Backpacking Trip
(The mountain behind me is the one in Lord of the Rings where the Fellowship hides from the spy crows before the mine)
Day one (Tuesday 2/2): Arrive at Courthouse Flat set up base camp. Caving in Blue Creek cave.
-We all arrived at the campsite early in the morning, around 8:00. By 9:30 we were geared up with overalls, helmets and our headlamps and headed towards Blue Creek Cave. We ate lunch before we entered the cave for a few hours. In the cave we went around obstacles such as walls, water, slippery surfaces. It was challenging and dark but soo much fun! It felt like we were in Indiana Jones so we were constantly singing/whistling the theme song (at least I was).
-After a muddy, wet, fun day in the cave we came back to the campsite and cooked up a delicious steak meal thanks to our guides Dawn and Andrew. It was fantastic after a long days work under ground! We then prepared/trained for our next day of repelling
: Full day canyoning in Blue Creek canyon.
-woke up to another delicious meal prepared by our guides (and great weather). We had bacon, eggs, beans, cereal, fruit... it was a feast. We needed it though for our long day of canyoning down some cliffs! I thought we were going to be going down mountain faces but instead we went down this one gorgeous narrow canyon and repelled down 12 different times. One time we had to repell into water and we got our waist down soaked! It was another LONG but FUN!! day. We
got back to camp and cooked in our cooking groups then went to bed. 
Day three: Tramp through Dogface flat. This is no ordinary tramp, there are ropes and ladders required to ascend this rugged gorge. In one place it is required to wade in water which is chest deep.
-This was definitely our most intense day. We hiked with our backpacks on which probably weighed like 30ish pounds. We had MANY obstacles that at times could be really scary. It varied from walking on thin paths, climbing up rocks/waterfalls, walking through the cold river chest deep, and more. I had no idea how intense it would be but it was amazing fun. It was challenging and really pushed all of us and tested our teamwork. We started on the path for about 2 hours going over trees, sliding down on our buts, avoiding wasp nests (I still got stung, ouch!!), climbing steep uphill. It was a huge workout. After lunch near the river we changed into our warm polypro/long undewear gear because we would be walking up the river. I got suited up and prepared for cold wet feet. It was really fun walking up through the river but definitely chilly at times! We followed Andrew up and he guided us around all the obstacles. Our first big obstacle though was to get through chest deep water. We walked around the edge of the river holding onto rocks until we reached Dawn who was holding a rope- she then quickly pulled us up over the rock. Everyone was so excited at that point and having so much fun because it was our first obstacle-- I sure was! Other obstacles were to climb up ladders, lift ourselves up rocks, go through more water. I can't really explain it to you because it was way more intense than it sounds. It was hard becasue of the big backpack we had on that could easily shift your weight. By the end of the day though the backpack seemed like it was apart of you and having it off felt so weird (but great!). Anyway, the day was super challenging, risky, exciting, fun, and just amazing! Once again I felt like I was in Lord of the Rings haha. Actually we were right by/saw the mountain in the first movie where the Fellowship hid from the spy crows on top of the mountain before they went into the mine--we were also right by the mine where Gandolf falls. It was just so cool. By the end of the day I was beat but excited to do more!
Day four: Our plans changed for day four because it took us a lot longer the previous day to get up the gorge/river. We instead hiked up a little farther up the river then hiked the mountain in order to loop back around to our first campsite. It was a bit easier of a day obstacle wise but we had to hike uphill for a while and then downhill on this rocky terrain. Towards the end too there was limited water so everyone got really thirsty. It was another really fun day and luckily there was no real wet feet. At one point it was just fun rocks to climb up so James and I just flew up them--I love rockclimbing and the challenge of it! Just being outside in this gorgeous place was amazing enough. I really can't explain what it was like but we just hiked in the woods, in the river, in some rocks, down some rocks, down ropes, over holes, just so much stuff! We all arrived to the campsite around 8:00 and cooked up a quick dinner and celebrated Leo's birthday. We all dressed up in dresses and had cake. The person with the best dress won... all the judges voted for the boys because they were reallly funny haha.
Day Five (Saturday 2/6): Sleep in and compass work! We slept in after two long days and then Andrew taught us how to use a compass/gps. We did some exercises which was really fun. After that and a sad goodbye to our awesome instructors we headed back to Nelson. On the way back we stopped at this amazing ice cream place that had REAL fruit ice cream. They mixed real strawberry and bananas into the ice cream then blended/mixed it together and it was like a yummy smoothie/ice cream on a cone. Delicious. When we got to the hostal we did laundry, cleaned dishes and cooked dinner. We were all so beat and ended up watching Pulp Fiction then bed.
END OF EXPEDITION! Overall it was an amazing trip and I had an absolute blast! Being outdoors is awesome(minus the bugs) and it is a gorgeous place here. I hope all is well there and cheers for now!
