Stairway to Heaven

Friday 24th February

There's a lady who's sure all that glitters is gold
And she's buying a stairway to heaven.
When she gets there she knows, 

She will have fantastic views of the Mount Cook area!

Apologies to Led Zeppelin!

Yes, today we tackled the trek up the Mueller Hut track as far as Sealy Tarns which is known as the 'stairway to heaven'. This is a short walk that rises 1968 feet via a flatish started followed by an extremely steep ascent which includes 2200 steps.

Fuelled by eggy bread and bacon we set off.  This was a very dangerous thing to do - not the setting off but cooking the bacon.  There are notices in this large, lovely 'unit' about the cooking of 'odouriferous' foods and the fines payable if you leave a smelly room.  I think by opening all the doors and windows we got away with it!  I am almost embarrassed to keep repeating myself when it comes to the weather - blue skies, cloudless and hot sun again today.

The start of the walk lulls you into a false sense of confidence as you zoom across the valley floor looking up at a near vertical wall of vegetation and rock.  Then the steps start and the next 75 minutes was just unrelenting steps - all 2200 of them.  Many were not your normal house stairs but twice (at least) the riser height which soon turned the thighs throbbing and burning with lactic build up.  The pattern was about 20 foot of footpath then a flight of steps or steep rocks which zigzaged up the valley side, ie we were climbing up an old lateral moraine on the steep bit of a U-shaped valley.  The height gain was memorable and the views so good that stops to admire them were virtually compulsory!

We were moving up with group of four New Zealanders; a very bubbly group of ladies who were enjoying every minute.  They had left their families behind and this was a girl's day out. We have met some lovely folk on our walks.  I forgot to mention the older walker yesterday who had the word 'fossicker' on his shirt so we asked him what it meant (see yesterday's blog).  This was the name of his Rogaining Team which has taken part in the international Rogaining Championships the last few years.  Rogaining?  It's an ultra orienteer, usually your team (2-5 but have to stay in ear shot) has 24 hours to visit check points and gain as many points as possible.  More info: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogaining. He has been to America, Australia and Finland for the internationals and this year he is looking forward to Latvia.  I just cannot imagine walking/ running a 24 hour orienteer on a map covering 100 square miles - bonkers.  As we chatted it emerged that his mother in law lives near the New Forest (Hythe - 'not the posh side' when we mentioned my sister in Lymington!!) and comes to the UK quite a lot with walking in the Brecon Beacons planned for this summer.

Anyway, we continued up the steps with sweat dripping, lungs bursting and legs burning.  We kept overtaking the jolly kiwis when they stopped and then meeting up a few minutes later as we stopped for drink/photo.  This was a different set of walkers from yesterday which comprised tourists, mainly Chinese as we mainly met serious 'trampers' many of whom were German or French.  As we neared the top of the steps OF1 was 'not on form' and I was ahead with the water which did not help!  She also turned down an offer of water from two dishy Spanish lads as I disappeared over the ridge..

We reached the Sealey Tarns which turned out to be large ponds but with the most stupendous views and, bizzarly a picnic table.  There were a lot of pictures taken for each other - today's blog image was taken by the NZ girls on tour. We stayed to take in the view: the nearby Mueller Glacier, the Hooker Valley and Glacier, Lake Pukaki and the village, all overlooked by Mount Cook and all the other snow-capped mountains.  This really was the staircase to heaven!

Some other parties were going on (and very up) to the Mueller Hut but we had achieved our aim.  To go on would have been: 1 mission creep, 2 put us in water deficit mode and 3 knackering.  Thus we retraced our steps; OF1 still feeling light headed ("dazed and confused" on Led Zeppelin I?) and I was feeling my left knee (as usual).  2200 downhill steps sounds easy but they were just too steep to get zoom down so we skipped through the lovely alpine flowers including large daisies and foxgloves as we descended.

The afternoon has been a recharging one - food, beer, coffee, shower - and gawping at the views from our unit.  Thank goodness it didn't smell of that odouriferous bacon!

Next Led Zeppelin song?  "Ramble on" (Led Zeppelin II)