We are still in Wanaka (rhymes with Chanukah)and still loving it here. We've headed out for lots of fishing in the area (no luck), spent a whole day at the Rippon Music festival where we saw some amazing acts and headed out for a day hiking up to the Rob Roy glacier. A beautiful 3 hour hike up a sheer cliff valley, culminating in views of the most awesome Rob Roy glacier, waterfalls running down the stone cliffs below it, Kea (alpine parrots) circling overhead. Just amazing. Marc felt especially fortunate as a Kea flew right down to within 3 feet of us, sat on the rock where we were having lunch, turned his head sideways to see what we might have of interest, and proceeded to peck at Marc's camera bag with his big curved beak. All the while Marc was snapping photos and talking his bird talk to our Kea. Very cool.
Scientists suspect that these birds became super intelligent during the ice age as a survival strategy. They are believed to have the same intelligence as some higher functioning primates, and it shows!! In some hiking areas, local Kea have made a game of stealing hikers boots during the night and throwing them off the edge of a cliff, they will team up to drag a cooler full of food of the edge of a deck so that it will break open and they can feast, and they have even learned how to use door latches, once even locking alpine climbers into their bunk hut forcing them to climb out the window in the morning.
The Department of Conservation has many stoat and weasel trapping programs. Stoats and weasels were introduced years ago in the hopes that they would take care of the introduced rabbit overpopulation. Turns out that the native birds like Kea and Kiwi are easier to catch and eat than rabbits. So now DOC is trying to kill off all of the stoats and weasels. They put out traps that are a wooden box, with a closed screen on one side where you can look in and see a yummy egg on a holder yummmmm, thinks the stoat, eggs!! Then the stoat enters the opening on the other side to get to the egg, the trap is sprung and the stoat has its neck broken in quick order, no muss no fuss. This trapping is really helping to increase bird populations where the program takes place. Until now that is. Recently Keas have figured out how to snitch the egg from the traps. They pick up the heavy trap, toss them around until the egg falls from its cradle and breaks, then they eat the broken egg through the screen. We also noticed sprung traps on our hikes with a stick in the trap, and the egg gone. Tricky Kea. DOC will have to find a way to outsmart the Kea on this one.
Yesterday evening we got back 'home' from a 3 night 4 day hike over Gillespy's pass. We chose to start the hike off with a jetboat ride up to the head of the trail, a very thrilling way to start the adventure. 4 hours of hiking uphill (we huffed and puffed as we have become surprisingly out of shape this past month) lead us to the sibera hut. The hut system here is just brilliant. You purchase hut passes (15 bucks per person per night) hike up to the hut that you choose, claim a mattress in a dorm room, stash your stuff in a cubby, and you are set. The huts provide clean bunks, a cooking area where you can use your camp stove without any wind or black flies nipping at you, evaporative toilets, sinks to wash your dishes, and there is almost always a river near by to bath in. Much nicer than lugging a tent and thermarest then spending your afternoon and evening hiding in your tent from the sand flies.
So, we hiked up to sibera hut, spent the night chatting with an English couple who was also at the hut then headed off to bed nice and early.
Day 2! We got to leave the packs behind as we just headed up to crucible lake, a 3 hour up a mountain day hike. On the way to the glacier fed lake I spotted some rock wren, a very rare alpine bird, Marc took lots of photos. We'll forward them to DOC who likes to hear about sightings of such things. On to the lake. It was beautiful. At the base of a glacier, the lake was filled with small (the size of a car or truck) icebergs. Very cool. As we sat at the side of the lake having lunch, one of the iceberg's submerged section broke off from the top, it sprung up to the surface creating waves over the whole lake. Then both the now separate top and bottom parts bobbed and weaved as they found their equilibrium in the water. Very cool.
Back to a very full hut as a tour group had flown in during the day.
Day 3. Up early and out the door as quick as we could as today is cross the pass day. I could get into painful detail but basically the day went like this, climb up through beech forest, climb, sweat, climb climb scramble, climb, grunt, sweat, climb up rocky tussock hills, groan, climb (repeat for 4 - 5 hours), sit on the top of a huge mountain, look around in awe. Down, down, down the tussock rocky area, jar the knees, down, down, slip, scramble, down, climb over boulders, whine (that was me, not Marc), down beech forest, arrive at Young hut, dump our stuff, take a wonderful bath in glacially cold water. Sit on deck of young hut eating instant mashed potatoes looking at the amazing surrounds.
Day 4. Head out again for a day of less steep downward hiking and out an amazingly beautiful river valley filled with beech forest, ford a river to get to the highway. What an amazing 4 day hike. I love how a shower feels just SOOOO good after spending some time in the beautiful back country.
So now we're back in Wanaka. We have to report in to the DOC office as you leave your hiking intentions there upon your departure, and let them know when you return. If you don't do this they send out a search party for you.
Marc would like to get some more mountain biking in while we are here, and there are lots of historic sights that I would like for us to visit while here too. We'll be sticking around the Wanaka area until we head back to Christchurch on the 18th. So much to see and do everywhere here. It's just brilliant really.
Big hugs to all!
Erin n Marc
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