Swampy Ridge Track
Hello blog!
Once again my attempt at springtime hiking has been thwarted by the unpredictability of New Zealand weather. However, you’ll be happy to know, that I did still manage to complete the hike!! Hurrayyyyy, go Annie!!
On Monday of this week, I checked the weather for Tuesday and it looked slightly windy, but altogether nice and sunny. So, naturally, I decided to go on a hike since I have no classes on Tuesdays. I also spoke to my flatmate, Anouk, about going together and she agreed! We left our flat at 12:30 on Tuesday and drove Polly about 30 minutes outside of Dunedin to do a hike called the Silver Peaks Track. The drive to the trail was a bit treacherous and not at all meant for a Mazda Minivan like Polly to navigate, but we made it to the car park in one piece (thank god).
We got out, locked the car and made our way over to the map of the trails. Unfortunately, the Silver Peaks Track was much longer than we had anticipated (4 hours and 45 minutes - there and back!) so we decided to do the less-daunting Swampy Ridge Track which was 1 hour and 45 minutes (around 3 and a half hours total, including return trip). We began our hike and it was quite lovely at the start. The weather was sunny and the wind was just the right amount of breezy. About 30 minutes into Swampy Ridge we discovered how the track got its name; the path was absolutely covered in thick, swampy, mud. I know what you’re thinking: “Annie is obviously cursed by mud-covered hiking tracks.” Its true, I cannot escape the mud. The good news, however, is that my hiking shoes were already destroyed by Ben Lomond’s mud so this was no big deal for me. The mud was pretty gross, but me and Anouk had fun making an obstacle course out of attempting to avoid the deepest mud swamps along the path.
Eventually, we made our way out of swampland and onto a dry walking path. Not five minutes were we on this path when it started snowing! Yes thats right, SNOW in Dunedin??? I have never once seen or heard of snow in Dunedin, especially with its proximity to the coastline. It was the oddest thing. Suddenly this seemingly easy walking track turned into a snowy blizzard with gale-force winds. Anouk even asked me if we could turn back, but I was rigid in my goal of completing the hike. After 15 minutes of walking in the random snow storm, the clouds moved past and the sun came out again (mother nature is bipolar in this country).
We continued our hike and made it to the peak at around 3:30 and it was quite lovely from the top. Besides the powerful gusts of wind whipping past us, we were very comfortable from the top. We sat and ate our protein bars, took a couple of pictures by the sign and turned to hike back down. We were dreading the trek through the mud again, but we were thankful the snow had already come and gone. After an hour and 15 minutes of walking, we made it back to Polly and were ready to go home.
I made a delicious stir fry for dinner with broccoli, tofu, green beans and fat-free noodles. It was yummy!
Moral of the story: never expect to do any adventuring in New Zealand without encountering some challenges. You must learn to persevere and go with the flow (love those solid life lessons).
Thanks for reading :)
