When it rains, it pours (1 of 2)

In the last 48 hours we found this old adage to be true both literally and metaphorically...
First the literal one. Our attempt at our third of NZ's great walks - the Routeburn Track, between Mt Aspiring and Fjordland national parks, turned into a bit of a damp squib.
Whilst we awoke to blue skies, it rapidly clouded over:

And was well and truly raining as we set off:

Which continued:

And got worse as we climbed to the summit (no picture because it was quite chilly!) and it was still raining c.5 hours later when we reached our hut for the night.

We did meet and run most of the way with a like-minded nutter called Kelly from Colorado - who was probably more insane than we were as she was by herself, wearing shorts and carrying very little emergency kit - but provided a good distraction from the miserable weather.

The huts on the great walks are certainly popular - this one fully booked as ever - with 50 of us sleeping in two large bunk rooms (with some good quality snoring coming from others!)

The next day dawned significantly nicer (well, when our alarms went off at 6.30am it was still dark and cold - and getting into cold, damp clothes didn't help) but once the morning mist had cleared it turned into a lovely day...

and our two hour run down the other side passed quickly, accompanied by the Lord of the Rings soundtrack, and some pretty waterfalls:

And lakes:

The long bus ride back round via Te Anau to Queenstown provided the perfect opportunity to catch up on some sleep (Alistair) and admire the stunning scenery (Sam)!