Up, up, up the steps. And then... the TUNNEL

ALRIGHT so the time has come to update you on what I actually did last weekend.. I once again got out of the city (surprise surprise) and did a couple nights of hiking / camping / hutting in Mt Cook National park with a few people from the tramping club! Yup, tramping. Our adventure started Friday evening, when we left Christchurch for Tekapo to camp overnight before we started our hike the next day. May as well get the 4 hour drive over with while we have the time, and give ourselves a tiny sleep in on Saturday morning. Anyways, you may recognize the name Tekapo because yes, Sarah and Hannah and I had indeed visited here before. It is renowned for its night sky, and luckily enough, this time around we camped on a particularly clear night, even set our alarms for 2am and got up to check it out! It doesn't rival the stars at Mabel though... let me tell you that :) Saw the Southern cross bright in the sky, and the only constellation I recognized was Orion's belt... felt so flipped around! Anyway, we got up nice and early at 7am to pack up and head to the trail head. We had to sign in at the Department of Conservation office in Mount Cook village beforehand, that's the only way you can secure a spot in the hut; so we wanted to get there early! We arrived in great time, paid for our spots, and then had a little breakfast and rearranged our packs (since we didn't need to pack in sleeping mats - they were provided. amazing). We set off at about 11am and I immediately was down to my bottom layers - sun + endless stairs means TOASTY times. Yes - the bottom half of the trail was mostly extremely well constructed STAIRS - spoiled! About halfway up, we reached the Sealy Tarns, glacial lakes just chillin' on the mountain sides. Perfect place for lunch, so we sat and enjoyed the fabulous view and ate our gourmet lunches (cucumber and cream cheese bagel YUP). I forgot to mention that we were basically on the side of a wind tunnel, so it was great to have a breeze while hiking, but as soon as you stopped for more than 3 minutes it was CHILLY. After lunch we suited up and continued up the mountain, this time without the aid of stairs. It was about half hiking up a rocky trail, then half boulder-hopping/scrambling once we got up past the vegetation. Loose rock is my FAVOURITE. Once we reached the top, we had a FANTASTIC VIEW of Mueller glacier and the mountains beyond. We saw about 3 avalanches in our 10 minute photo-break at the top they were so loud! I think it was from the serious melting the sun had done there was so much ice collapsing. continuing around the back side of Mt Oliver (the mountain we had climbed up) we walked about 20 more minutes and aha! The hut was in sight! Mueller Hut was our destination, and once we arrived, we realized it was NICE. Guess its because it is such a popular walk that it is really well kept. It slept 24 people, was overseen by a volunteer warden who came and told us the weather report at 7pm (!!!), had 4 stovetops and provided gas for cooking, AND had water available for our use. It was sweet. It was basically a hostel. On top of a mountain. Where you had to battle fierce winds in the middle of the night if you had to pee. Anyway, we arrived with plenty of daylight left, so we threw our bags on some bunks to claim them, and continued to explore! We climbed to the ACTUAL summit of Mt Oliver, which was the windiest boulder-hopping ever, ended up leaving my water bottle behind to collect later so I could fully use my hands to climb. When we arrived at the top, there was a cairn set up, but the other girl on the trip (from Edmonton!) and I decided to set up an inuksuk, for good measure. We collected what small rocks we could find, and quickly threw one together. It was time to head back down and get dinner started, so we descended back down to the hut and claimed a burner to cook our dinner. THIS day was also St. Patrick's day, so with our dinner we donned our green items and enjoyed the GUINNESS we had hauled up the mountain. I, for one, don't think I have ever had Guinness from a can before, and was very disappointed to find out that I had in fact NOT won a prize because there was a ping pong ball in my drink..... Anyways, after dinner, we received the weather report (amazing), played some cards, and watched the sun set over Mount Cook. Bed time was nice and early, and it was so warm in the hut compared to the tent the night before. The night we spent in the hut however, was SO. WINDY. I had myself questioning the structural integrity of the building, telling myself it had already been there for 11 years... but what had happened to the old Mueller Hut? Yup, don't think about it. Needless to say, slept on and off, and I have little faith that our inuksuk survived the night. The next morning, we watched the sun come up through the clouds, the wind as relentless as it was throughout the night. So we bundled up and tried to get off the mountain before the dark(er) clouds arrived. We made it down SUPER fast and just as the rain really started! It was perfect. We had plenty of time to get to Christchurch, so stopped for lunch on the way and were back in time for dinner! Monday morning, let me tell you, me trying to walk DOWN stairs to go to class was probably the funniest thing to watch.. My legs were sooo sore from walking down stairs the previous day for hours on end. Up? No problem. Down? Definitely an issue. Anyways, I have survived another week of class and this weekend am just doing a day trip... got some HOMEWORK (WHAT) before the break arrives that I need to handle. Hope everyone is well and spring had arrived back home!!