When I asked K last night what his favorite part of the whole NZ trip was, he quickly responded, "Spending five wonderful weeks with my wife!" Is he a smart man or what?! Ha! Finally I got him to name a second favorite...it was the first big hike we did with Active New Zealand tour. The Mueller Ridge. We spent the day tramping in the Sealy range with views of Mt. Cook, glaciers, rivers, vertical rock faces, amazing alpine vegetation and scree fields...what a day! We took a short break at Sealy Tarn looking quietly at Mt. Cook while we sipped water. Our guides made sure we knew what trail signs to look for on the way up and down. They checked in on us and answered any questions we had about the area. (That's Sealy Tarn below.)
Once we made it to the ridge I stayed behind and took some pictures of the small avalanches we had been hearing while K jogged ahead to check out the Mueller Hut and refill our water bottles. I swear he is some sort of mountain goat-mutant! He can go faster on the vertical than most people can horizontally! The Mueller Hut is at 1800 meters altitude (5905 feet). Conversley, we live at 930 feet so it was a bit of an altitude-headache tramp for me.Because the majority of the track is on rock and scree fields the trail markers are metal stakes pounded in at intervals, you can see them in the top picture. I am not the gifted alpine/vertical hiker that Hubby is so it was a tougher hike for me. I was just proud of myself for being able to do it and most importantly to do it along side K! This was one of the places in the world where all was right, K could almost 'hear' the rocks talking to him; it is a part of the Earth that moves his spirit.
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