If not now, when.: Mud, Sweat, and Tears

Anytime I feel I am pushing my adventure envelope, I ask Jeff, "You know who would love this?" His response, "The Sheshunoffs!" They are dear friends who love adventure (and would not consider my more adventurous moments as being anywhere close to pushing the envelope). Check out his hilarious memoir, "A Beginner's Guide to Paradise", to see just how cool they are.

So this adventure brought them to mind. We drove to the Rob Roy Glacier trail from Wanaka. It was raining, but hey this was our last day in the area, so we went anyway. Jeff mentioned, "The guidebook says there are 30 km of gravel road to drive to the trail head." No big deal, we can handle it. Then we came to a sign that says "FORD", we took a deep breath and forged ahead, excited to drive through the river. After fording 6 streams in the rental car (pretty much closing our eyes and praying we could get across) we were less excited. But we made it through all of them after 45 min on the gravel road. We also stopped for hundreds of sheep to cross the road, something we rarely do in southern California.

We started up the trail in the light rain with the sound of the Tui birds in our ears, loaded with jackets, hats, and gloves that we didn't need (I am nothing if I am not prepared). 15 minutes in we crossed a swinging bridge. The guidebook indicated that the hike had a "gentle" incline and was rated as "easy". The New Zealand version of gentle and my version of gentle are quite different. So, once again I was huffing and puffing up the mountain. I had just finished reading the Bear Grylls autobiography called "Mud, Sweat, and Tears", so I used his inspiration to keep me going. Not that I am comparing my hike to the glacier lookout to Bear's Everest summit attempt. For instance, I did not require the use of bottled oxygen or the assistance of Sherpas (both things that Bear used prodigiously). The view of the gushing waterfall and light blue glacier edge on the mountain renders you speechless, well worth all the effort to get there. Natalie did twist her knee a bit on the way down, but recovered just fine and managed the rest of the hike. On the way back across the swinging bridge Natalie unwittingly sacrificed her hat to in the wind. So you can soak up the glittery bulldog hat from her all star soccer team here. Goodbye old friend.