January 9, 2011- Mueller Hut

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January 6- On the road again

Jim and Helen have been incredibly gracious and have given us one of their cars to use while we are traveling around the South Island. The perks of having friends around the globe are great.

So we loaded up the car and headed South, with Mt Cook Village as our destination. The ride was pleasant, only 4 hours, and the scenery changed quite quickly as we cruised through the countryside. The flat farmland around Christchurch gave way to the brown sheep country of the Mackenzie District, which soon changed to the dramatic glacial valleys of the Mt Cook area. I've been on the drive into this area several times already, but I am still blown away by the incredible turquoise color and grand scale of Lake Pukaki, the vribrant blues of the hanging glaciers contrasted with the grey rock of the mountainsides, and the sheer size of everything and how small it makes you feel in comparison.

My friend Kristina, who I met during my last trip out here, met us in Mt Cook Village and we all went together to Unwin Hut, just outside the village. It's a basic hut situated just off the road and serves as a base for mountaineers. We'll spend tonight here before climbing up to Mueller Hut tomorrow.


January 7- Walking in the clouds of ice

After checking in with Dept of Conservation office to get our hut tickets first thing in the morning, we drove to the carpark at the end of the village. We're only spending 1 night at the hut and there are gas stoves available so we need to carry very little in our backpacks. As a result, they feel very light. That will make the 3000ft vertical ascent tomorrow a little easier.

The way up is very straightforward, basically straight up a rib on the mountainside. The horizontal distance covered is probably no more than 1 mile, but it is like doing the stair-stepper the entire way. To make things more interesting, the weather changed from bright and sunny to 50mph winds and sleet on the way up, so it was good motivation to keep on moving. A few times the gusts were so strong that I was knocked off of my feet, but fortunately the places where these events occured were not too precarious of positions, so major falls were averted.

Soon I crested the ridge and the expanse of the Mueller Glacier and the surrounding valley of hanging glaciers clinging to the rocky cliffs on either side came into view. I knew all that remained before getting to the hut was a fairly level ridgeline, and soon we arrived at the hut door.

Mueller hut is in an alpine setting, sitting at about 5500ft above sea level, and due to the exposed location, it is built much differently from other huts. Thick insulated walls and heavy walk-in freezer style doors to keep the cold out. It's a remarkable place.

We spent the afternoon enjoying the company within the hut, drinking hot coffee while reading, and watching and listening to the ice sheets calving off the glaciers all around us.


January 8- A hard crash

We descended the mountain and could feel the temperature increasing with each step downward. By the time I got to the bottom it was sweltering, quite a change from the wintery conditions at the hut where we woke up from just a few hours before.

I was exhausted, having come down with the flu over the past day, so I gave Andrew the wheel to drive in hope of getting some sleep along the 3 hour drive to Wanaka. I should have known better than to think that I could sleep though. Watching a person drive for the first time on the left-hand side of the road with the drivers controls on the right-side of the vehicle is a nerve racking experience. Turning on the windshield wipers when trying to signal and drifting over the shoulderline constantly assured me that I would get no sleep during this drive.

But we made it to Wanaka...safely, and found a campground by the lake where we pitched our tents. The full effects of the flu hit me then and I pretty much passed out in the tent after dinner. A night filled with poor sleeping, hacking up a lung, and even a sleep hallucination involving yelling would follow. But fortunately later the next day I would begin to feel better.


January 9

Feeling slightly better than dead when I awoke this morning, I contemplated makign today a nothing day and staying at the campsite for one more night. After moving around the camp for a bit though, I summoned the strength to pack the car and head south towards the area of our next tramps.

Last year I had been told about a special backcountry hut that is located only 5km down a gravel road just off the main highway outside of the town of Te Anau, near where we are headed. Most huts are several hours worth of walking to get to, so this one is unique. I was told about it by a very cool hut warden whom Eric and I got to know, but was told to keep it a secret. It's a hut that we can stay at for free because it's included under our annual hut pass, but DoC doesn't want the public to know about it for fear of it becoming over used as free lodging by tourists... exactly what we're doing.

I did not know the exact road to take to get there so we stopped in at the DoC office in Te Anau to ask. The woman at the counter had a puzzled look on her face when I asked what road it was down and was very hesitant to give me information. But I got it out of her and we left, arriving at the hut half an hour later.

At the hut, which is located at the end of the road through a sheep paddock and on the edge of a forest, we cooked a great meal and enjoyed the peaceful sound of the babbling brook that runs next to the hut.

Just as we were finishing dinner, another vehicle arrived. A man came out to talk with us and seemed extremely surprised to see that 3 Americans had found this place, asking us several times exactly how we knew where it was. He was a mountain climbing guide who was bringing 2 clients to stay here and had obviously told them that this was kind of a secret hut, as they also kept asking us how we knew about this place.

We chatted for a bit and they soon realized that we're not just tourists and are worthy of knowing about this hut. It's nice to have a little local knowledge here and there.


January 11

We spent yesterday at Milford Sound, which is an amazing palce to be even having been there several times already. I never get tired of the amazing cliffs and waterfalls, or even just the drive itself. We camped at a beautiful campsite just along the river.

Then with 2 more days to spend before starting the Dusky Track on Thursday, we spent some more time in the town of Te Anau. We began by first, abusing the free internet access at the public library until they told us our time was up there, and then moved just outside the building to the grass where we ate lunch under the trees like homeless people. With ample time on our hands we soon turned to one of our favorite pasttimes of making fun of other tourists that walked by, but were just out of earshot. I guess some people just never grow up...

I also got to test out just how well my protective case is for my iPhone when we drove off with it still sitting on top of the car. 50 yards away from the parking lot I realized my mistake and got out of the car in a panic to see if it had miraculously stayed up there... nope. Instead, I saw it laying in the road at the exit to the parking lot. Temporarily forgetting that cars in fact were still driving on the street, I sprinted in the direction of my possibly smashed phone. I grabbed it off the pavement just before a large RV would have crushed it and was happy to see that it was still on and still appeared to work.

Then we drove back to the "secret" hut we stayed at 2 nights ago for one more free night before heading off towards Dusky Sound. Andrew appears to be catching the illness I'm just gettting over. Hopefully it doesn't cause any problems for us.

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Comments

[Bart]

Wonderfull
Such a wonderfull place over there! I'm a bit jealous, sitting here in hospital (learning and studying, not as a patient!), indoors with rain and clouds outside. Enjoy your trip. Best regards, Bart from Holland