Greetings once again!
Here's a quick low down of the 9-day spring break I just had...buckets of fun!:
Rental (small!) car pickup in Christchurch. Drove to Mt. Cook for MOUNTAINEERING adventure.
In Mt. Cook, climbed Mueller Hut route through scree and snow to a snow bivy sight. Woke up Easter morning for a gorgeous sunrise over Oceania's highest peak...what an Easter start! spent the day going over mtneering skills as we traversed toward the Annette Plateau and Mt. Sealy...gorgeous views of Cook and the Mueller Glacier far below...great photos soon!
Left Mt. Cook, traveled through Twizel on the way down to touristville, i mean Queenstown area. We hated the hecktic insanity of Queenstown, so we didn't even stop! Camped in Twelve Mile Delta, right on the beautiful lake...spent a half day in Glenorchy, then Arrowtown, going on random river crossings and long explorations into the moutains and forests...fantastic scenery.
Spent just over a day in Wanaka: caught another outrageously pink sunrise, I climbed at Hospital Flat...a great, classic spot we had to ourselves that day! Met up accidently with another CCSP group in the town of Wanaka, and eventually traveled north toward the West Coast.
Most epic night of my life...0 minutes of sleep and a very miserable, cold, wet night in the sleeping bag...enquire later...it's a long story. Drove through the west coast...miserable stormy weather with many landslides, road closures, and floods. Crazy...
Sucked it up and went to a hostel in Hokitika to dry out and sleep well for once. Toured a jade/Greenstone carving factory the next day...amazingly unique.
Drove back through Arthur's pass and nearly ran out of gas...spent an afternoon doing solo time in the foreign landscape of Castle Hill again, I was bummed not to climb.
Camped near Oxford by this cool river gorge that night...a quick morning drive to Christchurch to attend a church service at the astounding Christchurch Cathedral...and return the rental car...
so many little side trips and funny stories mixed in there that words can't justify...i hope the photos do a little better job later!
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