Wet Feet in the Ballroom

Alright, alright, alright. Photos! http://picasaweb.google.com/ellen.bucy . I've added to the last album you saw (and finally edited and captioned those photos, too). Enjoy!

We have had an awesome week, traveling up the West Coast from Wanaka. Here's our action-packed agenda:

Tuesday - Laundry and internet in Wanaka. Wait for Betty to be finished at the mechanic. Pick up Betty after lunch and get on the road! Head northwest to Haast Past, about 1.5 hours drive. Quickly pack bags and get on trail to Brewster Hut around 4 PM. Hike straight up for two hours and reach the hut in time for dinner and gorgeous sunset. Sleep in stuffy 12-person bunk room and get little sleep.

Wednesday - Early wake, pack lunches and head up to check out the glacier and the amazing turquoise lakes. Get back to the hut about six hours later, have a cup of coffee and apple at hut before packing up and heading back down the mountain. Get to the car around 4 PM, filthy and stinky smelly. Head through Haast Pass, towards the West Coast, not sure of exact destination. Feel desperate for a shower. Find a bargain tourist park for $10 per person, just south of Fox Glacier. Have the place all to ourselves - access to shower and kitchen facilities! Sit in the kitchen all night and watch TV, until time to retire to tent.

Thursday - Wake up to overcast day. Continue driving north up West Coast. Stop briefly at Franz Josef Glacier. Feel unimpressed by it. Drive on and take a detour out to the Okarito Lagoon. Lay on the beach and practice Swedish while Bjorn fishes for a couple of hours. Drive on, arriving at lovely Lake Ianthe, a DOC campsite. Enjoy a nice lakeside dinner. Retire to tent.

Friday - Forecast calls for rain. Continue north, stopping for a bit in the small town of Hokitika. Visit used book stores and jade shops. Don't buy anything. Head onto Greymouth, the West Coast's "big city". Stop at the Vehicle Testing place and finally get Betty's Warranty of Fitness. Have a celebration lunch at McDonald's (ew, but yummmm). Tour the Monteith's Brewery and enjoy quite a lot of beer tasting afterwards (though not more than the legal driving limit, they told us). Have a coffee, just in case. Head eastward towards Arthur's Pass, stopping at Lake Brunner, a cute little lakeside town. Stay at a tourist park. Have showers and enjoy sitting in the kitchen/lounge while it POURS down rain for a couple hours. Retire to tent.

Saturday - BEEAutiful day in Lake Brunner. Rent Ellen a 24 hour fishing license and rod, and rent a little rowboat for the day to go out on Lake Brunner. Spend about five hours sitting in the boat, casting out and reeling in. Don't catch any fish. Return dinghy. Drive down the road a little ways to Arnold River access point. Go for a lovely afternoon walk while Bjorn fishes. Return to car and enjoy the sunshine while sitting out and reading through our Lonely Planet Tramping book. Place the book on top of the car while packing things up, and drive off to Arthur's Pass, leaving the book in the ditch. Arrive to free campsite in Arthur's Pass just before sundown. Prepare dinner in the freezing cold and dark. Realize we've lost the tramping book and retire to the tent, feeling very sad about it. Wake several times during the night to the blaring Tranzalpine train, passing just next to our campsite.

Sunday - Pack up camp and pack day bags. Climb straight up for 2 hours 15 minutes to top of Avalanche Peak, 1800 meters. Sit at the top and enjoy salami and cheese sandwiches and apples. Climb back down. Reach car by 3:30 PM and retrace our route back to the West Coast. Stop for a brief snack at Jacksons Tavern, a small, nothing town west of Arthur's Pass. Split a venison pie and remark that it tastes like roast beef. Pass back through Lake Brunner and check to see if our tramping book happens to still be in the ditch. Believe you've experience a true miracle when it is! Retrieve the book and celebrate. Arrive in gorgeous Punakaiki and check into a tourist park. Shower, eat, and have a sunset stroll along the gorgeous beach, drinking red wine and collecting smooth stones. Retire to tent.

Monday - Pack up camp. Question the weather, but decide to go on with the Inland Pack track anyway. Weather turns out to be perfect. Hike for 4 hours through rainforest and then for 3 through a river gorge. Ford the river about 20 times. Have extremely cold and wet shoes and pants. Reach The Ballroom, an informal camp site under a huge limestone overhang. Build a fire, eat, and wait for the arrival of the nice German girl we passed earlier. Feel relieved when she finally arrives just before it gets dark and listen in awe as she talks about how she got lost along the way. Retire to tent.

Tuesday - Pack up camp and tramp 2.5 hours out. Arrive at main road, 12 km from where we parked the car the day before. Walk for about 30 minutes down the road, trying to hitch rides along the way. Feel rejected many, many times, until a white station wagon pulls over. Find the nice German girl in the passenger seat and feel so grateful! Get back to car. Fill up our new solar camp shower with water and store in car for later. Go marvel at the pancake rocks and blowholes on the coast of Punakaiki. Drive on to free campsite on beach at Charleston. Use solar shower and feel unimpressed with its water pressure but cleaner nevertheless. Giggle about being naked under a plastic shower in the middle of nowhereland. Eat, watch the sun go down, retire to tent.

Wednesday (today) - Pack up camp and head to Westport, twenty minutes north. Spend hours on internet. Make a few phone calls and post pictures while Bjorn does laundry.

WHAT a week. We are now going to get some lunch, load up our grocery supply, and head onto Golden Bay - the northwestern part of the South Island. We are giving ourselves about 10 days to get through the north here - Golden Bay, Nelson, Abel Tasman National Park, Marlborough (wine country!) - before heading onto North Island. Just over five weeks left and counting....trying to make it count!

Love to you all.