Ok. Now I will give a more proper summary of my ten day trip. I started out on Easter Sunday and made a kiwi friend in the bus. Her name was Wendy, a scottish born kiwi doctor. We decided to walk together for the first three days and then the second night we met two american girls who are studying abroad here and then we walked with them as well. So, I had tramping buddies the first three days. They were great fun. One of them may meet me at the end of the month for another tramp. I have to admit though, that it was diffiuclt for me to hike with people again. I am so used to hiking by myself I had hardly any patience and I tried ditching Wendy the first two days but it never worked out for me. After a while I decided it was special to have people to hike with so I dealt with having to wait and stop when they needed to. There is such freedom when I hike alone and I have come to appreciate being able to stop when I want to, and go as fast or as slow as I want. After the first three days I went 2 days without seeing any people but the 6th night I came to the hut and it was filled with food and equipment and 5 old kiwi men on a hunting/fishing trip. It ended up being wonderful since they made me dinner, gave me chocolcate, cake, fruit, snacks, and stories from world war 2. The following day it rained heavily so I skipped the hut on top of Mt Misery and went to a nearby hut on a lake and met some more great people. I am consistently impressed with how many older trampers there are. I met a group of 6 kiwis over 70 who were on a 2-week tramp, and it wasn't the first. I also met a kiwi man who went on 19 week expeditions when he was younger and now kayaks every weekend. On the trip I went over 3 alpine passes and stayed in some huts at spectacular locations near alpine lakes. One night I shared a hut with an australian, an englishman, and two swiss boys and we talked about gear and hiking trips all night. It was great fun. I ate very well at the beginning of the tramp with stir fry at night and eggs in the morning but by the last few days I was eating peanut butter and nutella by the spoonful for energy. The last day when I hiked out I went directly to a cafe and had a huge bowl of french fries and a magnum ice cream bar as a treat.
