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 forecast ahead for a long weekend adventure, so it was nice not to have to worry too much about the forecast for an alpine trip that also involved river travel.
By 10pm we had arrived at the DOC Puhi Puhi campsite, where Paul had kindly already put up a three-person tent. So by the time one person had opted to sleep in the van and one in the bush, only two had the joys of the spacious but chilly large club fly.
Friday
We woke to clear skies, and promptly failed to get one of our stoves working properly – so breakfasting took a while. Then a 30min drive to the Mt Fyffe carpark, where more faffing ensued. Still, we were on our way before 8:30am.
It was a two-hour tramp up the Kowhai River, with various options of track or river bed travel – which we switched between. We stopped for morning tea at the junction with Snowflake Stream to top up on energy before the fun really started.
Working our way up Snowflake Stream, sometimes it was easier to travel directly up the stream, and other times it was easier to walk through the bush. Mostly, if you were in the stream, it looked like it would be easier travel in the scrub, and if you were in the scrub, the stream looked way easier. It was relatively straightforward for the first km or so, albeit much more rock-hopping than the easy stroll up the Kowhai River at the start of the day.
We had the odd shower, so we were now all in jackets, and mostly wet up to our knees from all the criss-crossing in the stream. It was on the chilly side.
Sometime before midday we came across an open patch of grass on the stream bank, noting it would make a good campsite. Given it wasn’t raining at that point, we decided to call this our lunch stop – I think it was only me that took any persuading!
After lunch, the going started to get tougher, as the stream steepened. With every turn, we eagerly anticipated the first of the three waterfalls we were expecting to have to negotiate our way around to reach our intended camp spot further up the river. It was raining on and off, so we were all getting damper, and it was difficult to keep warm with the slower travel.
Thanks to the Slippery Snowflake trip report, and Paul and Harry’s recall of their previous trip, we had a good idea about how to get around the waterfalls – although we didn’t know if anything might have changed with the earthquakes. At the first waterfall, we climbed the scree on the true right and cut into a small patch of bush to traverse high above the waterfall. This section was steep and tricky – we needed the trees to hold on to, and getting seven of us up and over was quite an operation. To drop back down to the river, there was a steep-ish section that looked a bit hairy. Harry kindly fished a rope out of his pack, which although wasn’t necessary, gave most of us a helping hand as we worked our way down. ‘Thanks for bringing the rope, Harry’, I said as he was packing it up. ‘Hmm, that’s not the section I was expecting to use it on’, he replied!
We worked our way to the next waterfall, which we were expecting to pass on the true left. It all looked pretty steep and slippery over there, but we took our heads closer anyway to suss it out. I took my pack off and carefully made my way along to where Harry was pointing at from below – this was where they had used a rope before. And there was no way we were getting all seven of us and our packs down there, especially given I was finding it a bit nervy even without my pack. So back we went to find another way, and find another way we did.
Heading up the bank on the true right, we reached one of those points where the bush looks very uninviting to push further through. This pause in progress handily coincided with Mathew’s camera deciding to go for a downhill adventure, which fortuitously led us to a neat way back to the stream above the second waterfall. From down at the stream, we could see the third waterfall just ahead, and it was clear the only way around was on the true left (although apparently some of the group on the Slippery Snowflake trip had climbed directly up the face!). We crossed the stream and bush-bashed the next section, with energy levels dropping and some of us getting pretty cold (now being mostly soaked through from the afternoon rain and river travel).
Another short section of stream travel, and we were at the camp site around 600m. While everyone worked out the ideal configuration of four tents in the limited flat spots, I got the billy on as we were all in need of a hot drink. Dry clothes on, things started to feel a bit better, so we progressed with dinner prep and made a plan for the summit attempt the next day.
Saturday
The billy was on at 5am and we were on our way by 6am, with the first light in the sky. The first section of the climb on our chosen route was a 200m steep bush bash. While there were some open-ish patches, most of it was thick and steep, and we seemed to manage to come across every bluff we could on the way, resulting in quite a bit of awkward sidling. With a group of seven, all with pack-bound ice axes, determined to tightly hug every single branch they came within a metre of, travel was slow.
Sometime after 9am (that’s three hours to climb 200m!) we eventually popped out into the open and enjoyed a morning tea break while slapping on the sunscreen, as it was a bluebird day. From then on travel was much faster, through open grass between Matagouri and other prickly plants with a clear footpad. There was a lot of pig churn as we made our way up the ridge, but plenty of camping spots to be found if you are prepared to carry your overnight pack and water up this far.
After an hour or so of making good progress up the ridge, it was clear we were travelling at varied paces, and conscious nobody was looking forward to the bush bash in the dark, we stopped to have a conversation about turnaround times. The two speediest in the group took the opportunity to push on to the summit, with an agreed 1pm turnaround time, and the rest of us opted to continue at a more leisurely pace and just enjoy being up in the mountains in the sunshine.
We stopped at around 1400m for a long lunch and some sunbathing, eagerly looking up towards the peak for any signs of Mathew and Ellie on their return. We’d agreed to meet back at the bush entry point at 3pm, so with no sign of them, we slowly made our way back down the ridge – still enjoying the beautiful weather and views (including a reasonable line of sight down into Snowflake Stream via a clear route – one to try next time to avoid the bush bash!).
Eric spotted two figures in the distance behind us making their way down, and soon afterwards Mathew and Ellie joined us at the bush edge – having successfully made the low peak dead-on the agreed 1pm turnaround time. They reported great snow conditions on the summit ridge and only occasionally tricky rock travel between where they’d left us and the start of the snow. They’d had clear views all round, and got some excellent photos from the top so we could all enjoy their hard-won elevation.
As time was ticking, we turned our focus to the bush bash descent, hoping that gravity would help it feel a little easier than on the way up. With some nifty tracking from footsteps, and our GPS track, we descended relatively easily to where we’d crossed under a bluff on the way up. Rather than re-tracing our traverse, we opted to head straight down through steep but comparatively clear bush (maybe our ice axes – for most of us unused – were only hugging every third branch) and with a little bit of wiggling we found ourselves back at camp in 1.5hrs. The only casualty of the day was one walking pole, which was generously donated to the pole community (at least one previous trip also reported losing a pole) in a particularly welcoming section of bush.
There was time for a dip in the stream for those that wanted one, then hot drinks and a few rounds of water boiling while we all prepared individual dehy meals. One of our stoves had now been declared completely out of action, so we were willing the remaining gas canister to keep enough in the tank for our morning brew. Harry dished out ginger kisses for dessert, and we all retired to our tents for an early night after a satisfying climbing day.
Sunday
Sunday morning we eeked the last of the gas out to heat just enough water for breakfast, and then set off to reverse the waterfall adventure – much quicker and easier now we knew where to go. But also there was noticeably less water in the stream, and the sun was shining so we were all warmer and drier! At the Kowhai River junction we stopped for a second breakfast, morning tea or first lunch, depending on snack preference, with a promise of an actual, or second, lunch stop still to come. We made speedy progress down the Kowhai, picking up more of the marked trail on the banks than we had done on the way in. So speedy in fact, that some of the group started to fear we’d be back at the van before the actual/second lunch stop had been called. No such drama eventuated, and we stopped in the sunshine for another break before arriving back at the van around 2pm.
The search for an open cafe between Kaikoura and Blenheim became rather stretched out, with several no-shows along the way. We ended up at the delightful Cosy Corner Cafe in Seddon, which provided just the right combinations of ice cream and hot pies to meet everyone’s post-tramp desires. All that remained was the ferry trip back to Wellington.