After hearing our tales and showing them pictures about how awesome Mt Burns and Borland Saddle are, our friends decided to go there next. We loved the area and figured we would join them. First off, we did the nature walk at the entrance.
They had fun mushrooms!
Then, we attempted a drive down the Borland road again, hoping the tree had been cleared.
We came across a washed-out ford. It was no problem for us, but as I was watching the other van through the mirrors, I saw it suddenly tilt forward. I told Jonathan that they might have an issue… So we got out and went to see. By then, they had reversed out of it and were debating if they could make it across. We decided to relocate some rocks to make it easier. And, it worked! Onward we went.
It wasn’t long until we came to another washed-out ford (apparently they last former cyclone did quite a bit of damage to the roads here) and a few guys in a station wagon was working on making it passable for their car. We decided it might be a bit much for the other campervan and decided to turn around.
That night it got cold (32F)! We woke up to frost on the van, the first in about 5 months, probably 2nd time in about 1.5 years.
While our friends got up first thing to do the Mt Burns Tops Route, we took a little longer to get ready and decided to try the Green Lake track, as we had heard good things about it. The sun was barely up in the sky, but definitely not over the mountains when we started.
Frosted ferns.
It wasn’t long before we descended from the forest to the tussocks in the valley.
Jonathan found and introduced me to frost whiskers! I had never heard of them before, much less seen them. Super cool how ice curls up out of the wet ground.
It didn’t take long for our shoes to get covered in frost and cold feet.
Can you see me in there? Grass up to my shoulders!
Walking through the tussocks was hard! The ground was moist, often with sitting water. The path was ill-defined. And the grass went up to my shoulders. Very quickly my feet were soaked and cold. At one point Jonathan completely disappeared from view as he stepped into a 3-ft-deep hole filled with water. So, we both had soaked feet. We tried to trudge on, but when I realized we weren’t as far as I thought we were and still had 3 of these tussock-filled valleys to go, I called it quits and we went back. I couldn’t stand the cold any more.
We went back to the warmth of the van and decided to await the return of our friends from their hike. We sent them on to Dunedin, while we finished cleaning the van. We planned to meet them the next day there, as it was St Patrick’s Day, and we had no desire to be in an university town that night. Shortly after we pulled onto the highway, the driver-side windshield wiper flipped off and was dangling between the A-pillar and the side-view mirror! Guess it had a fracture and finally gave way. Jonathan pulled over and swapped the wiper arms, and we ordered a new one that night.
When we reached Dunedin the next morning, I realized I hadn’t seen my hiking shoes for a while. After some search and discussion, we decided that when I had removed the rug to shake it out at the top of Borland Saddle, I had probably set the shoes on the ground and never retrieved them. So, we spent the day shoe shopping.
The architecture here is a lot of fun.
We had a package that we couldn’t pick up until Monday, so we said goodbye to our friends, who were heading north, getting ready to head back to the states. After getting our package, we decided to visit Mount Cargill. I have found an interesting phenomenon here. You can sometimes see sunrise colors late into the morning or early in the afternoon. I am guessing it has something to do with the latitude and the clouds upon clouds. I find it fascinating.
This was taken near 11 am.
We then went to Invercargill to stock up on our next adventure and pick up some shoes.
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