Korowai/Torlesse Tussocklands Park – Red Hill Half Day

It’s been an unsettled summer so far so we took advantage of a quick break in the poor weather to spend half a day climbing Red Hill in the Canterbury Foothills. This had the advantage of being only an hour from Christchurch meaning an early start wasn’t needed on a Sunday morning.



From the Lake Lyndon road, at the Acheron River crossing, the route to Red Hill is obvious. The valley is startlingly dry being very sheltered from the prevailing weather of the Main Divide.




Further up there is some nice beech forest and we followed a narrow mountain stream to climb up to the summit of Red Hill.

We arrived just in time to see the view to Lake Coleridge, shortly afterwards the cloud raced in across the Big Ben range and 5 minutes later we couldn’t see our hands in front of our face. The cloud cleared briefly on the descent to give a quick view of Coleridge Pass but then closed in again and didn’t lift. The rain started shortly afterwards and continued off and on, hurrying our return to the car.

A Birthday trip to Cave Stream

We were lucky enough to have Irene and Ale stay for my birthday and in what could well become an annual event, we took them through the Cave Stream before visiting Castle Hill.

Cave Stream is, as you might guess from the title, a river walk through a cave.



The whole thing takes about 40 minutes or so to walk through, which is just about the perfect length to really enjoy it without starting to get numb feet or other bits. It is one of the great things about New Zealand that you just go and do this sort of thing. I hate to think how this sort of activity would be controlled in the UK and how much you would be charged for doing it.





The deepest part of the trip is right at the start, - the water was waist deep when we done it, but you get wettest in the middle on the water slide section. This is probably the bit which will reduce your party to fits of giggles. It’s also fun to turn out all of the torches as well and stand in complete darkness with just the noise of the water.









The trip is completed by climbing a 3m ladder to emerge blinking in the sunlight and enjoy the warmth after being underground.








Afterwards we popped in to the Castle Hill rocks for a quick look around as well and on the Sunday we went out to Godley Head which is probably the best area for a quick walk in the immediate Christchurch Area; - we go there quite often but never cease to enjoy it.

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.