October 1 Thursday We got up, broke camp and drove back by Twizel and up to Mt Cook/Aoraki, The sky was partially cloudy, but there were blue skies enough of the time for us to be hopeful. At the visitor center we checked out the available walks and were told we could go up the trail to the Mueller Hut until we hit the snow and then we would need to turn back. Only those with the correct snow equipment were allowed to continue. Correct equipment including axes, crampons, rope, etc. We did the Kea Point walk, which terminates with views of the Mueller glacier and the lake at its feet. This is not a particularly pretty glacier as it is mostlly a dirty gray from accumulated bits of rock and dust, but it is the first glacier we have come to so it is impressive none the less. We retraced our path until we could begin ascending the Mueller's Hut walk and went as high as we could. Once we hit the snow we had our lunch looking down over the valley. After climbing back down to the valley floor we drove about 14 kms to a side valley to see the Tasman Sea/Glacier and Blue Lakes. This entailed a short walk to a hilltop where we could see the three Blue Lakes, which are actually a deep green color, and the Tasman glacier terminal end and lake. The lake is spotted with icebergs and the glacier itself is much cleaner than Mueller's. There is a further trail down to the lake and we could see a couple small water craft venturing out to the icebergs. There is also a 8 km hike which would put you right at the glacier terminal end, but we chose not to do that. One other walk in the area is the walk to Hooker's Glacier. This one crosses two cable bridges before getting to the glacier itself, but due to a “rockfall” (landslide) that trail is closed.

So we left the Aoraki valley and began our drive towards Queenstown. We found a secluded little bend off the road along the Kawarau River gorge to camp in for the night about 40 kms outside of Queenstown. After dinner we watched “Lackawanna Blues” and went to bed.

October 2 Friday We woke up to a mostly clear sky with the sun shining. I got somewhat washed up in the frigid water of the Kawarau River and then Chris and I had breakfast. Our little campsite was excellent and it did not take long to break camp and be on our way the last little bit to Queenstown. The town is actually spread out over a long stretch of the Lake Wanatipu shore so the impression is of a much larger town than the 13,000 that actually live here. It is a hub for all kinds of extreme sports and outdoors activity in general. You can do jet boating, whitewater rafting, skydiving, bungy jumping (the first bungy jumps in th world happened just outside town on the Kawarau River), paragliding, mountain biking, hiking, etc. Chris is a member of BBH, a hostel collective similar to YHA (where I am a member) and so we went to a backpackers listed in his booklet. I got the discount as well for traveling with Chris. The first thing we both did was get showers. Then we walked down to the town center and I exchanged the dvd we had watched and Chris started getting info on whitewater rafting. I left him to climb Queenstown Hill and get an overview of the area. It was a nice walk, with a few sprinkles on the way up, but it was clear once I got to the summit. There was a lot of wind, but I had enough layers to be warm. When I returned to the hostel, Chris told me that they had already booked out the rafting trips for Saturday, so he booked for Sunday afternoon. The weather was supposed to be much better on Sunday anyway. That was fine with me. The hostel has free internet access so I tracked down the local SDA church. That involved calling a number because they do not have a permanent location and move from week to week. I read a book for a while before going to bed.

October 3 Sabbath Woke up to a dusting of snow as predicted and more wet clumpy snow falling. I got up and after breakfast of bread with nutella and banana, some yoghurt, and a nectarine, started walking to Frankton 6kms away. I chose not to drive, because it looked so nice with the snow. It was lovely walking along the lakeside with snow gently falling. The temp was 34 degrees so most of it was not really sticking to the ground, instead it was making slush and my shoes got wet quite quickly, which I had not really planned for. Cold wet socks are not the best for walking in. But it was a beautiful, quiet morning and I made it to the designated location, just after the 10:30am starting time I had been told. They were actually still having a morning tea and so I had a few cookies and a nice hot cup of ginger tea. There were 17 people in attendance for this week with the Queenstown SDA company. Pastor Soon Yeung said that in the three years he has been the pastor, his wife has each week declared that maybe this week she will be singing for him and he will be preaching to her (they are the only members of the company), but it has never happened once. People always show up. There was a youth group visiting from Invercargill, further south that made up the bulk of the group, but there were also three traveling Australians and myself. Seven different nationalities were also represented. We did not study the lesson, but instead had a discussion about broaching the subject of why bad things happen to good people with non Christians. One of the youth group members had the sermon about how we need to ask God specifically for help and truly believe He will answer. English is not the young man's mother tongue, but he did a good job anyway. Then we had a small potluch with just the right amount of food and eventually about 3 pm we split up and I headed back the way I came. The snow was nearly all melted, the sun was out, and while it had been very sleepy on my walk in the morning, people were out everywhere now. It was also still very cold. Instead of heading directly back to the hostel, I went through the Botanical Gardens and ran into Christopher about half way through. I continued back to the hostel and he stayed at the gardens a while longer. After a brief rest, I decided there was still enough time for another walk and so I headed towards the suburb of Fernhill on the west side of Queenstown. This leads to several multihour 'tramps', but I gave myself an hour up so I would not get back when it was too dark. I got a lot farther than I thought I would. The One Mile track follows an old water pipeline from a defunct gold mining operation up a canyon to a place called Midway Meadow. From here the Fernhill Loop goes an additional 2 hours, or the Ben Lomond Track goes to the top of the peak for which it is named in 5 hours, or you can walk to the top of the gondola. I decided to follow the Fernhill Loop for the time I had alloted myself. It worked out quite well, because when I had to turn around I had reached a creek crossing that was swollen with snow runoff. While I could see a way across it was probably safer that I did not try. I had a great time marching through the snow that was still heavy on the ground for the last half hour of my walk up. When I made my way back down to the trail head, I discovered that I had nearly done half of the Fernhill Loop and it had not taken nearly as long as they described. I also logged my 6000th picture of the trip, which seems like an awful lot, but I know I could have taken many many more.

In the evening Christopher ran into a English girl he knew from Australia and they went off together. I walked through the town center again and picked up some groceries I needed, then read some more and worked on my trip notes before going to bed.

October 4 Sunday We checked out of the hostel just before 10, but I hung around a while longer using the internet. While Christopher was out for the day whitewater rafting, I drove 10 kms west of Queenstown and walked the Mt Crichton/Sam Somers track. This was easily my favorite walk in the Queenstown area. It was a loop track and the way I went had me following a creek through a nice forest, eventually reaching Sam Somers cabin. The cabin has a couple rudimentary beds and all the cooking utensils you could need, although the whole trail is not really long enough to warrant camping overnight. There was also a somewhat sleepy red possum in the rafters. He woke up sufficiently to get hidden in a wall before I could get the camera out and attempt a picture, but I was glad to have seen one alive since I see so many along the roadsides dead. The trail continues and breaks out of the forest to snowy mountain peaks and there was a brief side jaunt through a narrow gap between two large sheets of stone to some old mine openings. At the peak of the trail there was a great view of the mountains and a few minutes later was another viewpoint overlooking Lake Dispute and Lake Wanatipu. While driving back to town I stopped at a turnout to read the Dept of Conservation marker. A lady parked there said she would let me know her favorite trails in the area. Top of the list: Mt Crichton/Sam Somers track. I told her I just came from there and it was my favorite as well. She recommended one branch of the Bob's Cove trail and a few places up near Glenorchy, where we are heading this evening.

I met Christopher at the appointed time and he said he was slightly disappointed with the whitewater rafting. It had been mostly in Class 3 rapids (we do a couple of those on inner tubes, when we pirate raft the Cache Creek), but too much of the time had been spent just floating lazily between the rapids. At least for the amount of money he spent. We drove up the valley to Glenorchy and made it to the campground at the foot of the Routeburn Track before dark. There was another German couple already there cooking over a small fire. We collected as much wood as we could, made our own dinner with our stove and then joined them to talk over the combined fire. It was bitterly cold and the fire only kept one side slightly warmer, so after talking for about an hour most of our wood was gone and we all headed for bed. They were both from Berlin and had been working picking fruit for almost four months. They were taking a break from that to see some of the island and then look for different jobs. They were going to try and go to the first hut on the Routeburn Track and stay one night. The same issue is in play here: there is snow all over the higher elevations and without the proper gear, you can only go so far. We will probably do another hike instead.

October 5 Monday We got up and decided to take the Rockburn trail past Lake Sylvan and see what we would do from there. The trail was quite muddy, but the forest is not very thick and with so much moss, it often felt like we were walking on a spongecake. Lake Sylvan was beautiful and we found a nice little hut at the end of the Rockburn trail. There was also a short diversion trail to a gorge and what a gorge it was. When we got on the small bridge we were probably looking straight down a narrow crevice churning with water 150 ft below us. Pictures can't even begin to show what it really looked like and we both thought it was the highlight of the walk to that point. Looking at our maps we thought we probably could walk along the river and make it back just as fast as going back on the trail, so we took that route. We wanted adventure, we got adventure. Very soon we had to cross the snow melt river and so we took off our shoes and socks and waded across. Very cold, but invigorating at the same time. Well, after doing this 6, 7, 8 times and the water getting deeper each time, we both began wondering about the wisdom of our decision. I was not worried about my feet, we had enough time between crossings for them to warm back up, but I was becoming concerned that we might get to a point where a crossing would be waist deep or more and with the swiftness of the water, that could lead to many other more serious risks. At one point before we got too concerned a group of canoeists went by. Later we watched a couple jet boats plow through the shallow water we had earlier crossed. Eventually we got to the side of the river we needed to be on and stayed there, but it was still almost an hour of walking through forest and field (with thousands of rabbits criss crossing it in a panic as we came) before we made it back to the car and campground. It was worth it, but tiring and we headed back to Queenstown without stopping at two other short walks that had been recommended to us. Since Chris had met his English friend he wanted to spend some more time with her, so I dropped him off in town at the hostel she was staying at and I went back outside town to a campground for the night.