Quick Update: I climbed Ngauruhoe (2287m)

Ngauruhoe is the perfect, cone-shaped volcano – covered in scree (rocky rubble) and it was certainly a satisfying climb to 7,500 ft. of elevation

I am man, hear me roar!

Well first off, I wont be adding photos for a little while thanks to my nomadic lifestyle of late, but there are a fair bit of photos on flickr to check out.

I don’t want to bore you with the details of my 4-day solo tramp over the Rees-Dart track, but it was awesome and I did make it out alive The weather was awesome for the first couple days, and it was only the abundance of snowcover that prevented me from completing the Cascade Saddle side trip. It was at the head of the Dart valley that I made an unfortunate decision – I decided to do an entire days walk after I got back to the hut. Leaving the hut just before 3pm, I had a “5-7 hour” trek to reach the next hut. Even with the late sunset, I still needed to hustle. What I hadn’t counted on was (a) I would become really tired when I had treked 4 hours in the morning before starting (b) it rained the whole afternoon, gradually increasing in intensity and (c) despite the topographic map showing a gentle descent with some flat sections, the track was actually composed of a ridiculous number of descents and ascents, with some flat sections in between. By the time I got to the hut, I had zero energy, I was soaked to the core – basically I could barely walk, my only motivation was getting to the dry hut. I actually worried weather I could get hypothermia before I made it to the hut – if it had been a few degrees colder, or if had been at all windy – I probably would have. When I finally arrive at the hut, where I caught up with a couple who took a full, proper day to do the section, they were bewildered that I had arrived a day early and I asked (but kinda ordered) some hot tea to help warm up (the couple and I had the whole Dart hut to ourselves the night before, where they stayed a second night after taking a proper day to complete the side-trip). Blah, blah, blah… I was fine, returned to Dunedin to sort out some stuff, and then I went to Mt. Cook.

Mt. Cook was an awesome little stop on my way out of the South Island. I had planned to climb to Mueller hut (alt. 5,900 ft), but was discouraged by the DOC staff at the visitor’s centre, who said I needed an ice axe and crampons to reach the hut. As consolation, I did the first half of the walk up (under the snow fields), but while resting, I ran into several people who came from the hut and said I didn’t need the ice axe or crampons because the snow was so soft from summer-like heat. Taking this advice to heart, I did the tramp the next day – which was a 1000m vertical gain over 3 hours! The first 90 mins of the track was one continous staircase! But the views, once I climbed through 300m of slushy snow, were jaw-dropping. I had climbed a proper, alpine ridge! The hut itself, though raised about 6 feet from the ground, was still partially buried in snow! The hut and accompanying outhouse are quite small in this photo, but you can get an idea of the surroundings:

Man, I’ve got to blog this stuff?

As my time at Uni Otago as come to a close and I’ve shifted into full-on-traveling mode, it’s beginning to get hard to keep the blog up to date… Right now I’m in a web cafe with ancient computers but cheap rates in overpriced, overtouristed Queenstown, killing time before my bus leaves tomorrow morning to head back to Dunedin for the last time. So here it goes:

Last time I left with a teaser about my time in Doubtful sound, well suffice to say it was one of the most memorable adventures I’ve ever been on, period. In order to get to the sound, it was a 45 min ferry trip across Lake Manapouri and 45 min minibus ride across the “most expensive road in NZ” – which is a service road that connects the lake with the fjord. The road was built alongwith a hydroelectric power station that allows water to empty into the fjord (Doubtful sound) from the elevated lake dropping through a 10 km long tunnel.

For the 2-day trip, I shared a 2-person sea-kayak with Suzanne, from Colorado and we were accompanied by 2 couples, one from the UK and one from the good ‘ole USA. Our guide, Will, who I assume was Maori, finished out the group – and that was it. Once we got onto the water, away from the few service buildings at the head of Doubtful sound, the seven of us had the fjord to ourselves! Over the two days we saw two different boats on a couple of different occasiona, all together totally, maybe, an hour, but that was the only contact we had with humanity. I’ve got to say that having such a gigantic, beautiful area all to yourself (or a small group) is an incredibly powerful experience. In a way its almost like the opposite feeling one must having when entering an arena to thunderous applause – instead of feeling like the center of the world, you feel like you’re just a tiny thing incomparison to the world around you and your life is just a blink in the progression of time and the earth. In comparison to my experiences at Milford Sound, the Grand Canyon or Yosemite NP – the solitude of Doubtful raised the intensity of the experience to a whole new level.

To be continued…

Doubtful Sound – a trip into solitude

Doubtful 085

Originally uploaded by A-Boy.

Well I just got back from Doubtful Sound, an amazing, incredible, jaw-dropping 2-day kayak trip with a small group. Tomorrow I head off to Queenstown to do a long tramp, which one depends on the track conditions.
In this photo, taken during our first day’s lunch, I am standing in front of Hall Arm of Doubtful sound (which is actually a fjord, but misnamed by his holiness Captain Cook), silhouetted by a nameless peak – thats right, nobody has officially named that shabby piece of rock that sticks up nearly a vertical mile out of the fjord!

A semester in 3 hours: finals :-(

Otago University follows the English model of education – independent study over an entire semester with a majority of a course grade dependent on the final exam. In my four classes my finals are worth 75%, 60% and 50% of the grades! This is one of the most stressful things next to the SATs, an entire semester dependent on your performance in a single sitting. This is compounded by the fact that courses here present few opportunities to practice – no quizzes, no tests – nothing to really get used to material.

My geology final, worth 60% of the grade, had to be one of the most demanding finals outside of a pre-med course. The course was split between half-a-dozen lecturers, each lecturing in their specialty, so the course itself was both broad and in depth – a perfect storm of exam hell. Being a NZ geology course, we had to study the geological concepts AND specific details regarding the concepts and the make-up of NZ. I’d be happy if I just passed the final (50%), which I don’t think I could say with any other final I’ve ever taken.

In any case, I’m three finals down, one more to go.