I thought I would be sneaky and fly to New Zealand a week prior to meeting my friends for a week of snowboarding. I originally planned to walk the Rees Dart Track, only a 60km loop with one alpine section. Weather was not on my side, with a serious system coming through, and neither was daylight. There was no transport to the trailhead, so I walked from glenorchy, expecting to get to the first hut by dark. I was wrong and spent the night under some sheets of tin and sticks. The weather was even worse the next day, mixed snow and rain in the valley. I thought to try for the pass anyway, at least see what it was like. Full of snow, unable to use my locator beacon with the storm, rivers beginning to flood and trekking by myself, I turned around and hiked back out to trailhead where a farmer gave me a lift back to town. With a few days to kill I checked out a few historic trails above the snowline, saw some mountain goats and Keas. When it was time to leave, no one could get back to Queenstown because the road was blocked with snow. I learned a valuable lesson about taking locals’ advice, instead of just assuming the weather wouldn’t be so bad.
