This place is a traveler's paradise. A sleepy looking town nestled around a small harbor, anchored in by all sides by peaks that run for thousands of meters skyward, Queenstown boasts a population of about 7,000 residents and at any given time, about 14,000 travelers! Its a year round resort boasting backpackers and old, blue haired women. Its great and I can't believe that it took me so long to get here.
After arriving, I had a bit of a rest ahead of me. Jayson and Jessica weren't due in for a couple of days, so I busied myself with a bit of shopping and hiking in the surrounding hills. Queenstown Hill, which overlooks the city, isn't much of a climb on paper and I thought a bit of a warm up was necessary just to see how much pain I would be in for the following week. It took me three hours and a few rests, but the climb ended up being Mt. Si-like, with Mt. Si views. No belief in switchbacks here, no sir. Its just straight. up. hill. The summit was a rewarding experience however, as to one side the lake rolled into infinity (being about 60 miles in length) and on the airport side planes flew below me as they prepared for landing. And then to the east of Queenstown, just mountain after mountain in the distance - this is what I came here for and this is where I would be spending all of the following week. I couldn't help myself, yes, I did start humming the Lord of the Rings theme.
And in a coincidence of coincidences, you would think that a small town in New Zealand would be the last place you would run into someone you knew in New York, but sure enough I was just walking out of a store when in front of me stepped my friend Don. I became friends with Don through Jenn Tesch (who coincidently, will be in NZ in a couple of weeks). He had left NY a last summer to go on a 90 day cycling trip to the west coast, which then turned into a NZ/Australia trip. I didn't even know he was in my hemisphere until a couple of weeks ago and now here he was, standing right in front of me. We laughed. Don had heard I was in NZ and just said, "Man, I KNEW I would run into you."
So with his friend Jonathan, my plans for a nice restful few days went up in smoke. Many late nights and many tired mornings, but when you run into someone you know randomly on the other side of the world, appropriate celebrations are in order.
Jayson and Jessica arrived on Sunday and I'll tell you, not much in life runs higher than seeing the faces of two of your best friends after a bit away. I think it took approximately 2 steps before things were completely normal, with me getting ripped a new one for holding a nice starbucks cup in hand. We had a great little barbecue on the waters edge and have been getting ready for the trip tomorrow.
They brought with them my ATM card and backpack (thanks mom!), so we're all set on that end. Tomorrow we take a shuttle to the start of the Routeburn (pronounced Root-burn), then will spend the next 7 days hiking, with the first two days being fairly leisurely, with only 4-5 miles to put down. The second day takes us up a side trail through what's called "The valley of ferns". The third day consists of a brutal 14 mile stretch down to Howden Hut. Day four gives us a "day off" in the form of a kayaking trip through Milford sound. This will end the Routeburn portion of the hike. Day 5 is a tough scramble up to the Upper Caples Hut and the Caples Track. From here, on day 6 we cut down through Steel Creek, a sparsely trekked trail running down into a valley to the Steele Creek Bivvy. And day 7 gives us a 10 mile hike on the Greenstone Track where we meet up with a 4x4 and then a water taxi back to Queensland. Not sure what to expect other than great views, rain, tired legs, and a lot of sand flies - this is the only place I've been where the rangers are recommending nothing less than 100% DEET.
Between Jayson and I, I anticipate about 1,000,000 photos will be taken.
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