Welcome Flat Hot Pools, more

I've been on my own for a few days now. It's been nice not having to wait around for anyone. I can wake up, eat, and fuck-off on the road by 7:30 am. So here's what I've been up to:

I did a nice loop high in Nelson Lakes National Park. The first day I hiked along a ridge that was covered in snow. The lady at the Department of Conservation information center told me that I didn't need any sort of ice gear to do the hike. Half way up there I realized that crampons wouldn't have been a bad thing, but I was able to make it with little trouble. It was the first time I had to do some risk assessment, but judging by where I would end up if I would have slipped on the snow I figured that I would be fine, and that my run-off was fairly flat and close to the ridge. So here's where I ended up:

Anyway, I got to the hut around 4:30pm and there were 30 people sitting inside. I didn't feel like wasting the day, so I climbed Angelus peak (2 more hours of up, up, up) and sat there until the sun started to set. The next day I walked down a nice valley for 6 hours. Good times.

One of the things Matt, Jordy and I wanted to do while in New Zealand was visit the Welcome Flat hot pools. The idea was to cross over from Mount Aoraki into the Copeland Valley, but it's a 3-day alpine traverse and we didn't quite have the time to do such a thing. However, the hot pools are reachable from the West Coast as well, and that's what I did 2 days ago.

One of my favorite features of NZ is all of the badass geothermal shit that goes down all over both islands. So I figured that I would kick it Kiwi style and pack up 5 Speights Beers and carry them for my enjoyment in the pools. Somewhere between the car park and the hot pools I realized that Speights is an acronym: Superb Piss (they call beer "piss" in NZ) Enjoyed In Great Hotpools Throughout SouthIsland. My bag was heavier for the overnight hike than it has been for some of the 4-5 day hikes I have done in NZ. But it was worth it. I sat in the pools for hours and got absolutely hammered. I passed out underneath a rock, woke up at 8 the next morning, and made my way down to Wanaka where I am now.

A stolen picture of the hot pools:



Picture me kickin' it old skool style with the mountains all around me. Ahhhh....

Drew gets here in 6 days. Word. In the mean time, the original goal was to come to Wanaka and try to get my hands on some crampons and an ice axe and do some alpine stuff. But the avalanche danger is pretty high right now. All things considered, me being alone and my lack of alpine experience, I am out of luck. But I'll check with the guides tomorrow and see what they say. The alpine guides seem to know more than the Department of Conservation people, as DOC seems to cater only to trampers and I am getting sick of walking through valleys. It doesn't require much work. I need to put the map and compass to use...

So that's it for now. I'm going to go play frisbee with some people I met at the sporting goods store. Oi.