The Travelling Life of Silvan Colani
After some e-mail exchanges during autumn, I hooked up with Paul Rogers with whom I've been climbing
back in Canada in summer. Paul was spending the southern hemisphere summer in Wanaka, NZ,
guiding for Adventure Consultants and
we arranged to head to the hills together, possibly attempting to clime Mt Aspiring (3027 m).
Off I went therefore, packing my Himalayan-proof four-season sleeping bag and all the other
fancy gear mountaineers like to schlep around, boarding CX107 to Auckland connecting
domestically to Christchurch. I pick up my rental car in Christchurch and - as regular visitors
to my website know - I hate boring Ford Focus-Fuckus-type of hire cars. Thus, I got another
MGF convertible - same as last year, but in flashy green instead of sexy red. In fact, I
only needed the car for one day (Christchurch to Wanaka) and considering all the one-way rental
additions, sensible people would suggest that this is rather uneconomical. But hey, 1) sensible
people don't know what fun NZ's roads are; 2) sensible people don't live in Hong Kong where
your idea of an open road is three green lights in a row; and 3) sensible people can take
the bus!
After an overnight stop in Temuka, which I discovered is the most BORING place in the southern
hemisphere, I arrived in Wanaka, which
I must emphasize is the BEST town in all of New Zealand (and most people - sensible people?
- miss it on the way to totally over-rated Queenstown!)
I met up with Paul in the evening and we discussed plans for the week. The weather wasn't ideal
- at least not for the mountains - since it was generally too warm, meaning that the glaciers
would not freeze properly overnight, making glacier travel rather hazardous and tiring. Having
studied the weather charts we decided that rather than climbing Mt Aspiring, Fiordland
(the south-western corner of NZ around Milford Sound) would be the best alternative
venue.
