Our return trip March 27 to Milford Sound was spectacular! We made a
number of stops on the drive in and out, including The Gorge, Mirror
Lakes, and Mistletoe Lake at sunset.
March 28 we walked the first section of the Keplar Track ("Hike") near
Te Anau and drove afterwards through an Okanagan-like area to Arrowtown. We met up with and had a nice
visit with Andrea and Jens, whom we first met in mid-November in north
Sumatra on a jungle hike to see Orangutan, and visited again in mid-February in northwest Australia (in Cape Range NP in the very beautiful Ningiloo Reef
area). It was great to hear about their adventures (Andrea and Jens
have a super BLog we follow, and we hear additional detail when we
visit). They also gave us helpful advice about the DOC site near Aoraki (Mt.
Cook).
March 29 we arrived at Aoraki (Mt. Cook) in time to find a great camp site and
hike up to Kea Point for a view of Aoraki and the glacier that carved
the valley where we were tenting. After dinner back at camp, we could
see colour in the sky, so hiked back to Kea Point.
Our intention March 30 was to hike to Mueller Hut (about 1,000m straight
up, and with a few scrambles at the top). This turned out to be too
ambitious and the weather turned once we reached the mid-point. We did
the first scramble up above the mid-point and then realized we hadn't
done loose stone hiking in a while. We did 600m of gain and then headed
down the mountain and back up to Kea Point to eat our picnic lunch.
Tomorrow, March 31, we head to the southwest corner of New Zealand's south island
for a 5-day camp tour up the east coast to the ferry which will take us to New Zealand's north island.
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