kepler challenge

my feet are sore. i mean, REALLY sore. after all, the weather got crap, so without any view of admiring the scenery, i still wanted to get out as much as i could out hose hills on kepler track, so ... even though i would still get disqualified from KEPLER CHALLENGE (it took me a bit over 12h), you have to start with something, right? so i caught the sunrise with KEAS frolicking around and set off hoping to get at least a glimpse from the ridge...well, that day i had to use my IMAGINATION rather than my eyes, but with every nanosecond that the cloud lifted it felt as if a piece of a secret had just been given away...
and then, even though i ran for the last hour i still managed to miss the last bus. but again, my ambition to be really TOUGH won over sore limbs - i did not hitchike :-)
if it comes to views,however, last weeks' rees-dart track was a completely different story... it all started in glenorchy, in a dodgy campsite kitchen, where i met two israeli guys. i know that life is a vicious circle and some even say that if you hadn't learnt your lesson, you'll have to go over it again and again. well, the moment i accepted their offer to give me a lift to the track, i sort of felt another chain of silly adventures coming...(for those who haven't heard my story from last year's australian adventure accompanied by an israeli tandem, it was a chain of everyday 'somethig-went-wrongs' :-))))...and we got lost on the way! huhuh! and even though AFIK and NOAM were trying hard, they still proved my theory about middle eastern 'everything is a process' right :-). anyway, we had a great four day tramp with an awesome cascade saddle views of mt aspiring (again!), playful keas teasing us as we were walking up the valley, and evenings filled with heated discussions.
and now, spoling myself with a piece of deliciously sickly chocolate melting on my tongue, i'm giving my feet a bit of a rest near te anau, at barnyard backpackers, a peaceful deer farm with awesome views over the fiords. i've been missing cycling and so i'm going east soon. my days in new zealand, though extended, are coming slowly but surely to an end...as the fall makes it all rusty and wet, i'm already starting to get ready for the heat of oz...