Counting Down...

In exactly two weeks' time Lindsay and I will have landed in Singapore and we will be starting the adventures of our honeymoon in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. We will be travelling around for one month and will then fly to Germany, where we will be living and (hopefully) working for the next couple of years. We are very excited and counting down... At the moment we are busy sorting through our belongings, working out what to take, store, give away or throw away. All this and trying to catch up with our friends before we leave keeps us pretty busy. Still we decided to take last weekend off and experience New Zealand's nature and beauty one last time before we leave. Together with two other (married!) couples (Veronica & Vince, Lauretta & Rene) we went to Mt Cook National Park and walked up to Mueller Hut, which is about 1000m above Mt Cook Village. The walk up was quite steep and it was a little clowdy, but we still had very nice views down onto the glaciers and the lake. As we got closer to the hut, there was an increasing amount of snow, the wind got chillier and the light rain drops turned into harsh snow flakes. Because the trip up was only 3 1/2 hours, the walk never got tedious though and we never cooled down too much. Mueller Hut is pretty flash, with solar-powered lights and gas cookers. Because of the altitude there was no fire, unfortunately. We warmed ourselves up with a cup of tea and by wrapping ourselves into blankets. We cooked a nice meal of couscous with salami, feta and capsicum and sat together chatting. During the night the wind picked up and it sounded like the hut was getting blown away. But fortunately it is very sturdy and remained standing. The next day was beautiful and clear and we were able to see the mountains (incl. Mt Cook) and glaciers properly. We took our crampons and ice axes and walked up to the summit of Mt Olivia(?), which was only 1/2 hour from the hut. from up the top we had the most amazing views. The trip was well worth it and makes us keep New Zealand in good memory. Crazy to think that yesterday we played around in the snow and in two weeks time we will be in a place where most people have never ever seen snow before. I will post some photos of our tramp shortly and will keep you updated about our trip through Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand...