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Published: November 30th 2005
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Mt. Aspiring #1
My first picture of the peak from the saddle. It's summer here in the southern hemisphere, and the living is easy. I feel like it's been so long since I felt the summer sun. I've already gotten burned twice. The sunscreen does no good here. Well, where did I leave off last time?
We finished up work at the vineyard. It was a nice stay, but we were ready to be on the road again. Our last days weren't so bad. The weather was sunny, but cool, so working 8.5 hours in the field wasn't all that bad. Clint even had a bath in the cool Clutha River after work one day. We drove back to Wanaka, stocked up on food and gas and then headed south to Queenstown. We only stopped here briefly to check in with the Department of Conservation about our planned destination and get a weather report. Then, it was further on up the road to Glenorchy. This is the southern gateway to Mt. Aspiring Nat'l Park. This is also the place of several filmling locations in Lord of the Rings, like Isengard and Lothlorien. Our plan was to hike the Rees-Dart track with a side trip to Cascade Saddle for a view of Mt.
Clutha valley
From Wanaka looking back down the valley to the vineyards. Aspiring. In our little book that tells about all these places we read that the first few kilometres is 4WD track to a privately owned hut. So, we decided to take the 4WD track up that hut, stay the night and then start our hike from there. It was shorten up the trip so we could get to the "good stuff" a lot faster. So, we get to the car park for the trail and continue onto the 4WD track. It's about 7 at night so dark is approaching. We have to ford the Rees Dart about 6 times. The water was up to the hood of the truck and water was coming in at the bottoms of the doors. It was crazy. There were also huge mud holes we got to drive through, one of them we got stuck in, but after lots of rocking it back and forth we got out and kept going. I finally looked down at the odometre and see that we've gone about 9km; we were only supposed to go 6.5. It's too dark to figure out where we are or try and see this so-called hut, so we just stop there and make
Wanaka
The little ski town of Wanaka on a warm spring day. camp. We wake up the next morning and get out the map to see we definately drove a lot further up the valley than we planned. Oh well, nothing we can do now. We up the Rees valley for about 3 hours and get to our first hut, Shelter Rock. This hut is the nicest hut I've stayed in so far. It even has flush toilets! The next day we had a bit a climb up and over Rees Saddle and then back over the over side to Dart Hut. Now, Dart Hut is the nicest hut I've stayed in. It's right on the bank of where the two tributaries come together to form the Dart River. It sleep 38 people, hash flush toilets, a huge deck, and running tap water at the bathrooms, kitchens, and outside. They also fly coal and wood into this place for the stove. I am still amazed at the luxury of these "backcountry" huts. At Dart Hut we store a lot of gear, only packing the essentials to get by for two days. We hike up the Dart valley to the terminus of the Dart Glacier. I've never really seen glaciers before, especially this
Storm
The storm chasing us back down Matukituki valley. close, so this was pretty awesome. Mt. Aspring park is known for it's numerous and vast glaciers with the Dart being a pretty big one. We haven't done much climbing up this point so from here on it's straight up the mountains from 1,000 metres to 1,600 metres. This is the steepest slope I've ever hiked up. But, every time I stopped for a break the views were great. We finally make it up to Cascade Saddle and great 360 degree panoramic views including the Dart Glacier and Mt. Aspiring. Also, the saddle going down the other side is a sheer drop back down to the valley floor. It was fun to get big rocks and throw them over the edge and listen to how long it took before you could here it or see it hit the bottom. There was also the eery sound of the glacier calving or avalanches coming down it. If you were lucky enough to be looking at it when it happened you could just stare at it for about 5 minutes and watch all the snow and ice falling over cliffs and then a little bit later the sound of thunder reaching you. This
Treble Cone
The entrance to Treble Cone ski area has a waterfall, how great is that? went on all the time for whole two days we were there. Even at night, I would be sleeping and wake up to the sound of the ice falling or an avalanche. Then, there's Mt. Aspiring. At a height of 3,033 metres, it's the tallest and only peak over 3,000 metres outside the Mt. Cook range. It's also known as a glacier horn, where it's ridgelines are are a like a knife edge, all rising steeply until they meet at the peak. The Matterhorn in the European Alps is another glacier horn. Even though this isn't the highest peak in NZ or very high compared to say, Colorado, it's still massive. We camped up on the saddle for the next two nights, doing a day hike up 1,910 metre Cascade Peak where we had unobstructed views of Mt Aspiring from the valley floor all the way up to the peak. So, up to this point is going great, then things got crazy. Here in New Zealand they have a bird, the Kea. It's the worlds only alpine parrot. At first you think, "how neat," then you see what little devils they are. These things are a menace. YOu can't leave
New snow
New snow on the foothills. This is a view from our campsite near the vineyard. anything out without your protection because these birds will come and eat it, take it, tear it up, whatever. First went Clint's thermarest sleeping pad. It got a hole punched in it. Then, on the first night up there they steal my pair of socks I had stuffed inside my boots AND my kettle that I eat and drink out of. Then, the next day one steals another sock from me, and then that night one rips a huge hole in my tent. At this point I just want to start throwing rocks at these things, but you can't. They are a protected/endangered bird, so to do that is like attacking a bald eagle or something. Well, we finally got away from there with not much else missing. We hiked back down to Dart Hut for a night, then back up and over to Shelter Rock, and finally back to our car where we drove to Glenorchy and stopped at the first cafe and got the big breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausage, hashbrowns, toast, and a coffee. We are now in Queenstown for some R&R and to take in the town that is the "adventure capital of the world." This
Rows
This is one "zone" of the vineyard. It takes about 3 days 8.5 hour days with 10 people to "work" these vines. is also the place where bungy jumping was invented, so I'm not sure what that means for me at this point.
More pictures of Queenstown coming soon.
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