Well, apologies for the paucity of blog posts :) Life has been quite interesting this side of world as my work is going through a review – and it’s uncertain what is going to happen to me. That said, if it all does happen to head into unemployementville then I am hoping to try and promote Snowpool by way of scoring free passes, accommodation and food in return for an awesome blog post (on snowpool) showcasing the facilities and how to get there by sharing your vehicle. We’ll see. Hopefully it won’t come to that.
Anyways, that aside – had a good tramp on the West Coast this weekend. I am woefully out of shape.. I was really quite tired by the time we reached the hut – and it was only about 900m of climb.
The area once figured large in Gold Mining activity. In fact, mining is still done today (but not on the track!). There were tunnels dug to divert water around and about..
The track ambles steadily upwards from the start to the hut – pretty much. We met two lots of mountainbikers (the track is open for that use).. one of them cheated by getting helicoptered to the top though. Cheats. Dirty cheating lilly-livered no good two faced cheats. ;)
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We arrived at the hut after 5 hours of walking, flaked for about half an hour while Maria thrashed me at Speed (Spit).. which hasn’t happened in a while. The water tank outside the hut was frozen – so we couldn’t fill up our bottles. Trusting to luck (and the fact that we could melt snow if needed) we (Maaike, Berit, Maria and I) headed up the nearby Kirwans Hill (1297m – but a pimple on the flesh of NZ, but still higher than Carrauntuhil (1041m) and way higher than Vaalserberg (322m) – The Netherlands’ highest point. But then, who’s counting. I am, and it’s way higher ;)
Ehem.
Lovely views from the top though, and in the morning we could see Mt. Cook away down south.
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Then back down to the hut, where it was discovered that pouring hot water on the tap to the tank meant we could get water out again. Phew. Wouldn’t have been that fun only having 1L of water or so for the night. Then cards, and bed, I would say it was exciting to go to bed with Maaike, Maria and Berit, but what with the snoring that comes out of the diminutive creatures….
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The next morning we had a quick look around the mine before heading back down through the beech forest. They built a 1.5 km aerial ropeway. Metal rope. One continuous strand. Poor packhorses.
Ore buckets were fixed to the an endless wire rope which passed around return wheels at both the mine and battery. The ropeway worked by gravity – the weight of the full buckets going down one side of the ropeway brought the empty buckets back up the other side. A braking mechanism operated on the return wheels to control the ropeway’s speed. Full buckets emptied their loads automatically into an ore bin above the battery.
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So yes, all in all an excellent weekend, though I’m sure my thighs don’t thank me for it. Thanks to Berit, Maria and Maaike for an excellent Queens Birthday Weekend.
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