West Coast

Rainforest rocks are the most slippery rocks. For the past three days I've been trying to enjoying tramping in the rainforest by myself. It was everything you'd expect from a rainforest except it was not raining. Nonetheless, the trail was a virtual stream with heavily eroded sides and all the rocks were slippery, always wet, and you seemed to fall off of them before your foot even landed. I had many more close calls than falls, but my knees are bit banged. I started up the Copland Pass Track on Monday and headed straight for Douglas Rock Hut, a 24km walk. Douglas Rock Hut was a special spot, only an 8-sleeper and is my second favorite hut I've stayed in (behind Granity Pass). I stayed there two nights. On day two I headed up toward Copland Pass. In an avalanche chute, on some large boulders, I layed in the sun for three hours with a good view of the mountains ahead. I didn't feel like walking anymore so I didn't. Briefly, I headed up the avalanche chute toward the terminus of a glacier with a thin waterfall to its east thinking I would go to the bottom of the waterfall. I then heard a muffled groan, and another. I paused, being paranoid of rockfall. Nothing happened so I decided it was a plane. I took a step forward and suddenly, in the mist above, not 500 meters ahead I heard a giant piece of glacier or rock or both come thundering in my direction. I turned and started to run, laughing all the while. Not sure why. The thundering continued for a couple solid minutes. Nothing came over the edge of the cliff I was facing but I decided it was an appropriate time to head back to my cozy little hut in the bush for hot tea and ginger cookies. A couple hundred meters on, I was able to see into a cleft in the cliff face - there were huge boulders and fresh blocks of ice on a snowfield - obviously the source of the thundering. Today I walked out the 24km again and headed to Fox Glacier. It's good looking glacier, but cannot be compared to the Dart Glacier Autumn and I saw on the Rees-Dart. With all my time alone I've had ample time to think. I've decided that there is only one thing that is easier since Autumn left, deciding who drives.