With only a few weeks notice, I proposed a week long trip to Arthur’s Pass to get some time on the snow. The plan was simple – climb some of the many easy peaks as day trips and come back to the village each night and stay warm and cosy.
Organising the trip was also fairly straightforward: the usual suspects signed up with the addition of Matt (a former WTMC member who relocated to Christchurch a few years back!). The hot showers were out at the CTC Hut, so we booked the NZAC Arthur’s Pass Lodge for a few nights, put the car on the ferry and headed down.
Day 0: Friday: False start
Ended up staying home and re-packing instead of heading South: a cancelled ferry crushed our hopes of a Rainbow ski field to Parachute Rocks Traverse the next day.
Day 1: Saturday: Sailing down
Uneventful ferry sailing (delayed by 1h 30 min), followed by a 5h 30 min drive from Picton to Arthur’s Pass, where we met Matt at the lodge and settled in for the week (i.e. unpacking + setting up of the Dino garland in the living room)
Day 2: Sunday: Temple Basin
From Temple Basin carpark to Temple Cod, towards Blimit and back down. 9km, 1100m elevation, just under 7h at gentle pace with breaks
- “Considerable” avalanche risk. We chose a safe route up Temple Basin ski field and waited at the Lockwood Shelter/Temple Basin lodge for the explosives to go off 9.30am
- Spotted footsteps of the barefoot yeti in the snow on the way up, as well as some number 8 wire snow croc-jandals
- Crampons on towards Temple Col despite relatively soft snow
- Great views of the clouds coming in from afar (from the West)
- A little sidle down and around to join the Basin and make our way towards Blimmit
- Spotted our first two kea, flying up and above a few skiers
- Turned back before the clouds arrived. Light rain caught up with us as we got closer to the car
- End of the first ever alpine day out for Dino (our mascot for the week).
- Quiz night – Believe it or not there are 33 islands in Lake Manapouri!
Day 3: Monday: Bealey Spur Hut and beyond
From West Coast Rd carpark to pt 1545. Gentle up, easy track. 16km, 1000m elevation, 6h
- ‘Considerable’ avalanche risk, still. Waited out the early morning rain at the lodge
- A very satisfying deep clean of the grubby kitchen cupboards, and mop of the bathroom. Up to WTMC standards.
- 10 am start when the sun came out – as predicted by our official forecaster, Rich!
- The DOC description was on point: “dramatic view down to Bruce stream”, “expansive views of the Waimakariri Valley”, “passing through tussocks and [frozen] tarns”. 10/10
- Lunch break at Bealey Spur hut before heading to pt 1545 for the “expansive views”!
- Plenty to keep us entertained along the way: snowball fights, baseball winter practice, juggling dinosaurs, elite mountaineer pauses and a little sing along to the Dino song.
Day 4: Tuesday: pt 1629 on the way to Mt Barron
From “the most interesting hotel in New Zealand” (aka Stagecoach hotel, Otira), up Goat Creek to pt 1629 and back. 7.5km, straight up 1300m elevation gain, 9h30.
- Wonderful start to the day – saying “hi” to the long-legged goats at the car park
- A rough, straight up climb to quickly ascend 700m through a nice dracophyllum forest
- A real and rough backcountry experience, some scrambling and route finding to get to the open tops
- Hearing some kea (keaa keaaaa) as we were making our way up
- Finally getting on the ridge and seeing the West Coast, mountains in all directions and the Tasman Sea in the distance
- Lynsey’s very robust Tiara, attached to her pack and then her helmet, made it successfully to the top and back down in one piece. Unicorn horns all around us throughout the day, pink colours and glitter.
- Little snow, but stunning views. Some good firm snow in a very few places. A bit of a rock scramble on the narrow ridgeline
- Sound of the trains down below, that we would hear for most of the afternoon – “Make it stop, make it stop!”
- A speedy descent – losing 1100m in just over three hours despite the tricky and very steep terrain. Not without drama though: Anne’s walking pole being the main casualty after a muddy fall.
- Were we walking down or was the hill making us go faster than we intended? Felt like it was happening to us.
Day 5: Wednesday: Mt Cloudsley
Out and back from Castle Hill Village, via Long Spur. 12.5km, 1380m elevation, 7h30.
- Furtive glimpses of the New Zealand Bison on the drive in.
- Heavy legs on the way up and down, as we faced a fourth day with 1000+ elevation gain. Straight up and straight down in Arthur’s Pass, but we had to make the most of the good weather and headed East towards the Craigieburn Range.
- Revisiting tramping fashion standards: creating shorts out of waterproof pants and shoelaces on the way up, and innovative headwear with thermals and unicorn headbands on the way down.
- Reaching the summit at 2100m was a true highlight. Yet more mountains and more snow further than the eye can see.
- It was a little fresh at the top – making for a short lunch break. Blue sky and 360 views, and in the distance: Aoraki/Mt Cook.
- Muddy, slippy slides on the way down
- Another night playing Bananagram and showcasing more creativity from the group: Slimedo and Zitired
Day 6: Thursday: Chill day
- Slept past 7.30am – a little treat. Deep clean of kitchen shelves before breakfast
- Scenic lookout and death corner – no kea. Devils Punchbowl Falls and the joy of the stairs
- Finally spotted some more kea in the village – four of them came to us at the cafe. Cute chapel with waterfall through the window. Jamie played the organ. Anne discreetly rang the large bell.
- A very slow afternoon – naps, sudoku, crosswords, date scones, stuff quiz, bananagram – ‘gyrate’, mulled wine
Day 7: Friday: Lake Brunner and Pike River Mine track
- Jamie’s delightful pancake breakfast – whipped cream, nutella, bacon, bananas, honey, peanut butter. Home cooked cafe feed.
- A special day for Sarah, with kea related treats
- More cleaning, including vacuuming under the bunks and mopping under the bathroom mats. Gross.
- Packed the car and gyrated. Headed to the recycling station blasting the Dino song – stomp stomp.
- Magical stop on the drive back up the South Island – little fairies, gifted books left behind and Lake Brunner – very quiet, no taniwha sighted.
- Lunch stop in Blackball, local salami and toilet throne.
- Pike River mine memorial – track to the Twins Bridges, a goaty scare, teeny tiny mushrooms shrooming, very lush West Coast bush.
- A well looked after area: 2450 traps, at 100 m apart = 245 km kiwi creche.
- Reefton – gin distillery, strict skateboarding rules, a stroll on Broadway. Dog with a little coat and no less than four dogs warming by fireplaces, in different shops.
- A windy, wet drive through Buller Gorge to Murchison, and our last stop: “The Lazy Cow” (restaurant/accommodation) with reclining chairs and cryptic wooden puzzles.
Day 8: Saturday: Survived the ferry sailing
- Woke up to find Sarah wrestling with the wooden puzzles (since 7am).
- Followed through with our plan to end the trip a day early to avoid the storm predicted for the next day. Uneventful drive back to Picton with a mini-stop in St Arnaud to wave at some of the oldest eels in New Zealand.
- Hopped on the ferry and volunteered to be part of the evacuation exercise during the sailing – out of boredom. Not recommended unless you want to lose faith in their safety systems, but some fun was had wearing bulky life jackets. More Bananagram.
Overall – a very relaxing week. Some big hills climbed and we made the most of the weather. A combo of little snow + high avalanche risk limited our options for backcountry alpine trips, but it didn’t stop us from making the most of the good weather. We enjoyed some good company, good tramping, great snowy views of the Alps, and a lot of homemade baking.
A big thank you to Barry who diligently acknowledged our intentions and “out safe!” messages every day of the week!