Michael, Molly T., and I left the house Friday afternoon bound for Milford sound to climb Miter Peak the next day. Michael had mutual friends with the owner of a Sea Kayak company in Milford Sound so we had scored a free boat ride across the sound Saturday morning and they would pick us up Sunday afternoon. Once we arrived in Milford sound we found there were only two small hotels and one camp site. All of which were completely full. So Michael made a phone call to the Kayak company to see if they knew of any good places where we could pitch a tent with out the DOC (Department of Conservation) officers finding us and kicking us out in the middle of the night since there is no off site camping allowed. They told us just to come down to their employee housing and they had a bed and a beer for us. Turns out the bed was in the back of a Toyota Four Runner but better then having to drive the two hours back to the nearest free camping site. So we crashed in the back of cars for the night and woke up to an amazing morning and boat ride across the sound at 8am.
Miter Peak is not climbed very often and because of that there is not really much of a trail for the 3/4 of the climb that is in the jungle. After finding what we thought was just a drainage gully with less ferns and vines then the rest of the hillside we noticed some old flagging tied to one of the trees so then we knew we were actually on the trail that we had heard about. It turned out out to be six nasty hours of pretty steep climbing and descending hanging onto trees, roots, grass, or what ever else you could find. Most of the time the trail was wet or muddy. But it made for a great feeling once we busted out of the tree line onto the fields of tussock before the rock portion of the climb.
We set up the tent for Molly to hang out in just before where the exposed climbing began and Michael and I took off for the top. We had heard all sorts of stories that varied between people falling off the climb to their death in the ocean below, all the way to it was a good climb with no rope needed. So we had no idea what to expect and decided we would turn around at 7pm so we had light for coming back down. It turned out to be a bit sporty in places as the rock was terrible most of the way. It seemed almost everything you would touch wanted to move or slide. And the talk of being able to fall all the way into the sea below wasn't to far off in a few places. But we made it up in half the time we expected and had amazing weather with zero wind to hang out and soak in the views.
There were two interesting things about climbing this mountain. At about 9am the boats, planes, and helicopters all start their engines and start taking tourists out. So there is constantly noise in the air of some engine going past you. At one time I counted six airplanes, two helicopters and five boats all out at once. So that sucked. The thing that made of for it though was standing on one of the highest mountains in the sound looking out over the Tasman Sea only a few miles ahead of us, being able to see for hundreds of miles it seemed.
All in all it was a great trip with many more details that I don't have time to write about now. We stayed in Queenstown last night and I am headed to the Greenstone Track tonight or tomorrow.
Cooking dinner with a view.
This was taken about half way through the jungle one of the first times we could see above the trees.
On the top, Tasman sea in the background.
Amazing camping spot.
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