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We woke up at 6:30 a.m., packed up our remaining gear, and went to the kitchen for a breakfast of muesli, yoghurt, toast, coffee, and fruit. We needn't have worried about the hunters getting up at 4; they were in there just finishing up cooking a traditional kiwi breakfast of tinned spaghetti, fried egg, bacon, etc. We chatted with them for a bit while we ate. Then we cleaned the dishes, divvied up the communal items amongst our three packs, and hit the road.
There was a thick layer of frost on the van this morning, and we wondered what lay ahead for us. We drove for a while and arrived at the start of the Borland Track at around 9:45. The first section of the tramp was uphill through the forest. This was our first tramp with full packs, but we soon got used to the packs, and they felt like an extension of our bodies. Soon we passed the tree line, and found ourselves amongst smaller vegetation (i.e. tussocks and flax). There was snow on the ground - at first just little bits, but gradually growing deeper and with a bit of a crusty layer on top. We passed various beautiful tarns (lakes formed in holes left behind by glaviers), some of which were partially frozen around the edges. We saw New Zealand daisies and other plants which had layers of ice on them glistening in the sun. It was beautiful. I had expected the hike to be very difficult (walking uphill in the snow, across mountain ridges, etc.) but it turned out to be quite manageable. I was pleasantly surprised. I just kept on putting one foot in front of the other. Although I needed frequent breaks, they were short breaks. The weather was perfect - sunny yet cool. Stan was fantastic - very enthusiastic, encouraging, and positive. He gave me a hug when I reached the crest of a steep, snowy hill. The tussocks were proving to be quite slippery underneath the snow. We hiked onto a point and Stan became our self-help guru on the mountain. We climbed an unnamed mountain with an elevation of 1476 meters all the way to the top, following a ridge. Although it had looked daunting to me, putting one foot in front of the other and paying little heed to the destination worked very well. There were some slippery spots, and I fell over a couple of times. When we reached the top we had a group hug and celebrated our accomplishment. We saw a hare down in the saddle, and it was slipping on the ice as it hopped. We tossed some snow and ice off of the ridge and watched it disintegrate on the way down. We were supposed to follow a track down the back of the mountain to a hut on the shores of Green Lake, where we would spend the night. Stan slipped a wee bit and we realized that there was no good way down to the hut. It was too slippery and dangerous on the backside of the mountain (where the sun never really melted the snow). It was 3:30 pm, and at the pace that we would need to go to hike in the slippery conditions, we'd end up hiking in the dark. On the top of the ridge, Stan could get cell phone coverage, so he called Hiking New Zealand and asked for permission to change our itinerary due to the conditions. They gave their consent, and we decided the best course of action would be to hike down the side of the mountain that we were on, and camp in our 2-man alpine tent in the valley between 1476 and Mt. Burns. We hiked in our snowy, wet socks down to the valley. Here we saw our first view of scree. We cleared a spot in the snow and set up the tent at 1360 meters. Stan insisted he was going to sleep outside on his fly. This scared us, and we told him we wanted him to cram into the tent with us. We decided to wait and see. Stan put a billy of water onto the fire and made us some Raro (mandarin orange flavored kool-aid type of drink served hot). It warmed us up. The sun started to set as we sorted our gear and stuck it into the tent. Stan started dinner while Craig chopped olives and cabanossy sausage. By this point my toes were uncomfortably cold and Craig and Stan were nice enough to let me go into the tent while they finished up. I took off my wet socks, put on some dry ones, and buried my feet inside my sleeping bag. Soon they were warm and toasty. Luckily we all had ThermaRest inflatable sleeping mats, so our sleeping bags had a layer of insulation between them and the snow. Without them we would have felt like we were sitting on an ice block. After finishing the chopping, Craig's toes were getting very cold as well, so Stan kindly offered to finish up dinner while the two of us warmed up. We arranged our sleeping bags, packs, etc. (Stan's included) within the tent, and Stan soon arrived bearing dinner (pasta, olives, pesto, sun dried tomatoes, and cabanossy). It was a delicious warm meal. We ate it up with glee. We had vanilla creme (pudding) for dessert from a communal bowl. We then licked our dishes and Stan washed them. We were still concerned about Stan's apparent resolve to sleep outside, so we experimented with various sleeping configurations within the tent. By this time Stan was feeling snug and decided he would sleep inside after all. We decided that having Craig and I with our head at one end, and Stan with his head at the opposite end between us worked nicely. We had lots of laughs. Stan hung up a clothesline to dry our socks, so our wet stinky socks were hanging just above our heads. We had lots of "fun", as only Stan can say the word (sounds like "f-n", he says it so fast). It was almost a full moon and we peeked our heads out to see it, the Southern Cross, etc. It was so surreal. Not only was it the first overnight tramp that we had ever been on, it was also our first snow camping experience. This was the first night when I didn't write in the journal. At around 9:30 or 10 we went to sleep. I didn't even have to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom in the snow (thank goodness). It was a bit cramped in the tent, but we all got more sleep than we had anticipated. |
 Stan at a tarn  Craig and Steph climbing 1476  Craig and Steph climbing 1476  The ridge we hiked down  Stan and Steph at the snow campsite  Stan, one of three people in the two-man tent 
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