Our first view of Mount Everest - Whaia te taumata!

Tashi Dele. Today was our acclimatisation rest day at Namche.  The day started like a picture postcard, in fact I might start selling my pictures. We enjoyed a sleep in until 8 am and had breakfasts of porridge, toast French toast, chapati, fried eggs or pancakes, with as much lemon or black tea and coffee we wished. You can see that the food is a big hit with us all.  Hugh in particular is into everything on the menu and, like me, takes a photo of each meal before it is demolished!  There was free time until 10am and several went shopping or enjoyed a pastry from one of the many bakeries.

After meeting again at the hotel we walked up behind Namche to the Sagarmatha National Park HQ and Sherpa Museum. It was here that we were awed by our first view of Mount Everest. Time to pull out the Cromwell College flag and do some posing.  The HQ had very informative interpretive panels on all aspects of the Park.

Everest is right above Liam's head!

We then toured the Sherpa Museum, a re-creation of a typical sherpa home.  One of the most colourful room was the family prayer room. There was also a room of showing the history of Everest climbing. Back to the hotel for sherpa stew and dahl baht.  Everyone is now out attempting to tick off their family shopping list. Who says that boys arn't keen on shopping? They have all enjoyed their 'bargin' purchases. I have a great yak bell and some surprises for Julie, Emily and Louise.

Jonathan and Leroy in the Sherpa prayer room

Tonight we will do some preparation for our time at Phortse School. We will be up at 6am and away by 7am climbing to Phortse.  Looking forward to great views of Lhotse, Everest and Ama Deblam! We will be out of internet access for the next 5-6 days and will not update the blog until we reach Lobuche.

Pauline and Elsa above Namche

Thanks for the support and the lovely comments. The students are coping exceptionally well with all the challenges and new experiences and parents have every right be immensely proud of them - I am! Namaste.

P.S Today is Liam's birthday - he doesn't know it yet but a lovely cake has been made for him with a gift of some prayer flags

A room with one amazing view!

View of Kongde Ri at 8 pm this morning, ramrochha, sundar,  beautiful!

Team Cromwell College Reunite in Bengkar

We have arrived in Namche after another stunning day. The group at Phakding woke to blue skies and beautiful sunrise on sheer peaks. Breakfast of French toast and bread honey jam coffee and tea at 7 am. Our lodge bakes much of the bread in the lower valley. Pauline was understandably very interested in this. We were away at 8 am walking much closer to the Dudh Kosi river in the lower valley. Again plenty of mani walls and prayer wheels. Several donkey trains passed us with their bells and heavy loads. 

After about 45 minutes we learned that Kim's group had already reached Phakding! The cell phone coverage here is amazing. They caught is up in Bengkar. They had almost not got out of Kathmandu because Lukla was clouded in. The helicopter pilot would not fly. By chance Kim met up with Jason Laing a NZ pilot who he had flown with many times and was now working in Nepal. Jason offered to fly then in. Lukla was still clouded out so they landed at Surkey. They took a short cut to Chheplung walking with torches for part of the way. They got up at 6 am today and were walking by 7 am. It was great to see them again in good heart. 

We all enjoyed a lunch of dahl baht at Monjo before starting our steep climb to Namche. Our sherpa ensured we climbed slowly with good rests. The whole team moved well crossing the high Larga swing bridge and passing through pine and rhododendron forest. We reached Namche at 3pm in lovely sun. A truly spectacular setting. Our hotel overlooks the town and the view is amazing! Tasty teas and biscuits got afternoon tea and now some students have gone shopping and exploring. Tomorrow is a rest day and we look forward to more shopping relaxing, going for a coffee at one of the many bakeries.

Kim, Bryn Hugh and Dave entering Nache Bazar

Lukla to Phakding, beautiful!

What a day! From the hustle of Kathmandu to the serenity of the Himalaya. Views spectacular, the colourful housing, cheerful Nepali and Sherpa, prayer wheels, walls and flags. Some rhodos in flower and breathtaking mountains. Pauline and I quite slow taking heaps of pictures. Stopped in Ghat for afternoon tea of yummy sweet lemon tea. Arrived at our lodge the Khumbu Travellers Guesthouse at 5.30 pm. Ready dinners of soup, pasta, noodles, momos and pancakes followed by more tea.

Have learnt that Kim and the rest of the team could not fly into Lukla because of cloud and had to land 2 hours below Lukla. They are walking to Chepplung, an hour up valley from Lukla, with the lead Sherpa Pemba and porters.  The plan is for us is to all met in Namche Bazaar tomorrow. Everyone is happy. Another unforgettable day!  It is hard to comprehend that we were in Cromwell 3 days ago.

The Hotel Tibet, packed for Lukla

Up at 6am for breakfast and all packed max 15kg each. Here we are outside the hotel before driving to airport at 8 am. Arrived but flight delayed by cloud. Relaxed for a bit then all go. Weather closed in so no flights. We waited for an hour then Chhuldim the owner of Mountain Experience organised helicopter flights for us. There was only one fixed wing flight to Lukla today and Cromwell College got there in helicopters! ! Amazing flight for 50 minutes over terraced hills and gorges. Lukla so peaceful and colourful. We were met by our sirdar Pemba. Six of us here having lunch at Namaste lodge. we are enjoying sweet lemon tea. Kim and the other 5 of the team will fly here in 2 hours. We will head to Phakding after lunch.

Dinner at the Hotel Tibet

We arrived in Kathmandu at 12 pm and then took a taxi van to our hotel.  The streets are amazing - crowded, exciting, noisy, a near miss every second. The hotel is stunning. peaceful, clean and ornate. After sorting our rooms and a meeting we headed into Thame to buy sleeping bags and down jackets for some of the team. The walk was an adventure! Dodging traffic on street crossings, walking through construction zones, dust, fumes and people. We split up to buy things walking down packed narrow lanes packed full of shops, rickshaws, motorbikes and taxis. Elsa got a nice sleeping bag for $50 US and Bryn a Columbia Jacket for $60US. We then took a taxi home, a tiny Suzuki with 4 of us crammed in. Ducking and weaving all the way home. Lots of stories to tell already. We fly tomorrow morning at 8.00am for Lukla and walk to Monju. A lovely meal at the hotel to end the day.  

Through Changi Airport off to Kathmandu

Up early for our flight to Kathmandu. This photo was taken by the Sew Hoy family. I taught William several years ago in Dunedin. They overheard a kiwi accent and offered to take a picture. Small world! We arrive in Kathmandu at 12 pm

Singapore Sights

Elsa at the entrance to Jurong Bird Park. We caught one of the fast and efficient trains to Boon Lay and had lunch at a mall there. Fantastic variety of foods and great bakeries. We then caught a bus to the bird park. Weather very hot and humid! Park impressive with a huge range of bird life. I liked the flamingos and scarlet ibis best. Now back at hotel relaxing before dinner. Lovely day.

Check in Peninsula Excelsior Hotel

After a 10 hour flight from Auckland we are checking into our hotel. After a shower and freshen up it is then off sight seeing for the day.

Proud kiwis

Doug, Liam and David enjoying Auckland International. Off to Singapore in an hour.

Take off

The team outside Queenstown airport acknowledging one of our many sponsors: Frankton Electrical. We fly to Singapore at 11.00 pm tonight. A great send off from parents family and friends.

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS

Your support of our adventure has been tremendous

Cromwell Pharmacy, Fulton Hogan, Heliworks, Frankton Electrical, Cromwell College MRC Business Sponsors

Tim Hawkins - Central Lakes Photography, Golden Gate, Christine Cocks Accountants, APL, , Buchan Design, Guy Cotter – Adventure Consultants, Bank Link, Redpaths Cromwell, Cromwell Golf Club, Peter Hillary, Apa Sherpa

Cromwell Rotary, Terry Davis, Cromwell Lions, Irrigation Services Sth Ltd, Water Force Cromwell, Tom Pinckney - Northburn 100, MannMade Catering,Lowburn Ferry Wines, Craig & Amanda Power, Maureen & Duncan Butcher, MOJO Joinery, Ray Clarkson, Mark Seddon, G Douglas - Saffron Farm, Provisions, NZSki.com, Festive Fete, Cromwell Arts Society, T & R Haig. 

NZAGC, Bob & Robyn Galvin, Tony Bird,  Susan Dickie,  Shotover Canyon Swing, Quartz Reef Wines, Coffee and Equipment,  Briar Dell, Highlands Motorsport Park, AJ Hackett, Cookie Time, Deidre Copland, Cromwell Visitor Centre CODC, Bannockburn Country House, Carrick Wines, John Petre- Harcourts, Awawhiti Wines, NRG Health & Fitness, Al Brown, Otago Polytechnic, Tuatara Beer, White Rabbit Chocolates, Burn Cottage Vineyard, The Wooing Tree, Marie Valenski, Cromwell Presbyterian Church, Ordele Morshuis, Mt Michael Wines, Lake Dunstan Lions, Lake Hawea Holiday Park, Adventure Outfitters, Doreen McKinlay, J & C Davis, Lyn James & Graham Smith, Cromwell Bulletin, Weft Knitwear Co. , Webb’s Orchard

Our families and the Cromwell community for supporting our events and providing words of encouragement. 

We apologise for any omissions.

                                      Shaping Life Through Adventure                                  

Our Expedition Map Overview and Itinerary

The map below gives an overview of our trip from Lukla to Everest Base Camp via Phortse, Gokyo Lakes and Cho La Pass. Click map to enlarge.

Source: www.touchingmountain.com/everest-base-camp-trek-12-days.html

Our itinerary is outlined below:                                         

                                                                                    

GOKYO VALLEY AND EVEREST BC TREK BY CHOLA PASS (5368m)

             

 Day.               Date.

1                      24 April            Flight leaves Queenstown.

2                      25 April            Arrive Singapore & sightseeing, overnight.

3                      26 April            Depart Singapore for Kathmandu, Transfer to Hotel Tibet.

4                      27 April            Kathmandu last minute gear purchases, and sightseeing

           (Monkey  Temple).

5                      28 April            Early morning flight from Kathmandu to Lukla, trek to Monju           

           (2743m)

6                      29 April            Trek from Monju to Namche  (Visit market) (3445m).

7                      30 April            Namche rest and acclimatize (National Park HQ, Museum).                                                                   

8                      1 May              Trek from Namche to Phortse (3,810)

9                      2 May              Visit Phortse school (Tuesday), Trek to Dole (4,100).

10                   3 May              Dole to Machermo (4,470).

11                   4 May              Machermo to Gokyo Lake (4,790).

12                   5 May              Early morning option climb Gokyo Ri for super kids and afternoon trek

 to Dragnag.    

13                   6 May              Dragnag crossing of Chola Pass to Dzhonglha.

14                   7 May              Dzhonglha to Lobuche

15                   8 May              Lobuche to Everest BC Return Gorak Shep (Possible visit Adventure

Consultants Everest Base Camp setup).

16                   9 May              Early morning climb Kala Patthar, trek to Pheriche.

17                   10 May            Pheriche to Tengboche.

18                   11 May            Tengboche to via Khumjung Namche

19                   12 May            Namche to Lukla.

20                   13 May            Lukla early morning flight to Kathmandu.

21                   14 May            Free day Kathmandu and group evening party.

22                   15 May            Depart Kathmandu Silkair flight MI 411, 1.05pm– Arrive

           Singapore.

23                   16 May            Singapore sightseeing, depart Singapore for Christchurch in evening.

24                   17 May            Arrive Queenstown 4.05pm.

Final gear check with Kim Logan

Monday night was the full gear check and discussion of final details and organisation. Kim Logan also outlined roles and responsibilities for each of the team members.

Cute Merino Wool Singlets for Phortse

Julie Stretch showing off one of the 65 merino singlets from Weft Knitwear in Christchurch that we have packed for families at Phortse Primary School.

The EBC 2013 Team Ready To Go

From left to right: Bryn Gibson, David Borrie, Leroy Bird, Elsa Mannering, Will (Doug) Douglas, Hugh Cocks, Pauline Murphy, Jonathan Streeter, Will Harrison, Mason Stretch, Liam Crum - Kim Lohan absent

Our team jackets from Dunedin Company 'Adventure Outfitters' and sponsored by Pete Crum of Frankton Electrical arrived last week.  The Nepalese and New Zealand flags are packed and ready to go. A big thank you to Tim Hawkins for taking another stunning picture of our team. 

ODT reporter Sarah Marquet produced an article on our adventure in Saturday's ODT.  The link is below

http://www.odt.co.nz/regions/central-otago/253710/pursuing-lofty-goal-after-much-hard-work

EBC Mufti Day and Tee Shirt Sales

Elsa, Bryn, Hugh and Liam selling our EBC tee shirts at mufti day last week.  Students also donated  $340 for Phortse Primary School.  

We have had a very generous donation of 65 merino singlets for 0-5 year olds from Weft Knitwear Company in Christchurch.  We will be giving them to the families of the Phorste children.  

Students are each preparing short presentations on Cromwell and New Zealand to 'teach' when we arrive at their school on the morning of 2 May. As well as presenting our cheque for $2000 we have frisbees, touch and soccer balls to donate.   

Below are some of the students and staff of Phortse School.

There are 6 days to go - WOW!  We have our final gear check on Monday 22 April and then we are off on the 24th to Singapore before touching down in Kathmandu on 26 April. Almost there..........

Motorsport clean up - Easter Weekend

This is some of our team cleaning up the Highlands Motorsport Park after the opening in Easter weekend. We had 18 students and parents there on Sunday afternoon making the place look spotless. We are a very experienced clean up crew now! This is one of the last fundraisers we have planned before our departure.

Liam Crum, Mason Stretch, Kate Borrie, Jane Douglas and Lindsay Borrie - not a piece of rubbish in sight!  

EBC 2013 Community Update

Namaste

Here is a media release updating the community on what the team have been up to since our expedition launch in July 2012.

Cromwell College Everest Base Camp 2013

It is hard to believe that in three weeks our team departs on an expedition to trek to Everest Base Camp via Phortse Primary School, Gokyo Lakes and Cho La Pass. We leave from Queenstown on 24 April, travelling to Auckland, then on to Singapore before touching down in Kathmandu on the 26 April.  From there it will be a short flight to Lukla where we begin our trek up the Khumbu Valley. 

There have been a couple of changes to our team and it now consists of: David Borrie (Team Leader) Will Douglas (2^nd Team Leader), Will Harrison (Flights/travel), Jonathan Streeter (Medical), Elsa Mannering (Phortse liaison), Bryn Gibson , Hugh Cocks , Liam Crum and Leroy Bird. They are being accompanied by Kim Logan (Team Manager and guide), Pauline Murphy (Elsa’s Mum and fundraising coordinator) and Mason Stretch (Principal).

David Borrie, Hugh Cocks and Jonathan Streeter scrubbing hard at our car wash. 

One of our goals is to spend half a day at Phortse Primary School, about 6 km north of Namche Bazaar. This is one of the Hillary Himalayan Trust schools and we will donate around $2000 of our fundraising, including money from a school mufti day to be held on 10 April.  Our students will be taking some touch and soccer balls and each of them will be teaching the Phortse students about some aspect of New Zealand and Cromwell.   We will be practising our National Anthem and may perform our school haka: provided it is not too scary for them.

From Phorste we climb into the Gokyo Valley before heading over Cho La Pass (5420m). From here we join the main Khumbu Valley heading towards Everest Base Camp.  We aim to visit Everest Base Camp on 8 May and hope to call into the Adventure Consultants base run by Wanaka’s Guy Cotter.  We then head back down valley through Lobuche, past the famous Tengboche Monastery and Namche Bazaar, flying out from Lukla on 13 May. We arrive back in Queenstown on Friday 17 May and will be back at school on Monday. For those interested in tracking our progress we plan to have a blog linked to the school website www.cromwell.school.nz

Jonathan Streeter and Elsa Mannering waitering at Wooing Tree 

The biggest focus for parents and students since our ‘launch’ in July last year has been to achieve our aim of raising half the cost of the trip, around $30,000. This has been an enjoyable adventure in itself and there has been a great camaraderie within the group of parents and students as we have been involved in a wide range of fundraising activity. Two of the memorable highlights have been our evenings with Guy Cotter, Peter Hillary and Apa Sherpa. All the students have had summer jobs to cover costs and on top of this they and their parents have also installed irrigation, washed cars, weeded gardens, supported the Legends Golf Tournament, helped with food and waitering at a Wooing Tree wedding, labelled fundraising ‘Sagarmatha’ wine, run a mountain film festival evening, cleaned up the race course 3 times, and most recently, catered for the Northburn 100 event, set up the Easter Art Show and cleaned up after the opening of the Highlands Motorsport Park.

Labelling our Sagarmatha Pinot

As well as fundraising we have had amazing support from a large number of businesses and individuals who have contributed cash, equipment or prizes to help us reach our goal. This support has been huge for the team and we are extremely grateful to all who have contributed. We look forward to acknowledging all of our generous sponsors in our next Bulletin update.

The team have been working on their fitness and last week had an initial gear check and received their vaccinations.  With 3 weeks to go our focus is organising our full complement of gear including favoured snacks and medication.  For six of the team this will be their qualifying expedition of their Gold Duke of Edinburgh Hillary Award which is fitting given this is the 60th anniversary of the first ascent of Mt Everest by Hillary and Tensing. 

This journey is a courageous undertaking for the students, their parents and our school and I have great admiration and pride for the efforts of parents, their children and our community for making this expedition a reality.  A special thanks also to Kim Logan for his quiet confidence and guidance. It has been a pleasure to see the hard work, excitement and character exhibited by our team. A true adventure awaits us all and it is aptly captured in our school motto,

Whaia te taumata (Pursue the highest peaks) – Deserve Success

Namaste

Mason Stretch

Principal 

Peter Hillary and Apa Sherpa with the Cromwell College Everest Base Camp Team

Here is our team with with Peter Hillary and Apa Sherpa the world record holder for climbs of Everest