Short And Sharp Hike

Fantastic weather in Te Anau today and of course with great weather comes the urge to feel energetic. Up early this morning and of toward Milford Sound… well at least until we reached the Divide anyway. With our day-packs loaded with nibbles and lunch Jude and I did a short sharp climb up to Key Summit. It was interesting on the way in from Te Anau, the sides of the roads were littered with fallen trees and branches that the last snow brought down, the weight obviously too much for the trees to hold. Arriving at the Divide it was slightly cool but we knew the promising fine weather would surely make it a warm walk. The DOC sign at the start of the track estimated the time for the return trip to the summit and back at 3 hours, Jude and I have worked out that we normally do any track in 2/3’s of any stated times so estimated that we should get to the top in just under an hour without busting our fufu. As we progress up the 4km track to the summit it was obvious how rain and snow had caused havoc to the track surface and the surrounding bush… some rather large trees had uprooted topling down pulling away large segments of the track, huge root systems exposed and quite impressive all the same. By the time we reached the tops out of the bush line of course Jude’s light power to weight ratio was obvious as she seemed to cruise in a higher gear than I and unashamedly I was in the low gears, the ole ticker was in optimal working range to supply my engine with fuel..yes I see myself as an old lorry climbing hills lol. We reached the top of the tree line in beautiful sunshine and of course the views looking down the Hollyford Valley is nothing short of spectacular. We continued up to the summit of Key Summit where the tarns provide a unique eco-system of mountain flowers and mosses and in the distance Lake Marion. We found a nice spot to have lunch overlooking the Hollyford Valley in all its sunshine glory before making our way down to the carpark where we made a coffee and enjoyed a cameo biscuit. All in all a fantastic 8km short sharp hike of 1.75 hrs, total of just over 400 vertical meters over 4km climbing with awesome views.