Mount Somers continued...

We headed up hill (again) away from the Pinnacles hut late in the afternoon (again). We spent the first few hours climbing up into the alpine and with each hill we crested the views got more stupendous. Hiking in the afternoon allowed us to see the changing scenery in the long afternoon sunlight. As we hiked higher into the hills the surrounding foliage changed from lush tropical ferns, to dry scrubby manuka brush and finally to low grasses and murderous spiky plants. There may be no poisonous snakes, spiders or large carnivores in New Zealand but the plant life is definitely out to hurt people!

We saw stunning vistas as we travelled, looking down into deep gorges from our precarious path along the side of old scree slopes. The clear weather allowed us to see the snow capped mountains to the South of us and we were lucky enough to come across a few beautiful water falls and clear, cold pools. We gratefully stopped for water and swimming breaks at every opportunity.

Finally our continuous climb up hill leveled out and we arrived in the Saddle, a beautiful high alpine valley filled with gently waving grasses and the occasional deer track. There were hawks soaring overhead and small bush birds darting through the wild fields searching for seeds. We didn't stop to admire the scenery for long, we still had a fair ways to go before we made it to the next hut and the shadows were getting longer. At first I was relieved to be heading down hill but as the path got steeper my toes and knees started to protest and I began to look forward to the up hill sections we encountered. Our trail had not only changed in grade but it began to follow a quad trail, likely put in by farmers to round up stock. The track was right beside a large gorge with a fast moving creek or small river, there were phenomenal boulder piles where huge slabs of rock had fallen into the creek bed and Iain and I did a small side trip to see one of these 'water caves'. At first I was loathe to take my hiking boots off to go wading into the creek, but I figured it would be one of the few times I'd have the opportunity to explore water caves. Also, the sand flies were terrible and I hate to be left behind so I followed Iain into the shadows. The water got quite deep in sections and you could see where the power of the water had worn the smaller boulders smooth, creating slick undulating walls in the larger boulders that formed the 'caves'. We clambered up the creek until the way up was blocked by a waterfall to high to climb, then we turned around and headed back towards our gear.

We emerged soaking wet and happy for having done some exploring. It was then a race to get our boots on before the sandflies swarmed. Twenty minutes later we found ourselves looking down onto a wide open plain and a beautiful 24 bunk hut with a few other hikers relaxing on the veranda.

The rest of the evening was quiet, we watched the sun set and chatted with our fellow hikers, they were an interesting group. There was an older couple from England who had been hiking every day except one for the month they had been in the country. The one day they didn't hike was the lady's 72nd birthday - when we expressed our amazement at such an active 'vacation' she said "what else should we do? I have cataracts so I can't read for more than an hour and television is boring" I thought she was quite inspirational! There was also a group of 4 teenagers with two school teachers. The students were learning about orienteering in the backcountry as part of a highschool course and it was the first time some of them had put on packs.

I was feeling the climbing and the hiking in all of my out of shape muscles and crawled into my bunk not long after dark. Iain stayed up to watch the stars and while out on the porch he made friends with a cheeky possum who mistook a post for a tree. Then it was into bed for him, the next day was going to be an 8 hour hike back into the alpine then down to the valley floor. We were both excited to see the rest of the track.