A relaxing weekend with great views of Kaikoura. The trip began with us all (along with the medium group) meeting at the Wellington Railway station at 2.30pm to catch a 4pm ferry to the South Island. After arriving in Picton, we drove down to Kaikoura to our Top 10 Holiday accommodation for the night. This … Read more
Day 1 Our group gathered at the Railway Station at 2.30pm and, along with Jane’s group, jumped in the club van to catch a 4pm ferry to Picton. The sailing was smooth and pleasant. We drove south from Picton, with lovely views of valleys as the sun set, until we arrived at the Kaikoura Top … Read more
Thursday We piled onto the Thursday afternoon ferry, and the group started to get to know each other. We had a good mix of new and more experienced group members, including Harry and Paul, who had both attempted Snowflake via this route before – notably before the 2016 Kaikoura earthquake https://wtmc.org.nz/trip-report/slippery-snowflake/. We had a good … Read more
“I think they’re looking for escaped rebel dinosaurs who are on the run from work…….” “I bet they were surprised to see all our tents in the middle of nowhere!” This was our conversation the next morning after an Airforce helicopter circled over our campsite the night before with search lights on, presumably doing a … Read more
Te ao Whekere and the discovery of the Sarahsaurus 🦕 An ascent of Te Ao Whekere in the Seaward Kaikoura Range, and the amazing sighting of what appeared to be a dinosaur sunning itself on a cliff face. ‘Kea. Kea’. Much to my surprise I was now staring up at two noisy kea calling out … Read more
Sometimes trips I lead are a bit chaotic. This one was no exception! High winds forecast for the Sunday afternoon ruled out camping anywhere along the ridge, so our crazy plan was to summit Te Ao Whekere and return in one VERY long day. After a booking fail (my fault) with the ferry, we ended … Read more
This time last year, almost to the day, I stood on the summit of Mt Tapuae-o-Uenuku, and one of the few prominent sights staring back was the peak of one of its tallest partners Mt Manakau, the highest point in the Seaward Kaikouras. I resolved that next year I’d try to tackle it on the … Read more
The Kaikouas are an impressive sight from Wellington’s south coast on a sunny winter’s day. Several times most years WTMC groups try and climb one of the large peaks that appear too rise up out of the sea. On one such trip in early October our objective was a 1870 metre peak simply called ‘Snowflake’. … Read more
We: Mike, Sharron, Michael and Me (Brendan), met at platform 9 on the Thursday evening and all headed to the ferry terminal. The 3 hour ride across the strait was calm, dinner was served and 500 was played, Sharron didn’t do so well on the 500 front, but like the crossing remained calm. At the … Read more
For this trip we had the club’s second van – ‘DPY’, and took it across on the ferry. It’s easy to drive and a real asset of the club. It took a bit over two hours to get to Kaikoura and the Mt Fyffe carpark. The forecast was for clearing weather on Saturday, but on … Read more