Summiting at Sunrise (with help from Balto)

This past weekend my friends and I conquered Mount Fyffe, one of the higher peaks in the mountain range located a few kilometers away from the convent. (For my Adirondack-acquainted audience, Mt. Fyffe is as high as Mount Marci – a mile or so high).  Paige, Sophie, Halle, and Amy and I left mid-afternoon and hiked up the front path – a perpetually steep trail that made us work for every step. We reached the hut by four, very happy to be done with our leg-burning workout. 

A lot of New Zealand tourism comes from “tramping”, their term for hiking. But I just can’t seem to get that word switch down. To me tramping sounds like something I would be ashamed of. 

ANYWAYS. The Department of Conservation has built these huts at various points along trails, and they are quite cozy accommodations – 8 bunk beds and a stove. So the 5 of us settled into the hut, waiting for our other friends to join us…

So, our three guy friends had left earlier that morning, deciding that they wanted to take the back way up the mountain. But… they got terribly lost, ended up hiking for 8 hours straight, including climbing up a rock face and sliding down a screefield, ripping their pants, and “almost dying”. So when they crawled into the hut, they collapsed on their beds in delirium saying “you don’t know what we’ve been through”. It was quite entertaining. They didn’t appreciate their pain in that moment, but believe me, they loved telling the stories when we got back.

We watched the sunset from the hut, gobbled up our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and then tried to get some sleep.

Kaikoura Peninsula

Our hut. (Bathroom/outhouse on the left)

CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS?!?!?!?!

 

We woke up at 5 am the next day. Yes, 5 am. And we hiked under the stars, through the SNOW, to see the sunrise from the summit. It took us another hour and a half of strenuous hiking to get up there. And I was, no joke, channeling my inner-Balto to get through that knee-deep snow. But the view and the experience was definitely worth it!

The girls at the summit

Darin, Jonny and Gabe, in all their glory.

Trying to get any warmth from the sun.

The weather was perfect for our Fyffe hike, which we were grateful for because this whole week has been rainy! We finished our final week of sustainable community development class, which has given me a lot to think about as far as future plans. So this is a forcibly inside-weekend... although now I’ll have to bike back to the convent in the rain. This is what I go through to keep in touch with all you fine folks. But it’s worth it. Hope you’re all doing great! Miss you!