Little Mt Peel

Another day trip this weekend – to Little Mount Peel. We’d planned on camping at the DOC campsite in Peel Forest Park, but it had closed for the winter, so we ended up coming back to Christchurch late on Saturday. The best laid plans…

We took the Deer Spur track up to the summit, climbing in the sunshine whilst a growing blanket of cloud was smothering the plains. A couple of people were already on their way down. Near the summit we overtook a family with some enthusiastic kids, the oldest could have been no more than ten.

After enjoying a lunch in the warmth of the summit sunshine, we dropped down the steeper south ridge route on the return already in shadow. The ridge is open with a great feeling of space and you descend steeply towards the plains.
A quick diversion to the Emily Falls at the end saw us back to the car after a relaxing six hour round trip.