Tramping before Exams

My last tramp before exams was a week ago yesterday. Rue (Stewart Island tramp), Dan (we came via AustraLearn - same session) and I left Dunedin at 1:45pm, friday 27 May. We drove straight to the west coast, Fox Glacial and Haast, for the night. One adventure-ish aspect of this tramp was when we made it to Haast at 6:30pm with nearly no petrol. Without sufficient cash or a NZ credit card, we realised small towns close at 6pm :o) We managed to scrounge cash enough for petrol to reach the DOC office in Fox Glacial, thankfully uphill from the petrol station. Since it was only 8:30pm, we found a hotel with a pub (lots of people) and hung out in the lounge (rather than the car), enjoying free heat from a fire place, a little reading of the newspaper and nice, clean toilets. That was the most uncomfortable night I've ever not slept: three of us in the Subaru. You know how back seats of cars often fold down in two sections? One is usually the middle-and-side seats and the other section is just one seat. Well, with Dan sleeping in the front we had to leave the single-seat section of the back seat (the section directly behind him) up and could only lay down the double-seat section. Make sense? This meant that while we had the entire back end to utilise for sleeping, we only had an approximately 2.5 foot-wide area to stretch out in, side-by-side. I spent the majority of the night tossing and turning, sandwiched next to Rue, who was wrapped as close as possible around the wheel well. Needless to say, we both enjoyed a restless, sleepless night! Blessedly (today is adverb day), we all awoke refreshedly ready to tramp. Breakfast on the way to the trailhead and we had set off for Welcome Flat Hut. The first of 5 or so river fordings was barely out of the carpark. We all wore chacos to begin and the water was frigid. But, excited, our pace kept us warm. At one stop I noticed my feet were wounded (apparently my "great" feeling feet were just numb - but for the record, I got 1st blood!) so I finished the tramp in boots.My favorite part about the trail was that the majority of it was under stream, so we walked in water for hours. We intermittently followed a river, crossing the streams that lead to it, and moved through areas of high avalanche activity ("no stopping between signs"). 5+ hrs later we reached the hut and hurried to the hot pools - the real reason we went tramping! It was glorious lying in the water, sore muscles relaxing, watched the snow fall on the Misty Mountains (LOTR) afar off. Only drawback? Sandflies out in full-force...ouch. The evening was spent teaching Set to fellow trampers. Then another restless night broken by snoring and a loud rain/hail storm. Leaving Sunday with only enough light to see the path, we were concerned about flooding of streams. But, despite being drenched (boots eventually full of water), we killed our time, making it to the car by 11:45am and to Dunedin by 6pm!