Thanks to the vagaries of the weather we didn't really get a summer this year. Temps have been up to 10 degrees C down on usual and its rained abusively.
Before Christmas we decided to flee south to see if there was a break in the weather and stayed with others in a Lodge in an isolated valley in the middle of the wilderness. The lodge was owned by a local school with bunk rooms, and a large lounge. it was nice. There were about 20 interesting and friendly others staying there with us. The group were part of the Peninsular Tramping Club (christchurch), a great group if you want some weekend activities and meet some neat people.
cute
All the pics are here
http://stuffucanuse.com/Odds_and_Sod..._ohau_2004.htm
These are my favorites...
This is at the top of part of the mountain ranges that rim the valley we were in. The lake is called a 'tarn'. There were more further on if we had the time, or inclination, to find.
This is the summit of another mountain - a smaller bluff of it can be seen behind the lodge above. Thats my boot, it was blowing hard and I was only secure taking pics sitting down. Andy seemed impervious to the wind and was checking out the far end
Here is our tallest mountain Mt Cook. No I didn't climb it (although I would love to try) but you can go to the base easily enough.
We got there by walking up a track to a glacier and lake at the base
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After Christmas we took a week of to travel to North West Nelson where there are some awesome mountains.
We drove to this valley high in the mountains - 5 hours from home on sealed roads, then a further 2 hours on dirt roads ending in a what looked like a farm track with grass between the wheel ruts. All the best places here are at the end of dirt roads.
The amazing thing is this valley is very close to the main tourist meccas yet there was not one foreign visitor we met. Everyone were locals, the place isn't in the Lonely Planet guide books yet. It was very popular with fishermen, who seemd to dot the landscape everywhere.
It took 4 1/2 hours to reach the first hut, most through gently climbing fields like this ...
with only a climb of about 40 mins at the end.
The poles are guides for when it snows. Those mountains around the valley are the sort of peaks we climbed.
The next day after a steep 40min climb to the ridge line we sidled along the ridges for 3 hours until we peaked at one of the biggest peaks there its the one on the far right of the pic i think. After that it was about 2 hours back, downhill is easier of course. We were worried about running out of water, as we only had 2 litres with us. I think we would carry more in future.
Awesome views as we went along, but the camera seems to have trouble with the strong light (either that or I screwed with the settings somehow)
This is the level we were moving at on tracks with only cairns of stone (small piles) to guide us. It was fun (for me anyway [smiley=icon_biggrin.gif] ) Much of it route finding.
There are so many other tracks up there definitly a place to return to.
Anyway here's all the pics
http://stuffucanuse.com/Odds_and_Sod...obb-valley.htm
Anyone know what this is?
About boot height and very pretty it was sad to have to tread on them...