The makos U19 season has finished so I was super keen to make the most of the sunny weekend and get outdoors!
My car wasn't so keen!
My battery, I later found out, had a charge of 70 rather than 300 like it is supposed to! But dammit I wanted a weekend away! So we set off anyway -in total I had 7 jump starts from strangers this weekend-.
I woke up early on Saturday morning and picked up Stephanie to go to Lake Chalace, in the mount Richmond national park. We got ourselves and bikes into the car and after a short consultation with the map decided to go in completely the opposite direction and go to Lake Rotoiti instead!
What a fantastic idea that was. What a wonderful part of the world we had traveled to. A glassy, clear glacial lake surrounded by lush green woodland backed by distant snow peaked mountains. The stuff dreams are made of.
This was Stephanie's first experiance hiking, or apparently being even close to a tree. So it took some time to repack her bag. Taking out the hair dryer and six clothing options for the next day that she wanted me to carry for 10km each day.
So we were off!
After ten minuets or so we were trapped between the lake and the dense undergrowth as I had tried to find us a more scenic route lakeside. After finding a rugged wooded corridor to traverse to return us to the track I was absorbed by a sour marsh. I put my foot in to a bog patch nearly up to my knee and was no where near the bottom. Somehow I managed to stop the sink and not plummet in face first but relieve my foot from the peutrid mud. After a quick dip in the lake I resigned to slop on with a sopping wet shoe for the rest of the day.
After an hour or so's ramble through the tranquil lakeside trees, traversing the occasional stream, we stopped for a lunch break on a small secluded pebble beach.
As a relief from the sand fly bites we took a dip to protect our legs!
Glacier lakes are very, very cold...
Just before sunset we arrived at lake end hut. A delightful little wooden cabin where we would be spending the night.
I did the manly thing and built and tended to the fire. Even if one of the other hikers did join in right at the end to steal all of my manly glory!
I stocked the fire well just before we went to sleep. A little too well as in an hours time it was so swelteringly hot in the little hut I had to shed my sleeping bag and shirt!
We hiked back, enjoying the sunshine, the next day after a leasurely wake up.
Feeling a bit sweaty and grotty when we arrived back to the car park so I took a full dunk in the lake. I couldn't tempt Stephanie in this time though!
When we arrived back the car battery was flat again... I went off chasing cars to eventually come back with a very pleasant old couple who gave us a jump.
We then drove over to Blenheim to watch the rugby after a short chill by the river. Stephanie didn't fancy the game so I went on my own.
It was a good game but unfortunately the Tasman Makos ended up loosing so we drove back just in time to bid farewell to Anja, our friend from the hostel, at her leaving party.
