New Year - Seaward Kaikoura Range

With a poor forecast for The Divide and most areas on South Island our New Year tramp ended up being in the Seward Kaikoura Ranges. We tramped around the back of Mount Fyffe, up the Kowhai Valley before heading back over Gables End and Mount Fyffe itself.



We headed up the Kowhai Valley on New Years Eve and camped 45 minutes up river. We didn’t quite see in the New Year, but managed to make it to 11 ish, pretty late for us on a tramping trip.





New Years Day was a long one, but with plenty of time for swimming in the holes in the Kowhai River, which must be one of the warmest in New Zealand.





We eventually ended the day by crossing the Kowhai Saddle and descending all the way to Hapuku Hut. Increasing wind had put us off camping on the saddle itself and we found nowhere suitable to camp before the hut.




On the Saturday we recrossed Kowhai Saddle which was, according to another Kiwi Tramper we met “Pretty Keen”. From the saddle we climbed up tiresome scree slopes before a better tops traverse to Mount Fyffe.





To finish the trip we dropped back down in to the Kowhai Valley to camp at the same spot as the first night. This left us with an easy trip back to Christchurch on the Sunday and time for a nice lunch in Cheviot.