Redefining "wet"!

Hi everyone!

Instead of "All Over Down Under" I should be "A Lover Down Under" or "A Loner Down Under" because I am really loving this scenery but I'm starting to feel a bit lonesome! Fortunately in two weeks I will be headed to Sydney to meet friends and head to Tasmania. Crazy as it sounds, now five friends (Susie, Renee, Val, Thad, Tonisa) will be joining me for the last two weeks in Tasmania -- I think we should call our group the "Tasmaniacs"!

I'm on my weekly break from the mountains. For two weeks I have gone on backpacking treks during the week and retreated to the hostels & cities on the weekends to do laundry, buy food, dry out, etc.

The first week I hung out in Arthur's Pass National Park in central South Island. This second week here I have been further south in Mt. Aspiring National Park, where I completed the Cascade Saddle Route and Routeburn Track. This coming week I am further south in Fiordland National Park around Te Anau, doing the Kepler Track and possibly the Dusky Track.

What have I seen:
* A haunted hut -- the spookiest night ever, with scary sounds all night and my equipment even making noises as if being picked up.
* Beautiful glaciers going down all the way to rain forest, and would you believe still expanding? (A strange side effect of global warming) I even heard the incredible exploding sound of glacier calving.
* A porcupine-like animal getting into my food IN MY TENT twice the same night -- talk about scary! I later found out that this is the kiwi bird! It shriveled into a ball when I pushed it outside -- and finally left.
* Some of the worst rain ever. I was on the Routeburn Trail (widely considered one of the ten best hikes in the world) when I got caught in a deluge. Fortunately I had already seen some amazing scenery, but once in the storm I couldn't see much anymore. (Although I did see LOTS of huge waterfalls all around me, including the Earland Falls, one of the highest in the world). I was planning on camping that night but my sleeping bag was soaked thru, so fortunately I had the sense to beg to stay in the expensive hut that night. The crazy thing is rain or not, you put on the same wet clothes the next day to go out hiking again. You save the dry clothes to sleep in each night.
* New shoes -- my feet were giving me some problems and so I just bit the bullet and bought some new shoes in some sports store! Pretty gutsy to just throw away my old shoes but that's what I did.
* Tiny church branches -- I went to church in Greymouth and Queenstown. Both places the church is very small. It reminded me a lot of my mission and brought back fun memories. The spirit was strong, the members were friendly, and the gospel is the same there too!

Please feel free to send me questions or comments (either to my email address or to the comments in the blog) and I'll try to respond. I will be sending out pictures when I can find time to do it where I can get a cheap internet connection!

Love,
Ray