getting the air inside my lungs is heavenly

the weekend of 20-21 may, laura, david, evan, and i drove over to paradise (yes, there is a place in this country actually called paradise, although i think the whole country qualifies) - which is north of fiordland, near the routeburn. the tramping club did a massive trip there at the beginning of the semester, but none of us had climbed "sugarloaf pass" so we opted to go up and over on saturday and camp near a lake before heading back on sunday. as this is near the end of the year, all of us were swamped with work, but determined to get out of dunedin anyways, so we opted for an early out on sunday.

we camped saturday night at one end of the routeburn track (someday, i will return to do this track) and headed up and over. it was a great walk, encompassing a little bit of everything: (except for snow, which we somehow managed to avoid) bush, forest, alpine, tussock, lakes.



[looking up to the pass]


[tussock illuminated by the sunlight]


[threatening rain clouds over the mountains]


[view back towards fiorland]


evan carried his gun and fishing pole with him on the off-chance that we'd (he'd, rather) spot anything. most mammals are considered pests here and while you need a permit to have a gun, there aren't any specific regulations or seasons for most hunting. at one point, a deer literally ran right in front of us, with evan dropping his pack and going running after it, but to no avail. a good thing i think, since it was on the way up; how would we have gotten the thing out? strap it to our packs, antlers and all?



[photo taken by david]


no luck though, in the end, either with fishing or hunting. too bad about the fishing, really since it would have been awesome to cook it for dinner or breakfast.



[river]


we did, however, get to build a campfire (banned most places). there is something incredibly satisfying about fires - you can just stare into it for hours without getting bored. we had carried up two bottles of sparkling wine (read: really cheap "champagne", we're talking six bucks a bottle), so we sat around the fire, eating lollies, drinking wine, talking, and laughing. it was fabulous - and what camping should be like.



[laura and i - i'm the scary looking one (what is my face doing on the right. again courtesy of david]


the kiwis don't roast marshmallows and have s'mores here, something i consider a crime. but, i suppose it's for a good reason: they're marshmallows aren't big and puffy like ours in the states: instead, they're more like squashed discs (but available in either pink or white); there are also no graham crackers, but this shouldn't deter them since there are heaps of biscuits to choose from.

the point being that having a campfire without s'mores is slightly disappointing.

i do like this picture of david and i though:



[evan's picture]


i've been tramping with these three a few times, and it's nice to have a solid group to go with. they're great fun and we always have fun. i'm just sad i found them near the end of my stay here.

laura and i also decided that there will be no more camping - it is just getting too too cold.