Family Reunion

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Orienteering

My first orienteering event (well, almost!), was near Sheffield on Sunday. A bunch of us did different levels of the event (grades based on age, fitness, experience, etc) and it was great to see such a variety of people taking part. I did the "Yellow" grade (pretty easy!) to start off with, and apart from being attacked by nettles and other vegetation, I was quite pleased with how I got on. Patrick and I then did the "Orange" grade together (one level higher) and I think we did reasonably well in that too. Well, we found all the checkpoints anyway so I'm thinking that's a step in the right direction!

It was really good fun though, and I could see myself getting into that a bit more (as if I have ANY time left to pick up new activities!)

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The Celtic Arms

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The overview...

Celebrating St. Andrews Day in the Celtic Arms on Saturday night was absoloutely hilarious – the bagpipes were playing, we danced to Scottish songs, Gavin addressed the haggis, and he won a bottle of whisky for singing Caledonia. It was loads of fun!

Despite just getting back from the Mt. Philistine hike, Jana, Patrick and I all showered and changed at Jana’s place to save time. Having no change of clothes with him, PD (Patrick) borrowed jeans and a shirt from Jana (“Born to be Wild”) and my sandals… to be quite honest it looked not bad at all - good on him!!

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Mt. Philistine

Mt. Philistine was a superb hike...the weather was incredible and the views pretty specactular over Mt. Rolleston and the Otira Valley. The group this time was Jonno, Claudia, Patrick, Jana and I. The scree climb out of the river valley was pretty steep, followed by a tricky section over the bluffs, and then slow slogging through some snow (nice tongue-twister) the rest of the way. The last section was really steep, but it was pretty easy to kick steps because the snow was soft and quite sticky underneath.

Once on top, we had a variety of summit poses (although we never quite braved the suggested naked summit pose...it'll have to be another time!) before starting our descent. It was ideal for a bit of bum-sliding on the way down, and the quality $10 PVC waterproof trousers worked perfectly for extra speed.

We stopped briefly at The Bealey Arms on the way home, a nice wee pub near Arthur's Pass. Back to ChCh by 8:30pm and ready for a night on the town to celebrate St. Andrews Day with Gav - read the Celtic Arms overview for the full story! It was a really enjoyable day.

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Austin at Treble Cone

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Mt. Brown (Hill)

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After leaving for Arthur's Pass on Saturday morning, we hiked up and over Binser Saddle, then planned to follow the McArthur Gorge up to Bull Creek Hut. The “brave” boys went to test the river, took about 4 steps before they were already waist deep, and turned back! On to Plan B....





We continued walking in the pouring rain to Casey Hut, where we would stay the night and see what the weather was like on Sunday. Claudia cooked dinner #1, Julian provided the mulled wine, I cooked dinner #2, and Jonno provided the hip flask with some whisky…it was a fun evening!

Amazingly we woke up to clear blue skies and gorgeous sunshine, so we decided to attempt climbing Brown Hill (of course it had to be done simply because of the great name!). There was no track to follow, so we “bush-bashed” our way up about 600m, and then climbed about another 600m above the bushline.




It was actually a lot of fun, and not nearly as difficult as we anticipated. We had lunch on the summit, and then followed the ridge line down the South Side of the “mountain”. The views were fantastic all around, there is definitely something special about being on the top of a ridge. Once we reached the bushline again, we bulldozed our way through about 800 vertical metres of vegetation once more, before reaching Hallelujah Flats (worth their name at this point) and joining the Casey Track back along to Andrews Shelter where the car was parked.



The overview...



Jonno, Claudia, Julian & I left on Saturday morning after a bit of debate what route to take. The weather wasn’t looking great for Arthur's Pass but we had a couple of options incase it looked like one of the rivers might flood the area.



We hiked over Binser Saddle in the pouring rain, and after changing plans to follow the McArthur Gorge (the river looked like it might flood meaning we would be stuck the next day!) we continued on to Casey Hut. The arrival time seemed very civilized time in comparison to last weekend's adventure.

On Sunday the weather was perfect, and hiking up Brown's Hill seemed more than appropriate...but we renamed it Mt. Brown, because it was definitely more than just a hill. There was no marked track, so we "bush-bashed" our way up through the forest and then continued to climb steeply up the ridge. The views were fantastic from the tops - there is definitely something special about being on a ridge. After lunch in the sun we scrambled down to the bushline, and then bulldozed our way through 800m trees and vegetation to Hallelujah Flats. There, we rejoined the Casey Track and followed it back to the car.



It was a fun couple of days, with much better weather than was forecast for the area, and we all enjoyed the hike. Springfield pub wasn’t too bad either, and suitably the Simpsons were playing in the background.

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Nelson Lakes

Here's the full story...!



The overview...

We just had an extremely long yet fantastic weekend hiking at Nelson Lakes. Starting with three (Julian, Jana & I) from Mt. Robert car park, we climbed up to Robert Ridge and over to Lake Angelus.



We “collected” Claudia there who had gone up earlier with another couple of people. The four of us continued up and over the ridge to Mt. Cedric through patches of snow, then down to Sabine Hut. Three hours of unintentional night hiking was undertaken when we lost the track about 45 minutes away from the hut, with plenty of bum sliding in the mud, tree-hugging and branch-breaking – it would have made for a very amusing video. We eventually reached the hut at midnight, and probably annoyed a number of people by starting to cook dinner, but we were starving.




On day 2 we headed along the West Sabine Track to West Sabine Hut, then up and over Travers Saddle. Jana’s knees weren’t happy, especially after the steep downhill climb the night before, and it wasn’t long before it was obvious she could only continue walking if she didn’t carry anything. So Julian and I split her gear between us (although he probably took more than his fair share!) and he strapped her pack onto the back of his own. It was going to be a long day...!


The hike to Travers Saddle was a tougher and steeper climb than we had anticipated – it just keeps going up...and up...and up. Much of the climb was over avalanche debris, with plenty of fallen trees and rocks to contend with. Over the saddle there was still a fair amount of snow, but it was thick and soft, making it much less dangerous to go down through. We reached Upper Travers Hut about 8:15pm and were pretty shattered, but had a well-deserved hot meal, plus a bottle of wine, and (Claudia’s favourite) Canterbury Cream.



The final day was the longest, and definitely the slowest! By this time two walking sticks were employed by Jana, in addition to her porters from the day before. We actually walked for 12 hours and 45 minutes on Sunday, following the Travers Track back along to Lake Rotoiti and Coldwater Hut, and then the Lakeside Track back to Mt. Robert car park. To save a bit of time, I split up from the group towards the end to follow a separate track up to the car, and bring it down to where the track joins the road at the bottom.



The last 4 or 5 hours were in the pouring rain and after Coldwater Hut we were using head torches (we like to make full use of the days). Julian had jury duty on Monday morning which was why making it out by Sunday night was kind of important - we finally reached the car at 11pm and drove back to Christchurch arriving at 4:15am - it was certainly an adventure!

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