D55 -- MacKinnon Pass

The snoring was not as bad last night but unfortunately I was kept up by my itchy sandfly bites. Sandflies are about the only thing I don't like about NZ. They are vicious, vile little creatures worse than US mosquitoes. Horrid!

Breakfast and make-your-lunch time was earlier this morning to give us all extra time to navitgate the climb. The forest leading to the pass was different from the first part of the track in that there was much more moss. Everything was so green!


It was very misty out, and we worried that we'd get cheated out of a view at the top of the pass. The way up was a little difficult, but luckily there was a lot of zig-zagging so the trail wasn't that steep. This, we thought, is where the older members of the group are going to have some real trouble. Yet it was me stopping to catch my breath on the way up and complaining about my knees at the end of the day! Sure, there were a few older stragglers at the end, but then there were people like 60-something Peter from Switzerland, who zoomed past the entire group each day. The fact is that many of the senior citizens were in much better shape than Thomas and I.

As we got close to the top of the pass it started to drizzle more steadily and get colder. Sure enough all we saw was white when we reached the summit. A bit disappointing. Shortly after the top we got to stop for lunch. It was really cold by then, so I was thrilled to see our guides Nikki and Neil serving hot soup along with our bagged lunches. Ah, soup is good food!

The way down was much steeper than the way up, and we were both physically exhausted by the time we got to Quintin Lodge. I was pretty proud, because this is the first time I've done several days of hiking while carrying all my own gear. We were thrilled to learn that some of the staff had taken pity on us when they heard we'd had a snorer two nights in a row and arranged for us to have our own dorm room. Hooray!

We put our stuff in our room and set out for a short hike to nearby Sutherland Falls - the 9th higest permanent falls in the world. You can kind of get a feel for how tall it is compared to Anderson Falls (behind Thomas), which we'd seen during the descent.

Back at the lodge I noticed some pain in my feet during a much-needed shower. When I took a look at them I realized I'd gotten two blisters and worse yet- one of my toe nails had begun to separate from my toe. Ouch! Not surprising, though, since we'd hiked about 11 miles today.After Nikki bandaged me up, we enjoyed dinner with the Aussies and some celebratory wine. All six of them were in their late fifties/early to mid 60s and I was so impressed that they were all so fit. We had a great time talking with them, and getting Australian movie and sight-seeing recommendations. We have learned our lesson - older folks rock!

-Elva