Trip to Lewis Pass

Hey all!
As I mentioned in my previous post, I also went hiking last weekend. The tramp had two groups; the first group was taken to the head of a valley (The white dot in the picture), and they followed the Boyle River for several miles to Magdalen Hut where they made camp. My group was dropped off at the "Engineers Camp" on the other side of the ridge. The following picture is from a friend's GPS.

We had to bushwhack our way up onto the ridge because we are too cool for actual trails apparently. We traversed this for about 14km, peaking both Mons Sex Millia and another unnamed peak. The wearer of the GPS chose not to peak the unnamed one, but it would have appeared somewhere around kilometer 6 in the picture. Once we were about parallel with Magdalen Hut, we began our decent, which was a combination of slips, slides and rolls down the face of the ridge; it was quite steep in some places. The terrain on ridge was a mixture of loose rock and really annoying vegetation. Some of the plants actually wanted to kill you, like the New Zealand Flax, which I just call Swordweed of Death. This friendly little plant really liked to slice your legs when you walked past it, and on the initial upward scramble, it would conveniently grow inside other plants, so went you went to grab a low lying bush for support, it would never fail to stab your hands for you. Awesomesauce.
Honestly though, other than being annoying, the plants weren't much to worry about. The only thing that will kill you in New Zealand is the weather because it is so unpredictable. While we were on the ridge, a perfectly sunny day turned to cold mist accompanied by strong winds that loved to try to help you take the quick route down into the valley.

Once, we had landed safely in the valley, we made our way across to Magdalen Hut to meet the others. On the way, we met a couple pretty cool cows, hopped some barbed wire fences and generally tried to avoid any sign of farmers, who were so unknowingly nice to let us cross their land.

The next morning, we left via the valley with the rest of the crew, which on the map is the flat bit from about 18 km to 27km. On the ride back to Uni, I hopped in a car with some of the trip leaders I had befriended, and we stopped for New Zealand Fish and Chips on the way. The fish was pretty much on par with anything you would get on the Northeast Coast of the States, and the chips were arguably better. We also split a deep-fried banana sundae, which was absolutely immaculate. America isn't the only country that will fry anything apparently.

But I know you guys are only here for the eye candy, so here some some pictures from the trip!

The upward scramble. 

This, my friends, is New Zealand

Any this is too.

If you look closely you see the rest of the group making their way along the ridge.

I'm pretty much the King of Selfies.

This is also New Zealand

Looking into the Valley
If you follow the Boyle River from left to right to where it enters the trees on both sides, there is a tiny patch of grass in the big clump of woods on the right; that is where Magdalen Hut is and also our destination. 

Chilling on the way down.

COWS!

The Fearless Explorer Luke Jensen makes
his way towards food. 

The Tent Life. 

Food, Fire and Friends

Had to do some river crossing the next morning 

Well, that's about it for now folks. Congratulations if you've made it this far, and thanks for checking to see if I'm still alive. Unfortunately, I didn't make it out on a tramp this weekend, but there are some exciting trips coming up so stay tuned!

Cheers,
Luke