Lots of Helpers

Our family's life in New Zealand

Taking a Tramp Part 2

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This is the rest of Mr. Diligence’s story.

From Elizabeth Hut we wanted to go to Cone Creek Hut. There is no trail going between. We would have had to go back to the hot springs and back up another track. So we decided to find our way over the mountain.

That morning P said he was sick. We asked if we should just head down. He said he could make it to Cone Creek. We set out at 9:00 a.m. We headed up the mountain behind Elizabeth Hut. It wasn’t very steep at first. As we headed up we were climbing over logs. We came to a few cliffs but were able to skirt around them or over. After about an hour we had to go on all fours. We stopped for a rest then went on. By 11:00 a.m., we had made it to the ridge line that we were going to follow up. Half an hour later we came to a cliff where we could look down the valley. J took both tents so P wouldn’t have to carry as much weight. We decided to have lunch at the top of a steep climb. We got to the top and P collapsed and promptly fell to sleep. J crawled up and collapsed.

Simon climbing the mountain.

Looking up the valley during a rest stop.
The bushes from the center to the right of this photo are called turpentine bushes.
C coming up the ridge toward Simon.
The ditch is a fault line. Mr. Intellectual is about in the center of the photo. They walked through the lower right area here, up to where he is and on.
A mountain across the valley.
They walked up the spur in the center of the photo to where Mr. Diligence is standing to take the picture.

We had lunch around 12:00 p.m. Simon and C took both tents so J wouldn’t have as much weight. P was feeling a lot better after his rest. We continued on and were soon out of the bush. P was not doing very well so J and Simon started taking turns carrying his pack. We got to the top by 2:00 p.m. We had climbed about 1000 meters. We walked along the ridge. In one place on the ridge there was a rock face that we could go around. But Simon and C decided to climb over. By that time P had taken back his pack.

Going on up the ridge. This is C, J, and P.

Near the top of the ridge.
Looking ahead where they needed to go. They walked across the scree slope, up to the top near the right side of this picture, then followed the very top of the ridge.

Simon going along the top of the ridge.
Mr. Intellectual, then Simon, then P on the ridge.

Looking down the valley from the top of the ridge.
Looking back to where J and C were coming along behind.
A rock formation that some climbed over–and Mr. Diligence and some others were “smart enough to go around.”
Looking back where they came from.
Mr. Intellectual taking a rest on top of the world.

Lichens on rocks on the top of the ridge.
Looking back.

We were having a rest on the ridge before we began to go down. Some chamois ran below us. We saw one standing on a hill about a hundred meters away. Some of the others started to baa. The chamois came running toward us and got within ten meters. Then it started running circles around us. P said he had never seen that before.

Mr. Diligence took a couple of video clips of the young chamois running around, so I put them together here. It was disoriented, and trying to find the rest of the flock. The baaing in the video is the boys/men trying to get it to come closer. It ran all the way around them, and then off to join the others.

to be continued…

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Comments

  1. Impressive! We saw three chamois near the top of Mt Noble when we went up there with DF. We tried getting a closer look but certainly not that close before they ran away on us!

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