What goes up...

Day 2 in Mount Aspiring started with an idyllic walk along the Matukituki river valley through meadows and woodland flanked by a frankly ludicrous number of waterfalls, underneath the snow capped tops. Refreshment was easy, as all the water in the streams woke up this morning as part of a glacier.

As it was early and sun had just come over the mountains, the dew was practically boiling off the fields which made for a stunning mystical scene (see Hannah's cool photo below).

After about 4km we reached the start of the climb up to Liverpool Hut, which was to be the day's destination for lunch.

We had read in the guidebooks that of the three climbs (that don't involve ice axes)  this was the easiest - in that no one is regularly killed on it. We knew that the climb was going to be steep, as the start of the climb is only 700m (horizontally) away from the hut, but is 600m lower.

The 'path' started as it meant to go on with a 30-60 degree slope, that was only manageable using tree roots. This is not a path to do in the rain! Luckily for us, the day was beautiful, and the roots were all nice and dry, and hence, not too slippy.

2 hours later, we had managed to make it to the hut, where we stopped for lunch.

Dave had to check whether the loo, which was perched right on the edge of the cliff, was a loo with a view... Unfortunately it was not!

This hut is quite modern, but the original hut was built by either hauling materials up the crazy hill, or dropping wood (with no parachute) from a bi-plane!

As we descended, we were serenaded by a friendly robin, (though here they are black and white, instead of brown with a red breast) . Then a second robin arrived, and started a robin fight, so we moved on before we got dragged into it.

We then walked back through the valley, which was just as beautiful, if slightly less serene on account of sore feet, and general exhaustion. Only had to backtrack a little bit to retrieve some poles that Dave left by the river!

Dinner was a well deserved rehydrated curry, which tasted better than it looked.

Just when we thought the day was over, three middle-aged Taiwanese people arrived at the hut, after arriving late at the car park, and walking the 10k to the hut, starting at sunset, and arriving at 11pm in the pitch dark.

Though this woke us up, it did mean that we went out and looked at the amazing starscape! The Milky Way jumped right our at you, and the Magellanic Clouds were clearly visible, and much larger than I was expecting!