Snowcraft

Last weekend I headed up to Arthur’s Pass once more for tramping club’s annual Snowcraft weekend, where you learn about how to use an ice axe and crampons and hopefully some other snow skills. The downside was that the weather was absolutely awful (windy and sleeting so we were all soaked in about 5 minutes) but we still spent about 2 hours playing around in the snow. Sliding around with an ice axe was even more fun than sledding, and I definitely want to do some hiking that involves snow and probably mountaineering in the future. Unfortunately there are no pictures of me because it was so cold and wet, but here are the two pictures I did manage to take:

We were originally going to build snow caves and camp, but the weather was so awful we stayed at a nearby lodge instead. Snow caves would have been really fun but it’s probably for the best that we used the lodge because I was freezing and it also gave us plenty of warm common space to hang out together. Our evening consisted of some snow theory, lots of eating, wine, intense card games (I seem to be spreading Egyptian Ratscrew everywhere I go here), and last but not least, table traversing. This is a game that involves trying to go all the way around a table lengthwise without touching the floor. It kept a group of us entertained for at least an hour, though I never managed to make it all the way around.

The next day we stopped at a scenic spot on the way down to practice using avalanche transceivers, aka play in the snow. So pretty!

Life now consists of cranking out school work before our spring break (and hopefully freeing up next weekend for some more tramping as well). Lots of Indian food, lots of sunshine, lots of cool new people, life is good!

Oh and I forgot to mention that I’ve reached a childhood level of scrapes and bruises on my legs. I suppose this is evidence that I’ve been having fun, or that I’m uncoordinated as ever, or both. Behold the remnants of falling on slippery rocks in the dark last weekend, plus table traversing wounds, plus sandfly bites!

Cedar Flats – a little more adventure than we expected

Last weekend some friends and I headed over to the west coast for another overnight tramping trip, this time through the rainforest out to a hut with hot pools nearby. However, as is customary with traveling, things didn’t go quite as planned. Read on for the harrowing tale of five young Americans lost in the New Zealand bush in the dark – how did they survive? (it wasn’t that bad, I promise, stop panicking mom and dad)

We drove west over the mountains – a gorgeous area I’m getting more familiar with – and out to a town called Hokitika to the trailhead. Almost immediately we got into some serious jungle, which was really fun to see because it was almost like the rainforest at home only with cooler trees.

Trails in New Zealand are not nearly as well marked as they are at home, so things got confusing quickly and our hike started taking much longer than we had expected. Trails are marked by orange triangles, but sometimes the trail ends at a valley or riverbed and you have to wander around until you find where it starts back up again. We had to backtrack a couple times but were eventually confident we were on the right track, though our map was hard to read. So we trekked on, up and down steep inclines, scrambling over rocks and crossing streams.

All was well until it started to get dark. We kept going, sure we must be getting close, and eventually pulled out our headlamps and made sure to be careful as we pressed on. Finally we arrived at another riverbed, excited because we thought we must be at the hut, until we realized there were no landmarks anywhere and we couldn't find the next part of the trail. We saw a faint light up the river and felt sure it must be the hut, but we couldn't find it and it was too far to signal or call out. Everyone searched, and we must have been there in the cold for an hour, afraid to admit defeat because it would mean turning back and either spending the night without a tent or hiking back six hours in the dark. I wouldn't even consider the option we might have to cross the fast, waist-deep river in front of us to continue. The guys were coming back, prepared to bear the bad news, when by some miracle they spotted a small trail and the next orange triangle. Relief!

Only 15 minutes later we got to bridge we'd seen online, sure the hut was just on the other side. This was a happy moment except that this bridge was narrow, shaky, and slightly terrifying to cross in the dark, but we all made it across and found the hut a few hundred meters away. There was a small second hut just the perfect size for five people so we all settled in, got warm, laughed about our own fortune, and admitted how worried we all were when we thought we might have a long cold night ahead. Lessons learned for next time: leave earlier, keep an eye on the time, stay together, carry a tent just in case, and know when to turn back – maybe we should have given up earlier but we definitely would have if we hadn’t found that trail. Celebration quickly ensued, the clearest sky I’ve ever seen in my life was enjoyed, and some major silliness took place to make up for all the anxiety of the evening.

Dahlia and Brandon spent the evening trying (and basically succeeding) to build a fire

Bag of wine: a backpacking essential

It was very nice to see the daylight in the morning, not to mention actually get a good look at our gorgeous surroundings. The only downside was that my boots were frozen solid, but this was quickly fixed as we stopped by the hot springs we missed out on due to our late arrival the night before. The hike back was much less stressful, which we all enjoyed, and we got back to the car in 4 hours in contrast to 7 hours on the way in.

Cute hut and cute frozen dog!

Actually even scarier (and more icy) in the daylight

 From my seat in the hot pool, life is good

The crew - we made it!

In non-weekend trip news, school is good and pretty easy and my classes are interesting and I’ve made some friends in one of them. I’ve been thoroughly enjoying the wealth of Indian food here. Evenings are pretty chill and usually consist of just hanging out, and Dahlia and I have been doing lots of baking (impressive since we only have a microwave with a convection setting) – just like home! I’m very settled in, pretty much feel like I live here, and just generally having a blast. I can’t believe it’s been a month already, time please stop flying by. Last week it snowed, which is very unusual here (climate comparable to Seattle) and we had a snow day so that was good fun. I also went on a pub crawl with the tramping club and met some cool people there and only managed to take one picture. I believe the tally for small earthquakes I’ve felt is 5, with the biggest coming in at a respectable 4.2 (there was a 5.1 but I slept through it, haha). That’s all for now!