new zealand 2003 - day 3

Since I had communicated with Bruce at Summits ETC via email and phone, I had assumed he would be our instructor for the mountaineering skills class. So when I found out that Aaron was going to be taking us into the Remarkables, I was a little sad. That quickly changed the minute we met Aaron, who is as friendly and laid back as Kiwis get. We did drop by headquarters (their apartment) to unload our extra bags and to meet Bruce - charming and pleasant as expected. My cold was getting to me, but once the instruction began and the pseudofed kicked in, my mind was elsewhere. We saw plenty of keas from afar - those naughty alpine parrots with the reputation for ripping cars apart. Throughout the class, Aaron freely talked with us about clients, activities, politics, birthdays (we're practically twins), travel, careers, New Zealand and the US. We found him to be a most likeable fellow.

Once we were back at camp, Aaron began cooking dinner. Hmmm, we'd never had anyone cook our meal for us in the backcountry before! I marveled at his elaborate dinner which was full of peppers, zucchini, mushroom, chicken - all fresh. He balked at our typical dinner (boil water, add pasta, eat in 2 minutes). The downside of his gourmet meal was that it took a while to cook and the sun was down well before the food was ready. My cold was coming back in force and the activities of the day began to wear on me. I crawled into the tent and let the boys deal with the rest, but I did relish every bite of that delicious bowl of food that Jeremy handed to me.