Christchurch to Queenstown

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December 17, 2007

As I write this, I am sitting here alone in someone’s car that I met only three hours ago, and I will remain here alone for roughly twenty-four hours. If this is confusing to you then let me tell you the story of today.
Today’s events actually started yesterday night at the hostel, where I saw a post on the bulletin board about a guy heading towards Queenstown the next morning with room in his car. The post mentioned sharing fuel costs so we said forget it-- we’d hitchhike instead. So we took the city bus out to the edge of Christchurch the next morning and began to hitchhike. Nothing happened for quite awhile besides a few conversations with strange people walking down the road until a car with two girls and a guy pulled over for us. It turns out that it was Bart, the guy who put up the post the night before, and two girls who had taken him up on the offer in the post. I figured that it was fate and that we were meant to ride together, so we agreed to split fuel costs and head south with this group. It won’t be bad either since the fuel will be split five ways, and they were headed to do some hiking along the way anyway. So it was Eric and I along with Bart, Djuke, and Betti. Bart and Djuke are from the Netherlands and Betti is Austrian.
We drove to Mount Somers Walkway, which we intended to do anyway, and began the walk up to the hut. We were planning to spend one night there and then return to the car tomorrow and head to Mount Cook.
About an hour in and after climbing a very steep trail though my plans suddenly changed. My right knee, which had been holding up very well, suddenly was not holding up anymore. I would feel intense pain above the kneecap when I lowered myself with that leg, but no pain at any other time. Uphill and flat walking was perfectly normal, but downhill was agony.
It turns out that Bart went to school for Human Physiology, so fortunately he was able to assess my situation. He quickly concluded that it was an injury to the Patella something or other on the top of the knee, which connects the muscle going down the front of your leg. He said typically a week of rest is enough to heal it unless it gets torn, which can make it six weeks or more. But it wasn’t torn, only stressed and tweaked a bit.
I immediately decided that this was not going to work and told the group to go on without me. I took the key to Bart’s car and said I’d go back, sleep there, and wait for them to get back tomorrow. So we parted ways and I made the descent back down the steep mountainside with one leg essentially useless.
Soon I was back at the car and had settled in for a long stay. I’m sure it will be boring, but maybe time alone will be a good thing. In any case, I’m glad that Eric can still hike despite my nagging injuries.

December 18, 2007

After spending the night alone in the car at the carpark in a quiet part of the woods, I awoke because I was uncomfortable again and needed to change positions. It was already light outside. I’d spent the night rotating between the passenger seat folded back and the backseat itself trying to be comfortable, but with little success.
I cooked myself breakfast: plain oatmeal with only raisins to add flavor. Eric had the sugar and milk powder so I was out of luck. Then I spent the morning reading and writing to pass the time until the group would return. It is also worth noting that I ate an entire bag of cookies during my time in the car, but mostly out of boredom.
Being alone with the silence for so long was unnerving at first, but soon became enjoyable. At about 1:30 p.m. and much earlier that I expected, I heard far off voices and knew that they had returned, despite the fact that I could not see them through the trees yet.
The weather had been rainy the entire walk so not only did they not get any good views, but they were also soaked the entire time. Perhaps I had good fortune in missing this walk?
Soon we were on the road again. We drove south towards Mount Cook, and as we traveled the scenery turned into some of the best I’ve seen in my entire life: enormous flats spanning twenty miles across with brown-sided and generally treeless mountains all around. Beyond these mountains were more ranges, which were steeper, gray, and snow-capped. We had made it to the most impressive part of the Southern Alps, and it truly was amazing.
The five of us cruised through the countryside with the music playing, the windows down, and the welcome sunshine streaming all around us. Sometimes we talked, sometimes we laughed, but the whole time we watched in awe as the scenery passed. Beautiful afternoon sunshine lit up the countryside with a golden hue, and was even more enjoyable after over a day solid of clouds and rain.
As we drove, it all just seemed so perfect to me. My heart felt completely at ease and it was one of those moments of true happiness. If
you’re lucky, a few times in your life you’ll be in a moment that you wish you could live in forever, and this was one of them for me. I could just gush on and on about it, but none of my words would do it justice. It just was what it was, indescribably good. And if I feel a moment like that again I will count myself as one of the luckiest people on earth.
Soon we arrived at a lodge near Mount Cook where we’ll spend the night. We all cooked a group meal of veggies and chicken and split a case of beer. Then we watched as the sun sank in the sky and gave Mount Cook a brilliant aura. Spending time with this group of mostly new friends has really been great so far.

December 19, 2007

The five of us piled into the car and got to the Mount Cook Village by 8:30 a.m. to reserve our spots at the Mueller Hut, which is located at 1,800 meters and on a perfect spot to view Mount Cook and the surrounding scenery. At thirty five dollars per person per night the price was steep, but ended up being more than worth it.
My knee was feeling good, and besides, we were only going uphill today which doesn’t strain that particular muscle. Coming down the next day didn’t even register with me as a concern yet. The climb was unbelievably steep. We ascended the side of a mountain, which plummeted at about a forty degree slope to the ground below, but we made our way slowly so it actually seemed easy. In the last 200 meters we encountered snow, and when we reached the top of the mountain the hut was located in the middle of a snowfield.
Clouds shrouded us for most of the climb and also at the hut until about 3:00 p.m. But when they parted I ventured out to the edge of the cliffs, which were on three sides of the plateau, to gaze at the glaciers in every direction. There is a constant sound from the waterfalls all over the steep sides, but every few minutes you’ll hear the sound of ice and rocks crashing their way down after breaking off a glacier. The sound travels across the valley to you well after the slide has started, so it is rare to see and hear the falling event in unison.
We made two climbs today of about 150 meters up to the actual summit of the mountain we’re on; once in the afternoon and once after dinner to see the sunset and hope for a good view of Mount Cook. The first trip was good as Betti, Eric, and I were rewarded with views of most of the mountains and glaciers around us, as well as the enormous valley we drove in through. The second time to the peak we watched in awe as the clouds finally parted around Mount Cook and showed us the peak with all the brilliant colors of sunset upon it. Breathtaking doesn’t even come close to describing it. I’ve seen some of the great cathedrals in Europe and I enjoy looking at many of the man-made works in architecture that our society has achieved, but they pale in comparison to the beautiful created works God has blessed us with through nature. All it takes to realize this is to stand in a place like this and open your eyes to the amazing sights in every direction. Every time I think that it just can’t get any better I see one more place that proves me wrong.

December 20, 2007

The clouds again followed us on our descent off the mountain, obscuring the view most of the time as they had on the way up. Going down was rougher on the knees too, but by being careful and using the walking poles heavily I was able to get down the 3,000 feet without aggravating any injury.
At the bottom, Betti and Djuke decided to stay at the car while Bart, Eric, and I took a two-hour side hike up to Hooker Glacier Lake. Situated near the foot of Mount Cook, it is a spectacular place that many tourists go to because of the easy walk. Once we saw the icebergs floating in the lake, we did the obvious thing of throwing rocks out towards them to see if we could get any to land on them. It was a ton of fun and definitely showed the little boys within the three of us.
Back on the road again we continued south through the plains and rolling mountains. When I come back to New Zealand again, one day I think that I could spend a month in this area alone; it is so beautiful with the perfectly shaped mountains and river valleys on fire with the color of the flowers.
Once we arrived in Wanaka we checked into a hostel and went to work making a huge dinner of fajitas. Being with everyone here makes me feel lucky to be sharing this experience together.

December 21, 2007

We all made it a point to sleep in a bit and enjoy the morning at the beautiful lakeside hostel we stayed at in Wanaka, and after breakfast we decided to follow one of the trails along the lake to enjoy the scenery before hitting the road to Queenstown.
On the way to Queenstown we passed a little town where Djuke had a relative of a friend who owned the local bakery. We stopped there and enjoyed some fresh goodies before continuing on.
Once in Queenstown I realized how much this city is truly devoted to extreme sports, as literally over half of the stores in the downtown section have something to do with this idea. It’s amazing to imagine the money spent here by tourists.
We visited the DOC office to plan our next two treks that will take us to the end of 2007, and were pleased to hear that Betti and Djuke will be joining us on a five night tramp after Christmas. We’ve all grown to enjoy one another’s company so much this week that it will be hard to say goodbye, so I’m glad we don’t have to quite yet.
Eric did our grocery shopping while Betti and I took a walk along the lake before the sun set. The city really is located in a perfect spot- at the end of a long lake with mountains of varied heights and shapes all around.
We ended the evening with a movie and a bottle of wine. We’ll all head our separate ways tomorrow. Bart will look for work here, Betti will go back to Wanaka to skydive, Djuke will go on a bus trip to Milford and the south, and Eric and I will go on a four night tramp through the Rees-Dart river tracks. But it is good to know we’ll meet back here the day after Christmas.

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