After little sleep, a bout of pining for Mom, we decided to hit the trails with vengeance.
Of course, that’s when the problems commenced for one of us. Not only did we choose a double hike,
it was arguably one of our toughest. Tough and strenuous, tough and strenuous but so beautiful.
The views of the New Zealand Alps, from the peak and even well before, were outstanding. Add in the
snow-capped tops, the blue water of Lake Wakiputu, a forest in the initial stages, batches of proud
trees standing like soldiers the rest of the route and a backbreaking climb combined to form the
ingredients of heaven on earth notwithstanding the struggle upwards.
“I don’t know how I let you talk me into skipping the gondola and hiking to the trailhead up
a Table Mountain type of trail,” our editor asked rhetorically. “One hour and 1,485 feet up an
extremely steep mountain before the main hike even begins is just plain dumb.” We were
starting to feel bad; perhaps we had overestimated our ability and fitness. Not being without compassion,
we volunteered to carry our own backpack today. Only this once, we mentioned to her, for we don’t want
to spoil our editor. Nevertheless, she persisted and that’s when we gave her a lecture.
“First, it’s the cable car, next time you’ll want to ride in a helicopter to the peak and who knows…maybe
you’ll only see mountains in National Geographic magazines after that. Besides, who’ll carry our bag?”
That kept her quiet. For the record, we are bursting with pride as our editor kept up and passed hikers
a third of her age. Can she be that old? Read these statistics. She’s not bad, the old girl. The elevation
from the gondola station is 1485 feet plus another 3,200 to the peak making it 4,685 feet climb in eleven kilometers, return. Wow!
“How are you really feeling besides all the aches and pains?” We asked our editor. ‘Like a million
dollars and fifty thousand,” she answered. “Hey, what’s with the extra fifty thousand?” We wanted to know.
‘That’, she answered, ‘is to compensate for inflation.” We feel better; she's still showing a lot of spirit.
Yesterday we had to stock up with supplies for our attractive accommodation that overlooks these staggering
mountains. Maybe tomorrow, we’ll stay in bed and look at the peaks from a more a supine position. Back to
food. There we were checking the bread wrapping for a kosher symbol. ‘Forget about it,” she instructed.
‘We have to do that,’ we replied. “I checked the ingredients already and it won’t work. There’s unlikely
to be a kosher sign; the ingredients comprise cheese and bacon.”
‘Oh! We suppose you’re right—they’re mixing meat and milk.”
We’ll see you in the morning should we able to get out of bed.
Cheers,
Jenni and Jeffrey
PS Jenni suggested we repeat the elevation gain in case you missed how high she climbed.
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