What a place to celebrate the beginning of Easter. A glorious spot in between Wanaka and Queenstown, hidden away in the mountains, a real treasure. Rumour has it that this is Shania Twain's property, or was at least, perhaps it has been sold recently. Numerous hut book comments allude to her songs...the fav being "looks like we've made it, look how far we've come now baby"...so appropriate. To celebrate Good Friday we had Hot Cross buns for dessert tonight with chocolate custard. We shared this with Phillip, a guy from Czech Republic and shared stories about different Easter traditions. After dinner we had the special treat of sitting on the deck and watching to sun go down and the moon rise. There is something magical about sitting in silence watching the moon and stars glisten in the darkness. So good that there is nothing we can control about nature. So often we have control over our surroundings, situations, or the people we are with. But there is nothing we can do to make the moon shine brighter or to clear the skies in order to reveal the stars. It provides perspective; it is strangely comforting.
We were trying to figure out how to explain what our typical day looks like, so thought we'd just outline today as an example. Wake up just before sunrise, pack our bags, boil water, rehydrate lunch in a container, cook porridge, dress, put on wet boots and socks, eat porridge, start walking...all of which takes about one hour. Start walking, up about 100 flights of stairs, stop for second breakfast (aka cold porridge), down about 80 flights, cross a creek, up another 100 flights, stop for lunch (cold rehydrated mince, vege and rice), down 100 flights of stairs, cross a river, arrive at the next hut, boil water, rehydrate dinner, eat, read, look at maps for the next day, sleep...next day...start all over again.
Carefree, simple, challenging, rewarding, surviving.
Carefree, simple, challenging, rewarding, surviving.