was risky. Good think there was a sign on the hut saying "No Snoring" because otherwise it would be hard to sleep with fat snoring men. Or was that "No Smoking"? Yea, that was it. Thank god I had earplugs. That pretty much saved me. The next day we were off for the second half which was not big deal actually , just six hours through rivers , with our huge backpacks , juggling three little pigs , and balancing a lit candle with one nostril. Well , you know what I mean
Kea eating my bag
. Finished the hike , hitched back to the village and slept in a cute little backpacker. The next day we went through on Arthurs Pass- Past death corner (a place where you want to drive under the speed limit) to Greymouth.If you have only seen ghost towns in movies, you haven't been to greymouth. At five everyone packs up and goes to bed. All I did was buy food and a cooler for my car there but I also met Tamir. I came into the Duke backpacker and sat down and a guy says "I know you from somewhere". I said "army?", he said "Yes", I said "air force?", he said "yes", I said "180"? he said "YES!" He was in my unit in the army but I didn't recognize him because of his long hair and the weight that he lost. Franz made me a great chicken dinner and the next day I was off to Fox glacier with Tamir.
