Meuller Hut Fail

Originally published January 2018.

LOL THAT WE’VE BEEN IN NEW ZEALAND FOR A WEEK AND HAVE DONE VERY LITTLE OF WHAT WE SET OUT TO DO AND HAVE HAD TO PRACTICE SITTING AND WAITING AROUND A LOT. But there are always lessons to be learned, even in the suck.We camped at a dreamy harbor near Christchurch along with about 20 other van-lifer’s on the night of the 9th.

Danielle and I made decaf coffee (which who knew, is actually awesome because you can drink it past 12pm without being up all night. It’s changing my life.)

And then, using that decaf coffee, I partook in my first tim tam slam.

Tim tams are an Australian made chocolate cracker/cookie which are actually quite good (and they don’t have high fructose corn syrup in them because that’s not allowed over here so maybe they’re a little better for you than oreos?)

A tim tam slam is where you bite the two ends off of this rectangular chocolate covered cracker so it can then be used as a straw, and then you take your tim tam straw contraption, stick it in a hot beverage (normally coffee or hot chocolate), and then once the tim tam soaks all of the liquid goodness up and gets kinda melty you throw it back (without using your hands), and eat the whole thing in one bite. It is basically a melted chocolate mocha volcano explosion in your mouth, and its chocolate lava normally dribbles down your chin because it’s a lot to fit in one mouth.

It was quite good, but I think I prefer to nibble my tim tams instead of slam them.

We all crammed in Beep Boop together for the first time, since I had been sleeping in it by myself at the farm for the past two nights while the K’s slept in the tent. The more often we can sleep not crammed into one area together the better, for everyone involved. Looking at our bed when it is made inside our van, it looks quite small, but surprisingly we all three fit and slept pretty soundly.

We woke up early to make our way back into Christchurch (forever going back into Christchurch), because we had to pick up Kelly from the airport a little past 9.

Kelly lived in New Zealand for 7 months 4 years ago, and she spent her time farming and hanging out with her Kiwi friend Georgia, whom she met at a camp in the states. Kelly just happened to be going to NZ the same time we were going to be there, so of course we had to try to meet up to travel together for a couple days. With her schedule, it made the most sense for her to join us on our trek to the Meuller Hut, so we made it work and suddenly I was hugging her outside of the airport in Christchurch.

The pick-up had to be pretty discrete, because we only have three seatbelts in the van, so with Kelly being a fourth person and us having no extra seatbelt, we had to be super stealthy the next couple days as we traveled south since we were driving semi-illegally (don’t worry all you mom’s who just gasped out there, we drove safe and made it to our destination without any tickets).

So I left Danielle and Lucas at a cafe while I picked up Kelly.

Meeting up with a familiar friend in a new country is always so fun and kinda blows my mind. Like we are friends because we met thousands of miles away across entire oceans, and then we both travelled separately all the way over here and are now on the other side of the world together.

I don’t know maybe it’s just me that thinks that’s cool.

We crammed Kelly in the back of Beep-Boop and FINALLY headed south.

We drove 6 hours in the rain, hoping out in the constant drizzle a few times to stretch our legs.

Once was at the cutest lavender farm in the middle of nowhere that smelled SO GOOD.

And the other was to walk around a bit at Lake Pukaki, this giant glacier-fed lake on the way to Mt. Cook.

And then we finally made it to Mt. Cook National Park around 4pm, where, guess what,

It was still raining.

And it was foggy, so you could only see the bottom third of all of the mountains around us. We caught the slightest glimpse of one of the glaciers and oo’ed and ahh’ed, but it quickly was dissolved by the intense fog that we just couldn’t seem to escape.

Rain rain rain all the time. Where the heck is the freaking sun???

We snagged a camp site, in the rain, and then headed to a public shelter where there was supposedly free showers, which we weren’t expecting.

Well, yes, those showers ended up being free,

But it was only free water that I think they were pumping straight from the glacier. .

You could pay $2 for five minutes of hot water, but even if we wanted to do that, there was a big sign that said the hot water wasn’t working.

So, cold shower it was.

Cold showers are a semi-regular occurrence in my life. I enjoy one every once in a while, mainly in summer obviously, but sometimes in the winter, if I’m really struggling and need to wake up quick.

But oh no. This shower was on a new level of cold. I don’t know how the pipes weren’t frozen! The water was so cold that when I finally mustered up enough courage to stick my head underneath the stream, I literally got a brain freeze before I could get all of my hair wet.

So, shivering, I lathered up my grease ball of a hair knot and scrubbed while I did that fully little dance you do only when you are frozen down to your bones and need to warm up ASAP.

The next 10 minutes consisted of me washing and rinsing in increments, resting my body inbetween brain freezes and chill bumps the size of the mountains around us,

BUT THEN FINALLY I WAS CLEAN AND NOT SOAPY AND I COULD PUT CLOTHES ON AND BE WARM AGAIN.

We had a cup of tea back at the campsite, inside the campground shelter of course because the rain was still coming down.

And then we went to sleep, wet and cold, while the rain pounded down on our tent relentlessly all. night. long.

We woke up early because we were hiking up to the Meuller Hut, this gorgeous alpine hut that’s painted red, nestled among the peaks surrounding Mt. Cook, where we would sleep for the next two nights. However, with the rain and fog and 30 degree weather and projected gale force winds (which I don’t know exactly the measurement that makes wind gale-force, but apparently it’s pretty strong) that were waiting for us at the top, we needed to get on the trail early so that our suffer fest could be a little less intense before the winds picked up in the afternoon.

So we drag our sopping tent into the van, drive back to the public shelter where the glacier shower took place, and spend an hour prepping our backpacks with all of our food and gear that we would need for our time at the Meuller Hut.

Then we go to the Visitor’s Center to pick up our hiking permits that we reserved months ago, half way psyched to get on the trail and half-way dreading the soaking wet cold windy painful four hours that was ahead of us.

ONLY TO FIND OUT THAT THE WEATHER WAS TOO BAD AND THE RANGERS WERE STRONGLY ADVISING EVERYONE TO NOT GO UP TO THE MEULLER HUT.

I mean yeah it was because of semi-valid things like hypothermia, not being able to find the trail because of the intense fog, the fact that you would literally be able to see nothing except the rocks you were standing on, and you would be wet and cold the whole time,

BUT STILL.

This was supposed to finally be our first big adventure in New Zealand! It was day 7, a week had passed since we had arrived, and another plan is now cancelled?

We decided that the rangers should probably be trusted, so we cancelled our trek, which thankfully was able to be refunded, but yet again, here we are with another epic plan cancelled,

having to improvise and make do and figure it out.

Trips always have “zero” days, and in my opinion, should always have “zero” days, days where you make zero miles to where you would like to be going, where plans get cancelled, ruined, or changed, days where you either choose to our are forced to stay put, or sit, or spend all day in the car driving somewhere else because you have to figure something else out since the thing you really want to do cannot be done.

Zero days suck, but they build character. They teach us how to be better at going with the flow, with not getting our expectations up so much about every little thing in life, and getting our panties in a wad when we don’t get our way.

Yes, I was bummed that we didn’t get to go to the Meuller Hut.

But, I could either let that ruin my entire day and sulk and not engage with the present moment,

Or I could try to be fully present and enjoy where the day would take us.

I have found that the latter makes life way less stressful and hard.

We ended up walking between 5 and 6 miles in the rain on a trail that ran below the fog line, getting dumped on with cold rain for two hours straight, not seeing much besides the glacial river we were walking next to and the ominous rocks that occasionally stuck out of the fog,

And despite how miserable that sounds,

I loved it.

I soaked it up. I was singing Cough Syrup by Young the Giant beep boppin my way down the trail to keep my spirits up and mind off the fact that my boots were entirely soaked through and my feet were just sloshing in a bed of water.

Because I’m in freaking New Zealand and it rains a lot here and I am not entitled to two months of sun because the weather acts with zero considerations of what we little humans want,

So it’s not worth letting something that is completely out of our control rob us of so much joy.

I came to New Zealand to play outside, to hike hard mountains, to get lots of sun, yes.

But my experience has not been that at all so far, so in the meantime, all I can do is radically accept the reality I am given and seek the new lessons and gifts that might be hidden in all of this fog and rain.

And if there aren’t lessons to be found, than to just go outside and walk in it and get drenched to my core,

And soak up New Zealand to the point that I leave carrying it in my bones.

Cheers to the Journey, and may your Spirit always reside in a state of wonder.