We meet Ruth the trip leader at the Queenstown Information Center at 8:00 am. She has stowed the rest of the crowd in a cafe a few doors away. A Dutch couple, Marco and Marleen; 2 German molecular biology students, Sabastian and Marcel, traveling together before they become roommates; and 4 women traveling alone, Sarah, an American, Natalie from Switzerland, and two Enlish gals, Naomi and Dawn. Ruth, a blond Kiwi, looks well-suited to shepherding this pack of kidlets around, and young they are, other than us, as the average age is probably less than 25 if you take us out of the equation.
the trip starts out with some anxiety because, as Ruth calls base to find out where our 11th group member is, she picks up three messages from Michael in Auckland, trying to reach us. R's sister has called to say that their mother is in ICU in Denver. We connect with Diana on the cell phone, and after finding out that Marilyn has stabilized, he decides that we continue the trip that we haven't really started yet, and check in on Day 4 when we get more groceries at Invercargill.
Snowy peaks in all directions, it is just spring up here.
We load up into the corporate craft, a Toyota 4WD 12 passenger van towing a trailer rigged out as camp kitchen and storage unit, to pick up groceries and then drive to Te Anau. We go through the mountains and then the terrain crosses a broad, green plain to Te Anau Lake, a huge lake bumped up against far away mountains to the west that lie between us and the Tasman Sea.
Birding at 100 kph is not the best but we manage to id the Australasian magpie and harrier, spur-winged plover, and nankeen kestrel. In Te Anau, R spots a tui or parsonbird, an odd creature with a white wattle below its bill.
Ruth takes us over the Divide separating the Pacific Ocean drainage from the Tasman sea watershed to the ending of the Routeburn track - a famous national highway of a hiking trail, for a warm-up trot. Above tree line it is a world of mosses, lichens and stunted shrubs. The weather is supreme, the wind cold, because we are under the influence of a dry Antarctic pressure system. This crowd does not stop for photos, lingering or savoring.
At camp we are introduced to the camp routine, sandflies and each other. Ruth stuffs us into 4 tents to speed the getaway to Milford Sound in the morning. It is cold, I am sleeping next to a sweetheart of a 21 year old girl (with a cough) who I have just met, I am wondering if we are going to be rushing this hard for the remaining 9 days.
