Mt Aspiring washed out but there are treks everywhere!

Great news, It's not cold it's beautiful outside!!! I actually got to wear my white golf shirt (with fleece over) but nonetheless, it's an unbelievably nice day. We headed out for Mt Aspiring National Park around 8:30 am. The Lake Wanaka region is glitzy. Nice homes surround the lake and a ring of mountains surrounds all of that. They said the year round population is 6,000 but in the summer, that number goes up to 22,000 due to holiday homes. The road followed the lake, with lots of twists and turns, then suddenly, it branched in two directions, one straight up a gravel road to Treble Cone Ski Resort and the other gravel road to Mt. Aspiring.

Treble Cone Ski Resort is smack on the side of a glacier on a mountain. it has two lifts and it costs $99 a day!!! The other two resorts are no cheaper. We were shocked. It's the last weekend so the rate was only $40 and we had snowboarders and manical skiers on our car's rear end the whole way. (only two lane roads here). We were pretty much alone on the gravel road to the national park excpet for the open range cattle and sheep. We had two cattle fighting right near our car and Larry sped by before we got kicked, butted or dented in any way.

About an hour into the drive, the road washed out. Literally. suddenly there was a sign that said "Wash Out" and a huge eight foot chunk out of the road with a 10 foot drop into a stream. You could ford around it but it was fairly deep and our little Nissan Sunny doesn't have that much clearance. So we turned around and found a trek about 40 minutes back the other way. Seriously, you dont have to look hard.There are treks off the road pretty much everywhere.

This trek was called Rocky Diamond Lake trek. It was a three hour loop first up a steep sheep meadow, then thru steep and craggy wet rocks. i think it was a stream as the water was pouring down the trail as we hiked. Then it got a bit steeper and rockier but we could see the top and finally made it and enjoyed an orange while talking to a very nice austrlian couple. (the only other people we saw on the trail). The view was 360 of mountains, valleys, pasture, lake, it was pretty spectacular. The pictures will never do it justice.

Before we started the hike we went to the DOC office (Department of Conservation)/. They had the funniest sign on the door. It said "Swinging bridge has been swept away on the Roy Glacier. Proceed to cross river with caution" So how are you supposed to do that??/ These countries are great about personal responsibility. No guard rails.No signs anywhere for the most part. They just expect you to use your common sense and face the consequences of your actions. In the pool last night they had a sign that said "Please refrain from climbing on the rocks" In the US it would have said, "Climbing is strictly prohibited". So much nicer to say it in a friendly manner.

Four walks were closed for the next six weeks due to lambing. After all the babies we've seen, we wonder if they have them later up here due to the cold?

Here is the style I've noticed from ChristChurch south. The men wear shorts. REgardless if it's raining or freezing, the males wear shorts and not even long shorts but short shorts with massive socks and hiking boots. Even guys with pale, skinny, hairless legs wear shorts.

The women....it's not good. The general looks for females 15-50 is dark leggings with black flat shoes and then a short skirt or jumper over. Mainly it's a short jean skirt that's frayed. Then some kind of sloppy, shapeless sweater with a scarf. From 15-25 it's an ok look but after that, sorry. It looks bad. I thought it would be all Patagonia and North Face and fleece due to all the athletic endeavors.

In the small lobby of the small hotel we are staying in, there is a huge picture of a woman on a skeleton sled coming down a run. Having a daughter that did skeleton for years, i asked the manager, "So who's the woman doing skeleton in your picture? Is she from New Zealand?" He said that picture had been there for six years and no one knows who it is or why it's there. so instead of a scenery picture of New Zealand, they have this random woman doing skeleton and no one know why or who or what.

It was Larry's turn to pick the snack for tomorrow's lunch. And by the way, we are having dinner in the room tonight. Roasted chicken with salad we bought. The red peppers and hydroponic lettuce were all on sale. And we got something called Tiger Skin buns. They smell like they have cheese on top. For the snack Larry picked cookies called Mint Zingers. The cookies here have hysterical names like Flim Flam and Tip Top and Chum Chum. I could be an advertising genius if I moved here.

Today at our tiny, affordable hotel we say two interesting cars. A Masserati (?) and a Bentley. Larry was shocked because the Bentley had a trailer hitch on it.

Practical suggestions from Larry:

Always check with the DOC office before a hike. They can tell you what's closed, what the weather will be, and they rate the treks Easy, Medium Fitness and High Fitness. Might I add, all the ones we've done have been High Fitness. Thank God we bring so much energy along!! They did fail to tell us about the road being washed out but maybe they assumed we could ford it.

Always bring an orange on a hike. It's refreshing and easy to carry.

On all our treks, we are the only ones with belt packs for water. People seem very impressed by this. They all use backpacks.

If your wife is complaining, encourage her to make it to the top of the trek. She will be happy she did.

New Zealand Pinot Noir with hummus and crackers on your hotel balcony is a great way to spend happy hour.

Tomorrow we head for Franz Josef and Fox Glacier. You CAN rent a helicopter and a guide, and fly over the glaciers, land on them and frolic in the snow. But that costs a lot of money. so we will be hiking to the glaciers and touching them for free. You have to pay to frolic here.

We did get one good tip from the tattooed guy in the sauna. He said the Lewis Pass on the north end of the island has hot pools and Japanese soaking rooms. That sound really nice right about now. My left knee aches.

More later!