Final(s) Hurrah

So after flying back from Auckland on Friday and spending the weekend studying for my Environmental quality exam Monday, It was obviously time to get out of Christchurch one last time. Monday night Austin, my flatmate Joe and I caught a ride with Travis and his girlfriend Chelsea up to Arthur's Pass with the intention of hiking Avalanche Peak. The 5 of us spent the night in the exact same campsite where we went for our very first adventurous weekend way back in February! The mountains all over NZ have been getting heaps of snow over the last few weeks so we were really excited to bag a snowy summit. We had rented Ice axes and crampons from the Uni tramping club just to cover our bases. Tuesday we went to the DOC visitors center and the lovely lady Christina more or less tried to scare us out of going all the way up by telling us that this early in the year the snow base was not solid and the conditions were very prone to slides. If there is one thing I've learned or I suppose maybe not learned is that the DOC likes to try to scare you and you don't always really need to listen. We did choose the less technical route up that kept us below the bush line and off the ridges longer. The weather was perfect, blue sky and barely a breath of wind. We were able to leave a bunch of our camping stuff; tents, sleeping bags, food, etc. in a locker at the hostel in Arthur's Pass village where the attendant also told us that we would "be up to our eyeballs in snow". We headed up the track and soon enough all three of us were hiking in stubbies(unnecessarily short shorts). We made it up above the bush line and popped on our crampons, since we were about shin deep in snow and climbing up a reasonably steep ridge. We made it to a flat area with an old weather station (3'x3' metal frame with a wood trail marker in the middle), here Joe and I decided to put our pants back on, only to discover that Austin had left his waterproof pants on the side of the trail when we had changed into stubbies. Being the man that he is he did the entire rest of the hike in shorts, sometimes plunging a full leg down into the snow and getting a little cold surprise on the family jewels. We then continued on up the ridge slowly but surely in knee deep or more snow. We summitted around 2pm, and had lunch with one of the most beautiful 360 panoramas. Snow capped mountains on all sides with valleys spilling off in every direction, Crow glacier on the opposing peak, and looking down on the trans alpine highway through the pass. We headed back down the ridge, which turned out to be much easier than we expected, and about halfway down i pulled my crampons off and attempted to run/roll the rest of the way down which was really really fun, and quite funny. We ended the hike in the dark with a spectacular view of the waxing moon and venus right over the mountains, and yet another amazing NZ starry night sky. After collecting our gear from the locker we were lucky enough to catch a ride with a guy heading to Christchurch and got a ride all the way back to our flats! It was the perfect way to end my adventures in New Zealand, right back where they started in Arthur's Pass. I have heaps to say about my time here and how it has affected me and all that good stuff, but that is going to have to come at a later date when I have collected all my thoughts. 12 days left and 4 exams to go, this semester has flown by and I'm going to miss it.