After returning from the North Island, I had one night in Christchurch and left again in the morning for the rest of break. I did three hikes in the mountains of the South Island, as well as visit Milford Sound, which is a large fjord famous for being exceptionally pretty. I departed Christchurch with friends Chris, Elizabeth, and Kelley in Kelley and Elizabeth's car. We departed in the morning, and arrived at Mt. Cook
National Park - where we were to do our first hike - by mid afternoon. We did a one night trip to Mueller hut, which is an alpine hut situated between the Sealy and Sefton ranges, with a great view out towards Mt. Cook. Mt. Cook is the highest mountain in New Zealand, and the whole area around it is glaciated year round - making it a stunning place to visit. The hike up to Mueller hut from the parking lot was steep, but
only took about 4 hours. We arrived just after dark, and set up our tents beneath the hut. (The hut costs $35 a night, whereas camping around it is free) It was a clear night and we saw alot of stars, and throughout the night we could hear the rumble of small avalanches tumbling down the high peaks around us. We woke up about an hour before sunrise, and made the short hike up to the nearby summit of Mt. Oliver,
where we watched the sun come up. It was truly a magical place.

The hike back down was uneventful, and we quickly got back on the road heading further south to Queenstown, where we were to meet Jess and Aaron for some ackpacking. We made it there, spent the night in a park parking lot, and met up with Jess and Aaron who were with our friends Tim and Nick, who were headed back to Christchurch. Our plan was to hike the 3-day Routeburn track, but when we finally got down to planning it we realized it was going to be difficult to arrange, because the
trail does not make a circuit. After a while, Jess and Aaron volunteered to drop us off at the trailhead, after which they would go to Mt. Cook for a few days and come pick us up at the other end, rather than do the backpack with us. We decided that this was a good option, despite not having their company, and that is what we did. The
Routeburn track follows a river valley, thne cuts up over an alpine saddle, and decsends back to the road on the other side, relatively close to the west coast. The first day of the trip was up the Routeburn river valley, and we had bright blue clear skies. On the second day, however, the clouds rolled in and spoiled most of our views of the alpine region. It rained all night and finally let up the morning of
the third day. To liven our spirits, we took a morning swim in the ice cold Lake Mackenzie, which was freezing but well worth it. It was cloudy for the rest of the walk out to the road, where we waited for Jess and Aaron to scoop us up.

The end of the Routeburn Track is about 45 minutes from Milford Sound, which is a glacial fjord on the west coast of the island. It is well known as a beautiful place, and has consequently become a huge tourist attraction. We made the short drive there in order to spend a day kayaking in the fjord before heading even farther south for our last backpacking trip. For our kayaking it was cloudy and raining all day, which was both good and bad for the experience. The bad side was that we saw almost none of the jagged peaks that rise steeply out of the water, save for their faint sillouettes beyond the cloud-cover. The good side however was the hundreds of tiny waterfalls which only appear during or just after rain, which fall off of the steep sides of the
fjord. The end result was an extremely strange and almost mystical beauty, and the kayaking was well worth it.

We now had six people, one small car, and we needed to get two hours south to the lakeside town of Te Anau to do the Kepler Track, which is a three-day backpack through the Kepler mountains. Jess and Chris volunteered to hitchhike, and the other four of us drove. In Te Anau, we met up with Sam, which made our group 7 strong. Seven is alot of people to go backpacking together, but we managed fine. The Kepler
track is essentially a loop, so getting from the finish back to the start was not a problem. At this point we were all a bit bummed about the weather, which had now been consistently cloudy for several days. This continued to be the case throughout the first day of the hike, but on the second day we made a steep ascent and ended up above the clouds. This was absolutely stunning. Looking west, there were the dark jagged peaks of so-called Fjordland puncturing the sheet-like cloud cover as
far as the eye could see. After the ascent, the rest of the day was a walk along the ridge, and the views stayed with us all day. A pretty rainbow followed us for much of this section. The third day was relatively uninteresting, with a decsent back down to through the forest to the lakeside, and then back on to Te Anau.

From Te Anau, we went to the lakeside town of Wanaka to relax for a few days. The thers drove back to Christchurch, while Jess and I waited another day and flew back rom Queenstown. Break had come to an end.

These days I'm back in the swing of things at the university. Lectures end in about hree weeks, so due dates for my final assignments are starting to appear on the horizon. Nevertheless, I've still been finding time to travel. Last weekend I went to the southern coastal region of the island, and visited some of the unique forest andscape down there, including the southern tip of the island (which is only about halfway between the equator and the south pole). On the drive back towards Christchurch, we decided to take the scenic route through some very rural farmland, and ended up on a muddy tire-track road heading up into the mountains. The van (owned by Tim, Jess, and Aaron) had a bit of trouble and we had to push it several times to get it through the mud. we eventually had to turn around and find the main road again, because the van just couldn't make it. This coming weekend I am planning on going on another trip with the philosophy department, this time to Westport, a coal mining town on the west coast. I'm also hoping to take a weekend bike trip to the west coast via Arthur's Pass with two Germans I met through the tramping club. And finally, my brother Tim will be coming to visit in mid-June, which is very exciting. We will probably do some sort of campervan circuit around the south island.

Christchurch is very pretty these days, with autumn leaves all over the ground and fluttering through the air. I'm reading Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenence again, which I found in the university library. All and all life is going well here. I'm feeling pretty settled and comfortable in the society now, and am beginning to make more of an effort to get outside the little bubble of Americans I am living in at Ilam Village. There are less than two months before I leave New Zealand, which is bittersweet.

Thats all for now,

Len