Mt. Surveyor- somewhere between Manukau and Te Ao Whekere..a wake up call and a bum

this will be a long post

Missed the ferry on Thursday night.. Had to pay $60 extra to get in to the next one... Alex the trip leader was late too. Next ferry at 8pm. Picton at 11 pm.

Another 2 hours-ish to kaikoura and re-group with the rest of the crew.Drove in Puhi puhi river road... couldn't find the rest of the group.. turned around and slept in the van for the night.
Found them at a sweet little camp site by the road. we must've missed it last night

Gathered our stuff and started packing after breakfast.. Dropped the other car where we supposed to get out on sunday. Drove back to Jordan River
10 am ... started walking up Jordan stream ... 4 hours in .. waterfall.. no way thru...here we go ... up the scree slope...
loose rocks... climbed up... using plants to hold.. all our hand was scratch and bleeds..

"ROCK" i was in the back of the line.. a foolish things to do .. but it was too late..
they were coming toward me and alex.. "head's down! he yelled..
My face must've been full of horror  when I looked up ... Covered my head with my hands.. wishing that it would missed me somehow..  one hit top of my backpack.. and big one hit my thigh..Aaarrrggghh.. alex hold my legs.. stopping me from sliding..fucking hell that hurt.. waiting for the pain to go away.. it did after a while.. and we continued upward .. it was a wake up call..

kept going.. 7 hours in... found a somewhat flat and safe ground.. camped out for the night.. warm meal and hot drink boost up my moral... I was still somewhat shaking... At this point.. I know i was the weakest link.. the slowest and by far the inexperienced.. The burden for the group. suck balls....Hate to be in the position.

morning came.. beautiful sunrise.. clouds over the valley and the ocean.. 7 am.. up climbing .. ridge line... amazing view... snow covered mountain.. moral booster.. this is why i like doing this ...the weather was holding up .. blue sky .. not too much wind... wouldn't know what might happen if the weather turned bad... don't want to know..

every loose footing was a reminder to kick my crampons harder...
karl off in the front.. breaking trail and setting up foot step for me... made my life so much easier.. thank you! 

12 hours on the go.. beautiful view.. good snow.. some parts of them were a lot steeper than what i was used to... but alex and everyone else was watching over me.. it was a great team..can't ask for more and I beat my self up again to be the burden . around 3pm.. reached surveyor peak.. the highest peak on this trip ..  lunch there... karl melted some snow.. my water was out 2 hours into the hike that day.. my mouth was dry.. i put some water in the bottle for it to melt..slow process...

Camp in the saddle just below surveyor peak.. somewhat flat.. dig the platform.. built a little wall around the platform.. and set up camp... 360 view was amazing.. unbeatable.. we got both sunset.. and sunrise .. amazing..
......couscous day 2 ......

dreading going down.. nothing more scary than that..ugh. knowing that I have to face the same loose scree again after we get off the snow... well.. add some rock traverse there... alex grabbed my hand and said.. let's do this the proper way...
then we started went facing down and walked on our crampon.. my whole body was telling me to fuck off .. everything they knew about balance got thrown out of the window..  i mumbled a protest... but glad that he forced me to do it.. 

snow gone .. here comes the rock .. alex disappeared..finding route ..sweet ass, he said.. then asked for my pack... confused... but i gave him my pack ... grabbed my hand, we came around the corner.. i didn't realized it until i started traversing the rock wall.. and saw quite a big drops under me..... that's why you took my pack ... if  i can't even carry my own pack.. i don't belong here... it hurts.... BAH


4 hours of scrambling on the ridge and scree slope down.. dropped 2000 m down.... reached the river... 

but it wasn't over.. still had to walk 5 hours along the hapuku river to the car .. river crossing time.. 

missed the ferry again.... checked in to backpacker.. woke up at 5.15am.. walked to the terminal... no ferry shit!!... won't come till 10...double shit ball!!  slept  at the bench outside the terminal.. being a bum for once... 
6 am... heard a ferry came.. i looked over.. it was blue bridge.. gathered my stuff.. walked around trying to find where the terminal is... nz isn't very great on giving sign and direction.. finally a bus driver showed me the way..
... bought a ticket... and back to reality...
i'm glad i pushed over my boundaries ..  i'm glad i stepped out side my comfort zone.. i made mistakes along the way.. a LOT of them..  mistakes that could be fatal...

There are many ways to see this experience... one way to look at it.. and the way I want to look at it... 
I'm alive.. beat and battered.. but sound and well in the same time... learn and move on... time doesn't stop moving ..