Day 5: On the Trail

The days starts with crossing river that we literally just have to walk through. It is a sunny day and remains to be so the entire day. It actually gets quite hot as the NZ sun is very strong. They have a high incident of skin cancer in the country. Back to the hike. It is a causal and enjoyable walk in the morning. We learn about the pepper plant and give it a taste with a chew of the leaves. Yes it is a bit spicy and too much for many. The Maori used this for medicinal purposes. Our hike ended up being a very tough one with a steep ascent on Cascade Track to Angelus Hut - 1,000m or approx. 3,000 feet evaluation gain sitting at 1,600m. The last bit was boulder hiking - pick the boulder you'd like to step on. This was all created by glaciers way back when. I wasn't paying attention as Terry our English man was into rocks and glaciers. He was our resident geologists. He and Dan were also my hiking buddies as the other two and Kat were at a bit slower pace. So it was a twenty year old, me at 4o and Terry at 67 - age doesn't seem to be a factor.

So finally we reach the top and are greeted with two lakes, Lake Angelus being the main lake. These lakes are quite cold sitting at 1,600m but I have to do it, it is my only "shower" after sweating all day in the sun. It was two quick dips as I knew after the first one that I was still not too clean. Fortunately the sun was still blazing and I warmed up quickly. This hut was larger with 26 beds and someone overseeing it from DOC (Department of Conservation). In the height of the season there can be 50 people there sleeping on the kitchen benches, on the deck and just anywhere one can find space. Thank goodness that was not our case thank goodness. There is something about getting out in the middle of no where to only find everyone! This was a multi-national hut with Americans, Europeans, Israelis, Asians, and even a few Kiwi's (New Zealanders).

This is where my first siting of the Southern Cross and Ryan's Belt came to be. After listen to the song for many years on a dive boat and hearing about it time and again. And to Dan and Ken's dismay I am sure - our young tour guides were not familiar with the song! No worries, I had all seven versions on my ipod and we listened to a couple of them. The Southern Star constellation is on the New Zealand Flag and Aussie Flag and on of them as an extra star.