Bros, Possums, and SUNSHINE (followed by more rain)

Hello again friends and family (both mine and Eric’s),
The last time we left you, we were enjoying a beautiful night in the wet wan together as we enjoyed each other’s company and the lovely smells that come form our sink. We touched another glacier, it was raining again, we had fun playing in the glacier “danger zone” where everyone else happily strolled with us, unconcerned by this lumbering geo-hazard (which NZ is full of apperntly).

Then, being fed up by 2 weeks of the rainy West Coast and our spirits a little downheartened we headed over Haast Pass into Otago, the slightly dryer region of the South Island. We stopped for night in Wanaka, lots of “bros” there for the snowboarding. We decided to head off on a tramping (backpacking) adventure to get ourselves in the backcountry. The route chosen was in one of the ranges farthest inland (hopefully with the least snow up high) so that we hopped to get up high and summit a peak or too. The huts we were traveling too were privately owned, after talking to the owner we realized this was a pretty low use route (because there are more popular routes when it’s warmer than the end of winter), but the huts were free and we were told we probably wouldn’t see anyone else this time of year. Our first day was a fun adventure of driving over several river fords to get Luby to the trailhead, which was a huge river delta emptying into one of NZs massive alpine lakes. Then we packed gear and the following morning we headed off for a day of trail free ridge hiking in beautiful weather, but things here in NZ are a bit steeper than CO, that came to be pretty apparent as we pounded up ridgeline after ridgline working our way up into the mountains.

We finally got up high enough to see Mt. Dingle, which was our goal for the trip, though upon seeing this glorious peak we realized without some ropes, crampons, and ice axes this might be a little out of reach for a summit.

So we decided to summit the tallest peak in our area that was accessible in this late winter/early spring snow capped alpine environment. From there you could easily see (and point) at our original goal.
-summit pic
From the summit you could get a great view of the basin where our Moonlight Hut was, a couple thousand feet below us. It was truly a beautiful and remote place.

We got down to the hut after a full 2 lunch day of ridge hiking and endless assents and descents. It was a tough day, but hey, IT WASN’T RAINING!
But the fun wasn’t over yet, turns out we were the first people to the hut since last fall and upon entering the hut we found the place completely rubbished (trashed). We surprisingly came upon the current resident of the hut hanging out in the corner, a possum, not looking so happy with us being there. Well, to make a long story short, and to protect those that are maybe not so accustomed to some of the harsher aspects of life, we did our duty to help in the elimination of an invasive species from this pristine New Zealand environment. With that behind us, we spent a while cleaning up the cabin, glad to wash the table free of possum terds, and enjoy this backcountry world, knowing there was just a little more safety for all those native ground dwelling birds out there.
Later in the night, the fun didn’t stop, I was awakened by a growling screaming noise from outside, flowed by a clawing and scratching noise by the fireplace hole I had covered up near the doorway. I guessed that that our possum friend from earlier may not live alone, and his mate was trying to get in. I turned on the headlamp to investigate and the clawing stopped upon using the light. Thinking that I had scared the friend away I fell somewhat back to sleep only to be awakened again by a renewed clawing at the blocked up hole, this time though, not wanting to sleep through any unwanted entrances and potential mauling by pissed off possums, I got up, put on the headlamp, stepped into Eric’s jandals (kiwi flip-flops), and grabbed the axe. Meanwhile Eric snored away peacefully, blissfully unaware. I headed outside, upon opening the door I half expected to be jumped by a band of large cat sized possums with gnarly claws, so I decided to go out axe poised. Got outside, no sign yet, headed for the hole’s entrance, but found no one there to meet me, did a lap of the cabin and nearby woods ready to scare away anything (just imagine meeting a guy walking around in the woods in the middle of the night wearing only flip-flops, boxers, and a headlamp carrying an axe, I bet you’d be a little scared too)…and I guess the scare tactics worked, went back to sleep, and didn’t run into any varmints the rest of the night.
So the next day, deciding the ridge route maybe wasn’t exactly what we wanted again, we took the “trail” back down the stream and river valleys back to the van. Whatever trail was there, had been overgrown, so it was a fun morning of bush whacking followed by an afternoon of about 2 dozen stream crossings, most waist deep in beautiful silty freezing cold spring meltwater, but hey, it was faster than the ridgelines. And, IT WASNT RAINING!!

We finally got back to the van, luckily in one piece, and not ever coming close to being washed away by the Timaru River.
The following day we headed back through Wanaka to Queenstown, and as we got into the city we got a glorious flat tire. Being a pretty big piece of shrapnel puncturing our tire, it went flat pretty fast, so we pulled over, pulled on our bright orange overalls, and got nice and muddy fixing the tire (seeing as how it was raining again, right on par). We felt pretty proud of ourselves for getting everything fixed and good to go in 20 minutes. Then we headed into Queenstown. Turns out it is a pretty crazy place, we were keen to leave this morning and head over to Milford Sound or Te Anau for sea kayaking in the fiords. Unfortunately, when we went into get the original tire repaired or replaced, the later being the only option due to the size of the hole, there were no tires of the right size in this town so they had to order one in, supposed to be here tomorrow, in the mean time we are waiting it out in ski town paradise, pretty much the Aspen of New Zealand.
Well let you know what the future holds, sorry if this entry is a bit babbly, I’ve been sitting and writing concise thesis text all day and this entry is about exactly the opposite of that, figured I ’d mix it up