She just shrugged when I asked her about camping, so we began setting up camp. Samuel had brought a 4 person tent, whilst me and Cara both had one person affairs. There was also a fly to chuck all the bags under. As I fluffed around with my tent Cara did a disappearing act, heading over towards the outflow of the lake. I hobbled off in the same direction. Lake Roberts empties over Earland Falls, a 174m waterfall visible from the Routeburn track. As I made my way around I looked up and saw grey clouds roll into the valley. Not the best. I eventually found Cara, dabbling at the edge of the cascade of water that forms the top of Earland Falls. As we walked around she pointed out a rock biv that she found. It would need a bit of cleaning up but it looked dry, with enough room for three.

We slowly made our way back to camp. Cara was keen to start prepping dinner and I was forbidden from helping (Edit: Apparently not true). The sun was shining so I took the opportunity to inflate the aquanaut I had carted all that way in the hope I would be able to take it for a paddle. Many breaths later and it was semi-inflated. Good enough. I made my way awkwardly down to the lake where the others were sitting, carrying the raft above my head. After gaining consent to skinny dip I launched my craft, stripped down and jumped in. In all honesty the experience was much better than I had ever envisioned. I was careful not to drift towards the outflow of the lake. I wasn’t so keen to try white water rafting on this occasion. It was rather picturesque on the water on my craft. The sun came in and out of hiding as I was on the lake. I decided to land before I lost my chance for a proper dip in a bit of sunshine.

I was pleasantly surprised when the other Kiwi lads were up for it. We braced ourselves in anticipation as the American girls observed with some amusement. I would like to say what followed next was a display of pure masculinity and Kiwi toughness. In reality it was more akin to a trio of giggling, screaming girls. The water stole any sign of masculinity. It would be a while before any of the three of us would be able to reproduce.

“The perfect bum” — Isabel

With that ticked off the bucket list we made our way up to the campsite for dinner. Cara in true Cara fashion had put on quite a meal of Couscous with lemon and feta and almonds and tomato and cucumber and cumin. It didn’t stick around for too long with 6 hungry mouths to feed. This was followed up by some brownie. This is why I go tramping with Cara! We finished the night huddled up like penguins, sharing tall tales and dubious stories. The sun was setting when we retreated to the warmth of our tents. As darkness descended a new threat revealed itself. Strong gusts of wind buffeted our campsite, threatening to dislodge us, throwing us into the lake. It’s safe to say we didn’t get very much sleep that night.