Back In The Mountains

Gertrude Saddle

This blog will be less controversial than the last, so for those of you who didn’t enjoy that one, hopefully this one is better!  Since coming off Stewart Island I have managed to stay busy!  I went and spent a night at an old friends whose in Invercargill and resupplied on food and what not before heading off to Te Anau.  I am still convinced Te Anau—the gateway to Milford Sound and Fiordland—is the most beautiful place on earth with endless hiking opportunities!

Somewhere on Greenstone-Caples

I also may have failed to mention that I bought a car here again—a 1997 Honda Orthia!  However, since I was going by myself and had all day, I decided to hitch down the Milford Road rather than drive (and pay for gas).  I had hoped to climb Gertrude Saddle, but due to the clouds was planning on settling for Lake Marian.  Luckily, a local drove me down the road and told me that it was meant to clear and Gertrude Saddle would have great views, so I ended up doing that instead!  I am so happy she gave me that advice because the saddle gave amazing views across the Gertrude Valley on one side and through several valleys all the way out to Milford Sound to the west!  The hike was more of a rock scramble, so really fun!  As if that wasn’t good enough, I also had three Kea (the world’s only alpine parrot and my favourite animal) fly overhead!  Needless to say, Gertrude Saddle was incredible, but, unfortunately, the size of my knee was pretty incredible too… The following day, since the clouds were much lower, I decided to hitch up again and hike to Lake Marian.  It’s only a three hour hike, but was rather steep and ended at an alpine lake, which was gorgeous.  I even had the lake to myself for about 15 minutes!  Slowly but surely I am discovering more and more of Fiordland, but it’s such an unbelievable and untouched place!

McKellar Saddle

Afterwards, I opted to do the 4-day Greenstone-Caples circuit.  It was a relatively easy hike, so I thought it’d be good for my knee and it’s just outside of Queenstown, where I had to pick up my parents.  While the walking was generally easy through wide river valleys, the scenery was still really pretty and the weather turned out to be much better than forecasted.  The huts were extremely fancy and the other hikers were quite different than I was used to from Stewart Island—many of them were very inexperienced.  The highlight of the trip was going across McKellar Saddle, a subalpine saddle, that links the Greenstone and Caples valleys and was full of awesome views.  Again, it was a nice, easy hike, but it made me realize three things.  First, my knee is not healed.  Second, it would be nice to have someone to hike with.  Lastly, I am starting to get a bit bored but flat walking and getting more and more interested in vertical climbing.  Maybe that will be my next endeavor!

From McKellar Saddle

Anyway, my parents are now up somewhere high above the Pacific and I cannot wait for them to land and start our trip!  It will be very busy, but also full of amazing places and much-needed time together. After they leave, I will almost immediately start a one-week stint as a volunteer hut warden for the Dept. Of Conservation meaning I will be living in and looking after a hut on an alpine lake for a week!  From there, I have no plan really except to hike as much until the snow stops me!  However, I still am not sure what I am doing in/after May, so that’s the next mission—to figure that out!