The Hike Between Two Lakes
The summer after my freshman year of college I was able to have the amazing opportunity to study abroad to New Zealand. Not only was this trip to a country that I had always wanted to visit (being a fan of Lord of the Rings) but the entire class was centered around hiking and exploring with environmental-friendly practices. This mean that the majority of the trip was spent on traveling to different parts of the country, mostly on the South Island, and backpacking through the wilderness. The below panoramas show the areas of my favorite hike in the Nelson Parks.
We arrived on the banks of Rotoiti Lake quite late in the day, just in time to catch one of the most glorious sunsets I have ever witnessed. That night we pitched tents close to the water and prepared for the next four days of hiking. Rising early, we set off towards the first of three cabins that would be our shelter for the nights.
Angelus Lake, the location of the second cabin, was cradled between the mountains. It was quite odd to climb that far only to encounter a body of water that is that much higher than sea level. Our cabin there was literally on the bank of the lake with a deck overhanging the water. We shared that cabin with around forty others, many of them from a wide variety of countries. This gave us the chance to play games with them that we had never heard of before, despite not fully understanding them at some points.
This was the location of our final cabin. Down below was the edge of Rotoiti Lake as we had made our way back by a different route. I remember that it made me a little melancholy to think that this portion of the trip was over, but I was definitely excited for what was to come.
