Arthur's Pass Trip

Hey everyone! Welcome back to another episode of "Is Luke Alive?"
Alas, this week we had our first casualty. Luke escaped alive, but his watch has sunk to it's watery grave, may it rest in peace.
*A Moment of Silence*

Okay, back to business. First off, Happy Easter to you all! You all are still a bit behind the times because Easter was totally yesterday, but I know you are celebrating today. Let's not forget that despite how good that lamb dinner tastes and how many years its been since you've last seen Uncle Billy, the real focus of Easter is the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Although I believe that ideally this should be a daily reflection, I would encourage you to spend some time thanking the God of the universe for enduring the pinnacle of human pain and humiliation for us in order to bridge the gap between our sin and His holiness. If there are any readers of my blog that are not fully convinced of the existence of God or the importance of Jesus's death, I would invite you to do some research or get in touch with me. I would be happy to fill you in on why we celebrate Easter, and share with you how to receive the coolest gift ever, an eternal relationship with your Creator.

Here at Uni, we have a five day break for Easter, which would be a great opportunity to study, considering we have term tests the following week. However, the temptation to go tramping instead was much stronger, and so I ended up in Arthur's Pass on an overnight hiking trip. Although it was not the most difficult tramp that I have done in New Zealand, it was by far the most fun. We hiked for several hours through the Waimakariri Valley to our destination, Carrington Hut, and all along the way, we got to cross the same river about 82,000,000,000 times. In the first couple crossings, I made a valiant attempt to keep my feet dry, but quickly gave up when we crossed some deeper sections up to my waist. Luckily, we had beautiful weather, and the river was actually quite refreshing.

When we arrived at Carrington Hut in the mid-afternoon, everyone emptied the river from their boots, and went about claiming a bunk. A large portion of the group stayed and did some exploring around the hut. However, I went with a couple other peeps further up the valley to the Waimakariri Hut and Falls, which added another four hours to our tramp. We couldn't actually tell which waterfall was the Waimakariri Falls, but we're willing to bet it was one of the ones we saw.

Later that night, after a fantastic dinner of rice, mashed potatoes and sausages, we all gathered around the campfire for New Zealand's awkward attempt at s'mores. We had chocolate covered cookies instead of graham crackers and chocolate, but they still tasted awesome. Honestly, it pretty hard to mess up a marshmallow, chocolate and cracker, no matter what it looks like.

The next morning, after a hearty breakfast of oatmeal, I went with a small group out to a cable car for a ride. For those of you who do not know what a cable car is, refer to the picture below. It is pretty much a cart hanging from a cable that is hooked up to a winch system so you can cross the valley without drowning in the river. Fairly helpful I imagine, if drowning in the river isn't really your thing. 

After everyone had gotten a decent ride, we had to make some fast tracks to catch up to the rest of the group, who were heading back to the cars. On the way, I lost my watch in one of the river crossings, but it's fine, you don't really need to know the time in paradise anyway.

All in all, it was a fantastic trip. 10/10 would lose my watch again.

Check out the pictures!

*Some of the pictures are not mine and belong to Arun Kumar and Sam Bridge*

Preparing for the Adventure

First river crossing

The crew in front of Carrington Hut

Waimakariri Hut

Squad

Waimakariri Falls?

Cable Car

Well, I suppose I should study for those tests now....

Thanks for reading!

Oh, one last thing before I go. All those who guessed Lord of the Rings on my trivia last week, you were wrong; it was actually Narnia. It was the scene for the big battle from The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, when Aslan shows up to give the White Witch a surprise after she had killed Him on the stone table.

Cheers,

Luke