tooth, what tooth!

little did i know that my tooth would be the least of our problems. we just got back from our tramp and are totally exhausted. we ended up doing the walk in 3 days instead of 4, for the main reason we didnt have the medical supplies to last the last day. so we just walked on until we reached the end. our main problem during this walk was our feet. we had been working in our boots for the last couple of months and thought that they were broken in but damn were we wrong. a couple hours into the walk sam had taken her boots off to check out the blisters she had on the back of her feet. good thing we brought blister stuff and good thing it came right off as soon as she put her boot back on. lets just say that we didnt really know what we were getting into before the hike and lets just say we were a little unprepared.

the 1st day of the hike was hiking up to the top of the mountain, which was really hard. but it was absolutely beautiful. the walk was in the trees with crazy ferns and moss all over the place. every now and then the trees would brake and we would see our progress up the mountain, for the small town of te anau that we were staying in was getting smaller by the hour.

now because this track is one of the great walks in new zealand, it is well marked. what makes this so great is when we come upon a sign it will give you the time it should take to reach the next point. now on the 1st day we were on point. we were even getting to places in less time than the signs were saying. we thought this was great, our feet hurt but we were making great time and this walk should be as bad as i was expecting. this was before day 2 happened.

like i said before, we made it to our 1st hut with time to spare. it was about 3 in the afternoon and some other people had already been there. we chatted with them for a while, had some dinner and went to bed. it was the only night we had in a hut for this whole trip because everywhere else we had reserved camp sites, so it was nice to have a gas stove with a sink to wash our dishes and a mat to sleep on inside a building. that night it was really cold for the fact that we were 1084 meters up.

i woke the next morning around 6 am to the most beautiful site a had ever seen. the hut we were at was above the cloud line and it looked as if i could walk out the door onto the bed of clouds that were in front of me. the other thing was that the sun was coming up so the light hitting the surrounding mountains and the clouds were amazing. i sat there for the next hour and a half watching the sunrise and waiting for everyone else to wake up.

9:07am we left for day 2. now i said earlier that day 2 wasnt the best. we stared out with a 400 meter climb to the top of the mountain. getting to the top was amazing but our feet had allready started slowing us down. it was going to one of the most demanding days and we were already onto hour 3 and had gone thru half of our water and werent even close to being half way thru day 2. after reaching the top we spent the next 3 hours crossing over the ridge system of the mountains. it was a beautiful clear day and it was getting really hot out. well maybe it wasnt that hot but 75 degree weather with 25 pound pack equals im sweating a lot.

after the ridge system the track got really hard. we had been accustomed to going up hills and not so much going down so lets just say that the blisters that had formed earlier in the walk meant nothing because the ones that formed on the way down were far worse. it said that it would take about an hour and a half to get down the rest of the mountain to the next hut, but because it was so steep and our feet hurt so much it took more like 3 hours. i thought i was going to die. the pain was so bad i swore off doing anymore tramps and i didnt care how much money we just spent buying everything we needed. what were we thinking doing a 4 day walk on our 1st try at doing any of these walks. i could have died right there and been ok with it. well we made it to the 2nd hut, which we were camping at and set up for the night. the sand flies were like nothing sam or i have ever seen. these little bastards stick on you then start sucking your blood. the only thing that hurts is the stuff they are putting into your skin to make it not congeal so they can get more blood. thank god we got some bug spray that had p535, which keeps the sand flies away and it had 30% deet, to keep the mosquitoes away. i love eating deet, its makes me feel really warm and fuzzy inside.

at about 6pm that night we were inside our tent and were asleep by 8pm. we had decided that night that we had to make it out by the next day because we didnt have enough dressing for our feet if we stayed 1 more night. that just meant the next day could be even worse than the day before.

i thought the last day went really well. we pushed our selves and made it thru. the last couple of hours nearly killed both of us but we did and now that a couple of days have passed and my feet are healing i can say im glad i did it. and i cant wait to do it again. although this next time it will be a much shorter walk.