March 15-17. After a day of recuperation from our 3-day hike on the Kepler Trek, we left for another 3-day hike to the Remarkables near Queenstown, New Zealand. The first day was sunny and gorgeous, and we were all hot and sweating after climbing from an elevation of 400 meters to 900 meters. After setting up camp the first night, Darren and I did a little hike/rock climb to the top of one of the ridges of the mountains. The view was spectacular but our legs were all cut up from these nasty bushes, called spaniards, with long sharp blades. Darren also managed to somehow tear a hole in his shorts - again.
The second day started off cold and by mid morning we had a light rain that increased in intensity as we hiked. We were hiking through long grasses with hidden spaniards on uneven ground with frequent hidden holes that would catch us off guard and made for slow hiking. A couple hours into the hike one of the girls in our group fell in one of the hidden holes and broke her ankle. We stopped for about an hour and sent a couple people from our group back down to the base of the hike so that they could get cell phone reception to call for a rescue team. We set up a tent and left the girl and her roommate to wait for the helicopter, but we were all super worried about them. The last part of our hike that day was up a super steep mountain of broken slate rock and was pretty challenging with our packs in the wind and rain. We set up camp at 1800 meter elevation with no protection from the wind and rain which later turned to hail then snow. The wind broke a couple tent poles and kept us up all night - worst night sleep ever. The most exciting part of the day was when the helicopter arrived to drop off the roommate of the girl who had broken her ankle and we learned that the other girl had made it safely to the hospital.
Luckily the weather had cleared in the morning but our boots were frozen from the rain and freezing temperatures and our tent was covered in frost. Many people's fuel had frozen so we had to share two stoves for boiling water amongst 20 of us. It took about an hour of hiking before our boots and toes thawed out, but the views were again spectacular and worth the aweful hike and weather the day before.
After the hike we were rewarded with fergburgers, which although I do not normally care for burgers, these were delicious. Hands down the best burger I've ever eaten. You can see in the picture that they're huge! Needless to say, Darren was in heaven.
March 15-17. After a day of recuperation from our 3-day hike on the Kepler Trek, we left for another 3-day hike to the Remarkables near Queenstown, New Zealand. The first day was sunny and gorgeous, and we were all hot and sweating after climbing from an elevation of 400 meters to 900 meters. After setting up camp the first night, Darren and I did a little hike/rock climb to the top of one of the ridges of the mountains. The view was spectacular but our legs were all cut up from these nasty bushes, called spaniards, with long sharp blades. Darren also managed to somehow tear a hole in his shorts - again.
Luckily the weather had cleared in the morning but our boots were frozen from the rain and freezing temperatures and our tent was covered in frost. Many people's fuel had frozen so we had to share two stoves for boiling water amongst 20 of us. It took about an hour of hiking before our boots and toes thawed out, but the views were again spectacular and worth the aweful hike and weather the day before. 
After the hike we were rewarded with fergburgers, which although I do not normally care for burgers, these were delicious. Hands down the best burger I've ever eaten. You can see in the picture that they're huge! Needless to say, Darren was in heaven.
I'm glad the views made the trip worthwhile. I probably would have tried to hitch a ride in the helicopter. Why are they called fergburgers...are they the same as hamburgers?
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