First trek: Lake Rotoiti

After a comfortable night at Lewis Pass we headed to Nelson Lakes National Park with the goal of hiking the Travers-Sabine circuit. We hiked in three hours the first night to stay at a hut, where we met a friendly group of outdoor education students. We also met a hungry, inquisitive kea who popped up by the table where we were cooking, looked us over, and promptly stole as much cheese as possible when we turned around.

My journal for the day says: three introverts went for a walk. It was quiet.

The next day we started with the goal of hiking 8 hours to the Upper Travers hut, but ended up staying at the John Tait hut due to completely excessive amounts of rain.

Ostensibly it was a five hour hike from our first hut to John Tait, but we spend a few extra hours crossing flooded creeks and finding new paths when the river ate chunks of the trail. We all ended up with wet feet and switched to splashing through puddles instead of going around them, and we were all soaked despite ostensibly waterproof gear.

Irony is: carrying a bottle of waterproofing spray in your backpack in case it stops raining long enough to waterproof your jacket.

(Pause for everybody who has seen my jacket to say "I told you so" about it not being waterproof. I'm waterproofing it again tonight and I'm optimistic.)

We made a fire and some food at John Tait Hut, and decided to stay the night there instead of pressing on through continuing rain. There was one lonely German at the hut, as well as two friendly Kiwis. When we walked in the German was sitting in front of the wood stove halfheartedly trying to start a fire. When Nathan Golshan took over making the fire the German moved into a corner and didn't say anything the rest of the time we were there.

The rain lasted for at least fifteen hours.

The next day we decided to hike back down the river and go to another hut at the head of the lake, aptly named Lakehead Hut. The other hut nearby was called Coldwater, which was also extremely opposite. The trail was the same for half of the trip and then crossed a swingbridge to the other side of the river. The hike was much shorter and much more pleasant without the rain: we spent a lot of time commenting on sections of the trail that had been streams the day before. The most shocking thing was that all of the sketchy gullies and creeks had fully dried up.

We made it down with dry feet and a lot of spare time, despite a stop by the river for Nathan to wade in and fish. Wesley and I watched and commented on how cold the water looked. No fish were harmed.

The same outdoor education group was at the hut, along with a group of high school kids out on a school trip. We tried to explain the American health care system and government shutdown to the Kiwis, then gave up and drank hot chocolate instead.

The next day started rainy and stayed that way. We had a cruising hike along the lake during which Wesley swore at the rain and said helpful things like "It's wet. And cold."

We were motivated by the vision of fish and chips when we hit town, so it was a crushing blow to find the fish and chips shop was only open for three hours a day on Friday and Saturday. We crossed the street to one of the only other buildings in town, which was a hotel and restaurant, and dried out by the fire while we read Top Gear NZ.

During lunch a lightning bolt hit a telephone pole across the street.

At the end of lunch we unanimously decided to stay in and watch the rain through the windows of the adjoining hostel rather than soak ourselves for another four hours to reach a hut (and a further four coming down from the hut in the morning).

All told, it was a fun hike.