Cascade Saddle / Wanaka

Hello friends,

Photos at Picasa

It's Wednesday AM so I figured I might as well update you all to what I was up to this weekend.

On Friday, Cully, Rich and I left Dunedin around 8 pm and arrived in Wanaka at midnight. We camped overnight at a riverside spot, and then left early in the morning to drive to Mt. Aspiring National Park, 55km west of Wanaka. We planned the night before to hike and camp at the Cascade Saddle, part of a tramp from the Mt. Aspiring area West to the Rees-Dart track in the Glenorchy area.

The day started off a little cloudy, but quickly cleared to reveal a deep blue sky above the majestic scenery that surrounded us. We hiked for two hours along the floor of a river valley before arriving at Aspiring Hut, maintained and owned by the New Zealand Alpine Club. After lunch at the hut, we began our ascent up the side of Cascade Saddle towards the "Pylon" the high point of our hike at 1800 meters. From the hut, at an elevation of around 400 meters, to the pylon was a distance of only around four kilometers, incredibly steep. We struggled our way up the sheer side of the valley until we arrived at the pylon, far above treeline, to find 360 degree panoramic vistas of mountains, glaciers, alpine meadows, snowfields, and especially the glorious Mt. Aspiring, first climbed in 1909.

We then descended about three hundred meters to a river valley where we refilled out water bottles and then continued on a few km further to our campsite. We were intending to camp at the base of the Saddle, just above the glacial bench, but decided that staying up high would both save us time in the morning for the hike back, and provide finer views. Thus, we camped at the edge of the Cascade Saddle, which proved to be a kilometer-wide 180 degree cirque of thousand-foot sheer cliffs. We were camped about fifty feet from the precipice and as the sky grew dark, winds sprang up that felt as though they would hurl us to the abyss below at any moment. Luckily Mountain Hardwear and Nemo Equipment felt that stakes would be a good inclusion with their tents, so we were able to keep ourselves firmly grounded.

The hike back in the morning began at 5:45 am with the camp breakdown, followed by a relentless descent into the valley below, made more treacherous by both the extreme angle, but also exposure to winds and the added burden of heavy packs unbalancing our strides.

Arriving at the car around 1pm, we decided to search Wanaka for as much food as we possibly could, so we got some delicious Indian food and then walked the town observing the height of summer in this lakeside pseudo-resort town. We returned to Dunedin that night around 8pm.

More to follow about the next day and our trip to Long Beach, 30k up the coast from Dunedin.

Again, photos of that trip are up at http://picasaweb.google.com/samlibby/

Cheers!

Week 1 in Dunedin

Tomorrow will be a week since I arrived, and quite a week it has been. I spent most of Sunday and Monday walking all around the city, there's a beautiful botanical garden behind my house that stretches for hundreds of acres up North, and there is also a sporting pitch to the East.

I've been really busy with lots of errands and registering for classes and buying a car! (1987 Mitsubishi). This afternoon Cully, Rich, a bunch of other guys and I are going to Wanaka to camp for the weekend and to some hiking.

I honestly haven't had a spare second in a few days, so I apologize for the brevity of this post, but I will write more soon. Back Monday!

Photos!

I've decided to upload all my photos to Picasa, a Google service, so they you can all see them. I'll be organizing them into folders based on different trips or themes, so enjoy! I've just started, so I made an album of California, which is about 1/2 the Getty Villa and 1/2 Justin's beautiful house.

Sam's Photos

Bookmark it!

California and New Zealand Arrival

Hello all, I've arrived!

Monday morning I left VT on a flight to California, where I arrived at 2pm into the care of my good friend Justin. I was to spend two and a half days in Pasadena and Los Angeles, California.

On Monday, we went to the Getty Villa, which is a beautiful estate that was built to house the Getty Foundation's antiquity collections (Greek and Roman sculpture, bronzes, mosaics, and jewelry).

The Getty is, quite simply, amazing. The new building was modeled from a traditional Roman villa, and the result is breathtaking.




I read about the Getty recently in a New Yorker article about Marion True, the former Getty head who entered into controversy over her policies towards antiquity acquisition. The Getty Villa showcases the truly extensive collection of Greek and Roman art and lifestyle pieces.

I also at at In-n-Out Burger, which met all my expectations of a famous California hamburger.

I spent the other day and a half mostly relaxing in Justin's backyard, which was a sunny and temperate contrast to the Vermont I had left.

My flight went from LAX-San Francisco-Sydney-Christchurch, and took about 24 hours total.

I stayed in Christchurch with Darrel and Josie, some friends of the family. Josie's parents live in VT and she and Darrel (A New Zealander) lived in VT as well for about five years. I spent the night with them, and in the morning we went to the Christchurch Art Gallery (museum) before I caught my bus. The gallery was focused on New Zealand art and had a few special exhibits. Below is one of the finer pieces that I saw there, which is made of metal, with the shadow created by a light shining from above.

INSERT PHOTO

With that, I was on the bus to Dunedin, where I arrived at 8pm! More on that in the next entry.

Three Days Left

Thursday night. 8:40 PM.

I'm done with work for a while, after four days working carpentry for Chuck once again, I have tomorrow off and then the weekend. Lots of packing to do still, and cleaning and storing, but the home stretch is here.

I'm going to California on Monday morning for two days, to see a few friends in the LA/Santa Barbara area, then flying Wednesday from LA to Christchurch. I'll be staying the first night with Josie and Darrel, and American and a Kiwi who moved to Christchurch after some time in America. Josie worked in the Intervale with Mom for a while, and they've offered me a place to stay for the first one or two nights before I head to Dunedin or wherever I go first.

I think I'll go to Dunedin because I can move in to my flat right away and it would be nice to get settled. Then: camping and tramping commences.

The photo at top is from Paradise, a town north of Queenstown in the central South Island, at the end of the road near the Rees-Dart and Routeburn Tracks.

Another Tuesday in Richmond, Ready To Go

Tired of VT, never thought it'd happen.
Wish I was seeing this sunrise somewhere, to rip that new snow.

Leaving Monday the 4th for two days in Los Angeles and then flying the 6th to Sydney then Christchurch.

Pumped.