The first taste of stress I've felt here was during the last week of classes. Projects and essays and quizzes were all due the Friday of June 5th. With assignments completed and bags packed, Rachel, Andrew and I set off for a tour of the south. It would be a battle against the weather oncoming poor weather.
After a morning at the farmer's market we drove to the glacial lake Tekapo, hiked up to Mt. John's observatory, got kicked off the premise, drank wine and scrumpy on a bench under the stars, and had an epic game of monopoly back at the hostel.
The next day we set of for Mt. Cook. The weather was not looking so good so we ended up hiking through a valley to about 1000m elevation to a super cute backcountry hut. We could hear the cracking of ice as climbed over rock avalanches, freshly deposited moraines, and saw Tasman and Hooker glaciers. At night, the stars sparkled through a clear sky as we ate "chili" and drank our wine. A greedy possum flung himself at the hut in an effort to share the warm food. The next day the beautiful weather held out for our valley as we hiked out back to the car. Off we drove to Queenstown.
Queenstown is a magical little ski town tucked away between mountains and a huge glacial lake. Never have I seen as many rainbows as I did in my time there. We cooked up a big dinner on our arrival in qt and the next day we set out to snowboard up on Coronet Peak. The weather turned sour midday so we headed back to Andrew's place to get ready for Jiu-jitsu. We trained at the local gym then had a lovely meal at Fergburger in which I had the greatest hot chocolate of my life.
The next day Rachel set off to helicopter onto a glacier while Andrew and I drove down to Dunedin to climb. Long beach on the peninsula of Dunedin is such a cool spot. It would be so incredible in the summer. Great climbing right a long a sandy beach with a short 5 min walk through bush.
Once back in queenstown, we decided to hike a up a hill the qt's gondola is on. It was a nice hike through bush then snow. With the last few hours of day light we did some bouldering not too far out of town.
The trip was a success. We (Team Gordon as we decided to call ourselves) avoided all poor weather (aside for the cold) and did all of my favorite things with some great people. Queenstown is a wonderful place.
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