New Zealand

After finishing the Milford track I had enjoyed a few relaxing days in Queenstown and Wanaka before starting the next part of my trip, climbing Mount Aspiring. The trip began with meeting my guide Murray from Aspiring Guides and going through the equipment I needed and a making some plans for the next few days. Although early in the morning it had looked like the climb would need to be postponed for a day because of the weather that had been forecast, conditions were better than expected so in the afternoon we headed out to a farm where we were to get a helicopter up to Bevan Col on the edge of the glacier below Mt. Aspiring. I had never been in a helicopter before so was excited about this and finally getting going. The helicopter ride probably took about half an hour and was amazing. Flew up over the beautiful hills and mountains surrounding Wanaka. Flying along the valley that we planned to walk out of in a few days time was a great opportunity to get a better perspective of what we were planning.

When the helicopter flew off leaving us on the glacier it seemed like we were suddenly in a different world from the hot sunny valley that we had just left. The sky had cleared and there were great views across the glacier to the Colin Todd hut, where we were going to stay and it gave us our first good luck at the route we were planning to take up the north west ridge of Aspiring. We sorted out our gear and got roped up for the 2 hour walk across the glacier to the hut. The glacier had few crevasses so the walk was good practise for getting used to moving together. When we arrived at the hut it was already quite busy. The hut just has a single room with 12 bunks and a cooking area, we were lucky to arrive just in time to claim the last beds. That evening there were actually 20 people at the hut, so quite a few people had to bivvy outside in the snow. Had a nice evening in the hut getting organised for the next day and meeting other climbers.

When my alarm went off at 3am I was already awake and ready to get up and get going as other people had been getting up since 2. Just after 4am we left the hut and started walking across the glacier to the base of where the main part of the climb was to start. Despite the temperature being -11'C once we started walking we soon warmed up and it already seemed like it was going to be a good day for getting to the summit. There was only a light wind, the sky was clear and there was a bright moon so it wasn't too dark for the walk in. With the stars and the moonlight reflecting off the snow the scene was amazing.

We reached the bottom of the main section of the climb, known as the ramp at about dawn. Good timing as it meant that we wouldn't have to be doing one of the most difficult parts of the route by tourch light. The climb up the ramp was hard work as it was apparently harder conditions than normal, with steep, hard ice making it more difficult to get good placements with ice axes and crampons. But after a couple of hours of climbing we had made it to the saddle where we were able to have a good rest. From here you could see up the final section of the climb to the summit, which still looked a long way off. From here it took another couple of hours to reach the top where all our effort was rewarded. It was a perfect day to be on the summit, no wind and a clear sunny day so you could see for miles around. Over towards the coast, across to Mount Cook which looked very impressive standing high above the surrounding hills and back down the route that we had just climbed.

The way down followed the same way we came up. It was nice to be able to relax a bit more on the way down as we had reached the summit in good time, just after 10am. The most difficult part of the route down was the bottom section of the ramp as by the time we reached there the sun had been on the slope for a few hours and the snow had got quite soft and there was ice fall coming down from above. The day before a women injured her arm on this section of the climb down and later on in the day another guy had his helmet smashed by falling ice. The final obstacle on the climb was a large crevass at the bottom of the ramp, this took a bit of time to get around as the ice bridge across to the main part of the glacier was now very soft and unstable. But once we reached the main glacier it was just a good walk back up to the hut. We arrived back at the hut mid-afternoon and spent the rest of the day eating and drinking to recover from a perfect days climbing. In the evening we made plans for the next day, a route across the glacier and a bit more climbing to reach French Ridge hut.

But overnight the weather changed and we woke up to find the hut in a snow storm. Waited a couple of hours to see if the weather was going to improve then had to abandon our plans for the day and instead we spent the day stuck in the hut. This actually turned being a good day anyway, a few people had left the day before so there was a bit more space in the hut. Spent the day with a good group of people, drinking a lot of tea and seeing what interesting meals we could create from the random food that was left in the hut store cupboard. There were a few guides staying in the hut and they taught us various rope techniques for things like crevasse rescue, so the day passed quickly. In the evening the snow stopped, the cloud lifted and there was a great sunset over the surrounding mountains.

The next day the weather was perfect again so we started our descent. As we didn't have so much time left we descended from Bevan Col off the glacier and down into the valley where we had a nice walk through the forest along the river. We spent the final night in the valley in Aspiring hut, which left us with just a couple of hours further to walk out back to the road the next day.

Having booked to walk the Milford Track at the beggining of July in St. Petersburg when I had just started travelling, it has been something I had been looking forward to for a while, and it certainly lived up to my expectations. The track is one of New Zealands great walks, a group of about 10 multi-day walks across the country and is supposed to be one of the best walks in the world. It is so popular that access has been restricted to 40 people a day and it gets booked up as soon as the bookings open on 1st July.

After a night in Te Anau I had to go on another short bus journey and then get a boat accross the lake to the start of the track, as there is no where to access it by road. The first day of the walk is just a short walk through the forest to the 1st hut so you arrive early afternoon. You have to stay in the designated huts, but they were all very nice and meant that there was a bit less to carry as mattresses and gas stoves were provided. Spent the evening getting to know the other people on the walk, a strange mix of people from all over the world although the majority were from Oz and NZ.

The second day of the walk was a very nice walk along the Clinton Valley. A steep sided valley surronded by snow-capped mountains with impressive waterfalls of melted snow running down into the valley. The area is famous for the amount of rain it gets, it rains about 300 days a year and often gets more rain in a day than most places in NZ get in a year. But it looked as though I was going to be lucky as it was an amazing sunny day which was perfect for the walk. Arrived at the second hut quite early in the afternoon, so to take advantage of the great weather I left my bag and continued up the track to do the 1st part of the next days walk. This was a steep climb up to the Mackinnon pass, the highest point of the walk. From the top there were spectacular views of the surrounding peaks and down into the Arthur Valley where the walk continued. To make the most of the good weather I sat at the top for a while watching avalanches on the surrounding hills as the hot weather was causing a lot of the snow to melt.

When I started walking on the 3rd day the cloud was low in the valley, so the walk up the pass was all in the clouds and could see very little from the top, so the extra walk on the day before had prooved to be worthwhile. Although, at times the clouds cleared so we above them and this gave us spectacular glimpses of the surrounding peaks. The walk down into the next valley was quite steep as the main track was closed due to the avalanche risk. But as we descended the clouds lifted and it became another very sunny day. Before reaching the next hut, we went on a short side trip to the Sutherland falls, the 5th tallest waterfall in the world. Because of all the snow melt the strength of the water was incredible and made a very dramatic scene. Even at quite a distance from it, the spray of the water provided a very refreshing shower. From there it was another couple of hours walk to the last hut. After arriving here, I did try to go for a swim in the river, but to say the least it was a bit cold so quickly gave up on that idea after my feet rapidly went numb.

The last day of the walk was along the valley through the forest. Again this was very nice and even saw a kiwi, which is quite rare as they are suppossed to be nocturnal. As we got to Milford Sound the weather was starting to change as the cloud came down but we were very lucky and managed to complete the walk without any rain. From the end of the walk it was a short boat trip across the fiord to the village of Milford Sound. Its only a small place, but had a nice hostel and a pub which provided a nice dinner and a few pints,which was a welcome change from dehydrated camping food.

Arrived in Christchurch at about 1am on Thursday morning, so have already been here nearly a week. The flight was fine again and I was pleased that customs again decided to stop me and cleaned my boots and tent. Spent Thursady looking around the city. I came here about 6 years ago, and it hasn't changed much from what I remember. In the afternoon I decided to experiance some real NZ culture- sheep. I went to a big agriculture show just outside the city. Its a big thing here and everyone gets a day off work to go to it. As you would expect in a country with 10 times as many sheep as people, there was a huge display of sheep and I saw the highly prized best sheep of the show, it was closer to the size of a cow than a normal sheep.

The next few days were mainly taken up with bus journeys to get to the start of the Milford track. The bus across to Queenstown, was a nice drive with good views over to Mount Cook and the Southern Alps. Just stayed here a night on my way further South to Te Anau. THis is just a small village by the side of a huge lake, so again this was just an overnight stop and a chance to get organised for the next few days.