My first week in the South Island was a very full one. Five straight days of hiking mixed with a lot of driving, followed by a few days in a very wet Franz Josef back with Amy, Becca and Ted. Given that most of the activities were hikes, I’m going to try and keep descriptions relatively short and let pictures speak for themselves. The views are far superior to me trying to put them into words.
LOCATIONS
- Fiordland National Park, New Zealand (Feb 10 – Feb 13)
- Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park, New Zealand (Feb 14 – Feb 16)
- Franz Josef, New Zealand (Feb 17 – Feb 20)
ACTIVITIES
Kepler Track
For my last few days in Fiordland, I hiked the Kepler Track, another one of the New Zealand great walks. During summer season, many of the huts and campsites on the Great Walks are booked out far in advance, and Kepler was the one where I was able to find a window to squeeze in. That window was a single night, so once again, a typical 3-4 day track turned into a two day one.
Those two days consisted of about 40 miles with ~7K feet of elevation gain. Day one was largely getting up to the ridge, walking the ridge into the mountains, and coming down into the valley on the other side to Iris Burn Hut. Day two was one very long grind through 20 miles of rainforest, with very little variety in scenery. Day one was easily the better of the two, and day two was really just about getting back to the car.
My favorite part about this one was really feeling like I was moving through the mountains, instead of just up or around one. It’s the only hike here I’ve done like that, and it was pretty sweet.
Hooker Valley and Mueller Hut
(this week’s cover photo)
Mt Cook is the tallest peak in New Zealand at 12,218 feet. Itching to be around some snow filled mountains, I made the trek over to the area for a few days to do a bit more hiking. Hooker Valley is the most accessible track in the area, and it takes you to the base of one of the glaciers right underneath Mt Cook. Mueller Hut is the vertical alternative, climbing nearly 3k feet in under 3 miles and leaving you nestled high up in the Southern Alps with a much more top down view of Mt Cook and the surrounding area.
If I had to pick one view to see again from this entire trip, it would be the one from Mueller Hut. When I was up there I even got lucky to see a flock of around 20 keas flying around, which are beautiful alpine parrots native only to the South Island of New Zealand. I really wish I had planned far enough in advance to book a night at the hut, because being able to see sunset and sunrise from there would have been absolutely incredible.
Franz Josef Wandering
I was pretty beat from the previous days by the time I got to Franz Josef. The plan was to meet up with Amy, Becca and Ted again, do some more hiking and poke around the town a bit. Unfortunately for our explorations, the weather was not looking optimistic. The forecast for nearly the entire time we were there was rain, rain, and more rain. Mentally I was bummed, but physically my body was thanking me. I had built up a bit of a cold and a few days of relatively easy moving around were much needed. We bailed on our harder hikes scheduled and did a few easier ones to some lakes and viewpoints around the area. Unfortunately, many of our views were cloud and fog cover, but we did catch a couple glimpses of the Franz Josef glacier and the valley of river run off from it.
Outside of that, it was a lot of time spent inside, playing games, eating food, having some drinks, and making some new friends. Out of all the places and times the dumping rain could have come, I’m glad it happened to be there. And in other good news, I got to test out the capabilities of my tent in the pouring down rain, and I was quite pleased with the results.
Below is us enjoying our few minutes of sunshine on our first day.
REFLECTIONS
Back to Seattle
I’ve mentioned at various times throughout this trip how I’ve been missing the natural beauty of Seattle and that I feel incredibly lucky to live in the PNW. It’s also been four months since I’ve been there, and there’s a natural sense of fondness and familiarity that comes when thinking about home. I’m interested to see what my perspective is after being back home for a bit. Are things how I am remembering them, or have I been inflating how much I love Seattle simply due to being in new and unfamiliar places for so long?
I expect to return home and fall in love with Washington again with fresh eyes and a deeper sense of appreciation. I’d be surprised if that was not the case, but I won’t know for certain until I step back into it. I’m eager to find out how I respond, what sticks out, and how being home shifts my view on all the places I’ve visited on my trip.
NEXT UP
My last week in New Zealand is shaping up to be pretty jam packed. Our gang has made the most of a beautiful Wānaka with all kinds of activities that I’m excited to tell you about next week. Tomorrow we’ll head to Queenstown for a few days and as insane as it feels, that will round out New Zealand before I head back to Washington.
As always, if you know anyone that you think would be interested in anything I’m writing about, I’d ask that you consider sharing this with them.
Thanks for being here. Talk to you next week.
– Trevor