Dead Cow in the Road

This weekend's tramping trip brought me to Mavora Lakes Park and Snowdon Forest.  I can't say whether I enjoyed the scenery or the company more!  Two spunky Portuguese ladies and a happy Italian chick certainly made for a fun time.  I even learned a new phrase - la fantastico zucca zanzara! (Yes, the fantastic pumpkin mosquito).

Day 1 - 10k walk to Careys Hut on a cheesy easy four wheel drive track that hugged the North Mavora Lake...

...and was partially blocked by a dead cow.  Gross.

At the hut we were greeted (?) by at least eight adults and two kids (it's a 4-person hut).  Let's just say it made for a restless night's sleep between the person with sleep apnea (ohmygod it's scary to hear someone stop breathing, make a few gagging sounds, and then bust out some loud snoring) and the child who decided to start whimpering in the middle of the night because... it was dark.  Hmm....  At least the views outside were lovely!

Day 2 - 10k walk back to North Mavora Lake car park...

Then a quick drive over to the Kiwi Burn swing bridge to cross the Mararoa River.  Kiwi Burn Hut is located on a "simple" 3 hour loop.  I use quotes because it was a well marked track and there wasn't much elevation gain, but it got tricky when we were about 300 yards from the hut - oohhhhhh! It was so close, yet so far!  The ground was saturated and at points my leg sunk into the depths below up to my knee.  I lovingly refer to this area as The Deceptive Field of Hope (or something like that).  

Once inside the 12-person hut we were happy to find that we didn't have to share with anyone!  I celebrated by cracking into my new FAVORITE tramping treat - Lindt's blueberry intense chocolate. Delish!

Now, being a Heinz 57 American, I opted to have no part in meal preparations (honestly, my mangled heritage is utterly useless for instinctively cooking anything that is not supposed to be bland, super fatty, super salty or super sugary - I just cannot compete with ladies from Portugal and Italy!), so I was responsible for keeping the hut warm.  We were all quite pleased with my fire building and we stayed toasty all night long.  

Day 3 - Easy as pie 1 1/2 hour walk from the hut to the car through beautiful mossy forest.  So pretty!

It'll be interesting to see what happens to this area in the future.  There are plans to build a monorail to create some sort of fancy schmancy experience to get tourists from Queenstown to Te Anau.  A Kiwiburn terminus would be built right in the area that I was tramping this weekend.  Frankly, the idea seems like crap to me... the group that we shared Careys Hut with all came in on 4 wheel drive vehicles.  Just their four vehicles were enough to turn me off to the idea of having more noisy vehicles in the area (part of the plan for that project mentioned above involves 4-wheel-driving through the area).  It really killed the experience of enjoying nature in a peaceful way when the group zoomed by us on our way to AND from the hut...and we were left to inhale exhaust fumes after the cars were long gone. Ick.

Anywho, plans are in the works for my next tramping trip.  Now that spring is here I imagine I'll be out and about quite a bit in the great backcountry of New Zealand!