Our time in New Zealand is coming to an end, good thing we have onward tickets because we could spend a lot more time here, but we have so many more countries to see. We had to part with our car recently; we sold it two days ago for $650 NZ, so we really only spent $200 NZ on a car while we were here. It held up great for us, we sold it to an Israeli guy that we met on our last hike here.
Our last hike was spent in Nelson Lakes National Park and it was our favorite out of the 5 that we did here in NZ. The hike was 7 days and was very adventurous and the most beautiful, each day we were surrounded by mountains or walking over them. We hiked over Travers pass which was only one of the highlights of this hike, at 1800 meters it was a tough climb up sometimes straight up, and over areas of snow the views were amazing! We met a handful of travellers and hiked the last half of it with Oebele (pronounced oo ba la) a dutch guy what a character he is. He had never hiked in the mountains before and was extremely amazed. We spent quite a bit of time with him during this hike. We also met a German girl travelling alone and also a couple that has been travelling for 3 years already and have about 8 more months to go which they will spend in South Amercia. We enjoyed all the stories of their experiences they have been in some really remote places.
The next highlight of the trip was the hike up to Angelus Hut we began the day at 500 meters and climbed as high as 1600 meters. That morning brought an extreme climb up 900 meters in 4 km (2700 feet in 2.5 miles) it was crazy and slow going, but so well worth we climbed over Mt. Cedric and then down the ridge sometimes it seemed we were hanging on the edge over boulders bringing us to Angelus Hut after crossing many snow fields on the sides of the mountains. Angelus hut is tucked inside a little valley at 1500 meters with snowcapped mountains surrounding it right on a little alpine lake which was still frozen over with a few gaps in the ice Pat went for a quick dip the crazy guy that he is. He also had a group of 8 New Zealand high school students watching in amazement and then embarrassed America and gave us Americans a bad name by flexing his muscles when he rushed out of the lake. It was rather pathetic! (maybe hefll type a bit to tell you how cold it was) his typing is much slower than mine and internet access is not free, so that is why I always type. We walked near and above two rivers for most of the hike the Travers river and the Sabine river both beautiful.
One of our most favorite spots is a place called Cupola Hut which we took a side trip to on this particular hike it had extremely beautiful views of Mt. Cupola and Mt. Hopeless. It was a nice cozy hut with only 8 bunks the hike up to that hut was our second day in to the hike involving a very steep climb. This had to be one of the best views in NZ that we experienced and we had it all to ourselves. That is the great thing about the walks here, you can have places all to yourself, but then you can meet so many interesting people at the huts. We spent Thanksgiving on this hike and thought of you all a lot while we ate our ramen noodles and canned tuna. Wow what I would have done for some turkey with all the fixins!
Before we made the hike in Nelson Lakes NP we spent two nights in Dunedin it is a Scottish city in the south island on the east coast. It is a college town, which meant cheap eats and drinks. Pat and I met an English girl at the hostel we stayed at and went out to the pubs with her. It was a good time and good beer. We also went to a pub for dinner and got the special meal deal $7 NZ for a burger, fries and a liter of beer thatfs ($3.50 US!!) We also met an American couple as we walked up Baldwin St. (the steepest street in the world). After talking with the couple we learned they are on vacation and live in MI and are very familiar with Sterling Hgts (small world).
Some other small world things, we met a woman in the supermarket who has friends in and has been to St. Clair Shores and the lady that owns the Hostel that we stayed in in Dunedin has friends and has been to Kalamazoo and loves Michigan pure maple syrup. Anyway Pat and I leave for Australia in 3 days, we are just going to hang out in Christchurch until then. We are getting together Saturday for dinner with Matt and Katie the couple we met down in Stewart Island that will be nice and will do some relaxing until we leave. We received our last vaccines today and learned of our weight loss. Pat has lost 16 pounds and me 13, Pat only weighs 5 pounds more than me. Well Pat and I are off for a lunch special at a Chinese restaurant now $3.50 NZ each for chicken satay and rice! Yum! I really wish we could get pictures here, but logistically it just isnft going to work.
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