We chatted from about 6 or 7pm till about midnight about a whole range of things. It was really cool talking to him and hearing his perspective about New Zealand, since he was born a kiwi, but lived overseas long enough to not have any kiwi bias. One other topic which struck me as particularly interesting was that he commented that he has no friends at all very matter of factly.
My first reaction was just shock, but after a while when we talked more and you actually think about it, it kinda makes sense I guess. Right now we have many friends cos well, we are still schooling and meet each other everyday and have lots of time to mingle and chill with them. But after a while when we rarely meet up or when we all go in different directions, how often are we going to meet up? I mean how many of our primary or secondary school friends whom you were close to in the past do you still meet up with nowadays? Honestly, do you even still feel very close to them?
Even if you do, I'm sure the number is a lot lesser than the past. 10 or 20 years later, I think it will be even worse. No wonder the Chinese saying that to find one true friend in your life is an extremely fortunate thing.
Anyways, decided to go do a day walk the next day. Its the first day of the Kepler Track which I am not doing, but first day's hut on Mount Luxmore is supposed to have a superb view. Haha managed to convince them to walk it as well, though they went up ahead first as I was doing some other stuff in town.
The start of the walk was walking around the lake, meaning it was pretty flat and easy. Near the start of the walk, the trees all around the trail made the place look like some kind of haunted woods from a fairy tale man.
Not sure why it doesn't seem to rotate when I upload it. It doesn't really look like it here though
After about 2 hours, the climb started. And it was really a damn steep climb man!!! Definitely much steeper than datuk or kindabalu. Even with a day pack I had to rest for a few minutes after every 15-20 min! No wonder the board said it was a 4 hours climb to the top. But that was with a heavy pack of course. I took about 2 hours to reach to the top. Haha so its steep but relatively short walk I guess. Well after 2 hours, I came out of the bushline. It was really amazing, its like climbing, climbing, climbing and suddenly flat, sunshine, super strong winds, and.....
this.....
and this....
Honestly, I did not really find the view that superb as what I heard. I mean it was good, but not super wowing. Oh well....anyways it was another about half and hour walk along the ridge before coming to the hut. By then I was already shivering like mad man. Wah didn't expect the wind to be so strong. It was in fact about 13 degrees according to the thermometer on my watch. And I was basically in a T-shirt, berms, sandals and a shell. Well when I went into the hut and was rewarded with warmth from a fireplace. haha almost didn't want to leave. When I was there, I met this guy who started at the same place as me and ran all the way up. Bleh so what took me 4 hours took him an hour and 45 min. Disgusting man. He wasn't even panting when he reached la!!!
Well took a few more pictures at the hut and descended.
The descent was pretty boring cos its the same route and after the downslope, it was flat. Oh and thankfully I met the father and son along the way down. So we continued chatting all the way down. Haha if not for them I would have been bored stiff, though I could probably have walked faster. So in all, an 8 hour track took me about 7.5 hours. Not bad I guess, haha many more days of trekking to do!
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