Monday 18th February 2019 - Sealy Tarns & the Mueller Hut

Another sunny morning. This weather has been amazing, and Adrienne says that too. One trip she did they only had 3 good days. I don’t know what that must have been like but we are all very grateful that the sun has shone on us for all the days except the one we needed the rain on!

Mount Cook from our bunkhouse!

There were walking options today. I chose to go with the main group as far as Sealy Tarn, but no further!

1888 steps from the valley up to the Tarn according to Frank who counted them (we had been told around 2000 so he must be right!) I wouldn’t want to be the one who has to maintain them as with the number of people on the track they get a lot of wear. The climb made us puff and pant, but you quickly gain height. It took 90 minutes to get to the Tarns and the views were superb, although by this time the top of Mount Cook was obscured by cloud.

At this point I started back down again, but left Geoff with Adrienne and some of the others to see if they could push on to Mueller Hut at an altitude of around 1800metres. The path was steep and exposed in places, plus a scree slope to navigate and the possibility of gusty winds and some rain at the top. I know my limits and still had the memories of Franz Josef clearly in my mind!!

So I enjoyed a slow walk back down those 1888 steps, stopping to chat to people who were puffing and panting their way up. There was something very satisfying about already having reached where they were heading for and giving them a bit of encouragement. There were all nationalities too. I had conversations with Irish, American, Japanese, and one guy, possibly Malaysian who was so impressed that I had already been to Sealy Tarns, he asked my age and then took a selfie with me in it! Was that a compliment or do I look really old?!!

On my way back I detoured to Kea Point and as I sat there looking at the glacier, and eating a packet of crisps!, I saw and heard an avalanche on the glacier. We have heard the thunder like noise of avalanches at Franz Josef and here, but not seen one until today. There was another more dramatic one later that we spotted from the bunk house. At Kea Point there were good views of the moraine left by retreating glaciers.

After that I walked back past our hut, into the village to have a look at the information centre and get a coffee. The clouds were moving in and I wanted to do this before the rain set in. Then back to the hut for a late lunch, shower and a clean set of clothes!

I then had the pleasure of a couple of hours of down time before Geoff returned with Adrienne and Frank. In the end it was just these 3 that made it all the way up. Geoff said that it was tough but he really enjoyed it. (He also said I would have hated it, particularly coming down the scree slope!) They had a little rain and quite a lot of cloud, so the views weren’t as good as they might have been, but after this 2 weeks we really can‘t complain about the weather!

The view from Muellers hut - obviously Geoff’s photo!

The loos at Muellers hut!! I thought they looked precarious!

A kea! Known as a cheeky alpine parrot they can be very destructive and attack cars and anything that’s left lying around really. There were at least 10 that Geoff saw and we had a couple at the bunkhouse too.

This evening we all ate out at one of the 2 cafe/restaurants in the village and have had a good time. Awards were given. Geoff for “one-liners”, me for map reading and always knowing where we were. No surprises for either of us there then!