In the morning I woke up really early NZ tine to check the status of my Brown Med School application. To my surprise and great joy the result was in: accepted!!! What was supposed to be a short Internet session then turned into a series of excited chats with friends and family. Thanks so much to all the folks who gave their congratulations!
Afterward, I headed out to the Lake. It turned out to be a much longer drive than I thought it would, and much of it over gravel roads. I arrived at 1:05 to the visitor center, right when the attendant was going to lunch. After waiting to 1:30, I bought a ticket for one of the campgrounds, and headed down another dusty gravel road to the trail head. Even though the driving has been long, I haven't minded much since I have War and Peace by Tolstoy on my iPod. My one concern now is that I've been driving so much lately that I'm eating away large chunks of even that titanic novel. At this rate I'll probably be finished with it prior to leaving NZ! All 51 CDs worth! Today I was getting into the abandonment and burning of Moscow to Napolean's army during the War of 1812. Ah, Tolstoy, how I love thee!
Finally, the dusty road came to the trail head, and I started the hike. It turned out that the section I chose to do was the relatively flat area (good) that didn't really have any of the views of the more vertical part (not as good). The path mostly hugged the lake shore, and at one point a bunch of wild pigs ran across my path out of the thick underbrush not 10 feet from me! I was a bit spooked, not only from startling them, but also because it seemed to be a momma pig and her piglets, one of whom didn't follow momma when she ran and became separated. I certainly didn't want to come in between them, so hurried through that section of trail.
At the first hut I came to, I ran into two Finnish geologists who were taking a quick trip through the north island before heading home where the woman, Anna, was starting a new job. They were quite fun to talk to and I ended up spending a couple of hours sitting and chatting with them.
Finally, I headed on to my hut/campground area, about 2 hours down the trail. Along the way I had pass next to an area of the lake cordoned off by an electric fence. This was due to an attempt to re-introduce brown kiwis to the lake area. Kiwis are a nocturnal, flightless bird that have large feet with big claws. They are in a family of birds that included the giant moa, a now-extinct bird that rivaled the ostrich in size. Kiwi young are often killed by stoats, brought in the 1860s to control rabbits (in turn introduced in the early 19th century for sport hunting...ugh!) and rats, brought by sailors.
I arrived at the campsite shortly before dark and set up my hammock tent. I then went to the hut and played scrabble with some hikers from Australia on a guided tour of the Lake.
The stars were out in abundance when I turned into my tent, including the prominent southern cross. I fell asleep listening to the calls of the kiwis, mingled with those of the endemic swans and ducks on the Lake. So peaceful.
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