Tutoko Valley-Ouch!!

**Warning!! This is a long post, but totally worth reading!!**

My first real tramping trip (weekend-long backpacking trip) was in the Fiordlands, which is south-west New Zealand. We had a big tramping club meeting and we got to pick which track we wanted to sign up for. Two of my friends and I signed up for the Tutoko Valley track which was originally written as "Easy-Hard+" rating, but changed to "Easy-Medium." I was really excited but kind of nervous. My mom reassured me that I would definitely be able to do it and would have a great time. Here is how the weekend went: (for more pictures check Flickr

Friday: 

• 6 hour bus ride to our track. We had a quick stop for dinner where our bus driver almost left us (in his defense he did warn us to get back on the bus by 9 "because I have a reputation for leaving people"...we got on the bus at 9 as it pulled away)
  
• Got to our track at a little past midnight.
• Had to set up camp for the night next to/in the car park. The flies were tied to the "No Camping" sign:

Saturday:

We began with an early breakfast and the headed out into what appeared to be a jungle.

*Interesting story, this is where they filmed "Where the Dinosaurs Walked" because this is what they thought best represented what Earth looked like back then* 

We hiked through crazy mud pits and had to climb up and down rocks and over trees and roots. We were definitely going to be roughing it. We quickly gave up on the trying not to get muddy. And then, my foot got stuck in the mud. It was hard to figure out where the mud was just a few cm deep and where it was mid-calf deep. Sadly, I made a few mistakes and was quickly covered in mud. We made it to the end of the track!! Yay!! After about 3 hours of what seemed like a jungle we came out into this amazing river. The water was crystal clear. It was gorgeous!! We were so excited to sit and have a snack until we realized we soon had to cross that river.

And crossed that river we did, not once, not twice, but a good 10 or so times (at least). We were offroading it for the rest of the afternoon to find a great camping area. So we traveled back and forth through the rivers, and even straight up the middle at one point (and yes I did lose my balance and have my backpack weigh me over causing me to fall into the river...). When we weren't in the river (which got to about hip deep at some points) we were climbing through the woods on the side of the river. The ground would frequently collapse under our feet leaving huge holes in the ground. We had to be pretty careful but didn't have much choice in foot placement so you just had to trust your step. It was certainly an adventure.

After a long day we finally found the best campsite around. It was right next to the river and surrounded by gorgeous mountains. It also housed SWARMS of sand flies. (Sand flies are like mosquitos but with a worse itch but are the size/swarm like gnats) It was awful. Here was us in our sand fly protection (how we stayed for a little over an hour to avoid the bites):

(the little specks you see are some of the sand flies)

Luckily we started a little campfire and the flies went away. We had a great camping dinner and laid around looking at an amazing star-ful sky. It was by far the most stars I have ever seen in my entire life.

Sunday:

Nothing like waking up cold and somewhat damp and knowing that you had to start your day with a river crossing. Woo!! So we had a quick breakfast and packed up. As we made our way back we took an easier, less rough way back. But still had a fair share of river crossing. It just wouldn't be right if we didn't have to spend a chunk of time in freezing cold rivers!! When we made it back to the Tutoko track we had a quick lunch and were told that if we made it out by 1 we could go see the Milford Sound. We were definitely up for it, then realized that meant we would have to do the track in half the amount of time. Ready..GO!!! As we scrambled through the rough terrain I felt multiple times due to bad footing and slippery mud. As we pushed ourselves further we became tired and more messy with our steps. My legs were definitely getting a beating. But sure enough! We made it out in time!!

We kicked off our boots, put on our sandals, threw our packs into the bush and headed up the 2 mile road to Milford Sound. As we got closer we realized we wouldn't make it back in time for the 3:00 bus (driven by the guy who leaves people) so we took off jogging. We needed to see this place. As we ran our legs began to kill, but we pushed it farther and made it to the Milford Sound!! aka the most amazing sight ever:

We took a few pictures then had to run 95% of the 2 mile road back. After 2 LONG days of tramping and then an over 2 mile run we were dead. The 4 of us that did the trip to Milford Sound definitely had a good workout. We luckily made it to the bus with 1 minute to spare. I tried to get as much as I could from my bag for the 6 hour trip back, but forgot my iPod in the rush and had a long quiet ride back. 

Just how beat up was I after this "easy-medium" trip (that was full of malarkey! Even our leaders said it was definitely way harder than that)...(this is before the bruises had a chance to form...) (this picture doesn't really do them justice...in the words of my flattie when she saw me when I got home.."Holy shit!! What the hell happened to you?!")

Overall, it was an amazing adventure. It was by far my roughest tramp ever. It is certainly a story I will tell forever. And hey, like my favorite ad says, "Scars are tattoos with better stories." These legs definitely show some great stories now!!

(Thanks for reading this whole post if anyone actually did!!)