East Hawdon Stream - Mt Valiant - Casey Saddle Circuit

This was another weekend tramp with a long second day after an easy Saturday start. We left the car at Andrew’s Shelter knowing it would save us a few kilometres on the way back and headed across the flats to walk up the Hawdon Valley.

The river had changed course since we had been here last and now flowed though the gate giving access to the valley. After an early lunch stop we made good progress to the East Hawdon Stream, where we were on to new territory.

This branch is much more confined than the main valley and there are quickly good views of Mount Valiant. Carolina managed to keep her feet dry most of the way up but was eventually thwarted by a small outcrop that required crossing the stream at a deeper pool.

About 30 minutes after arriving at the East Hawdon Biv, a thunderstorm came hurtling in across the Savannah Range, it then proceeded to hail heavily for about half an hour. The sun stayed hidden for the rest of the day though and it was a bit clagged in for a while.

A 7:00am start on the Sunday saw a mixture of brighter spells together with some lingering fog. This followed us all the way to the small saddle between Smooth Peak and Mount Valiant with the amount increasing at an impressive rate and the blue sky disappearing just as quickly. When we were there it was impossible to tell whether we were going to be in cloud all day.

Just as thoughts of heading back down were springing to mind the sun started trying hard again and then within the space of 10 minutes it had cleared completely and we had a blue sky day.
From the Mt Valiant ridge we sidled on it’s north side across scree and boulders to regain the NE ridge before following this all the way to Green Hill.

The views on this section were outstanding starting with Mount Hunt, The Worsley Pass and the head of the Poulter River and then later the Minchin River , Lake Minchin and the wide open flats of the Poulter Valley and range upon range of tops beyond.

We continued along the ridge and were on Castle Hill at 2:00pm, but then progress slowed considerably. A fairly unpleasant scrub / low bush descent to the Casey and Surprise Stream confluence seemed to take forever, however the pleasant creek walk up Surprise Stream made up for it and took us to Casey Saddle.

It’s a long way back from Casey Saddle at the end of a big day. Much further than it seems when you walk in that way and you even have to climb above the gorge. In fact the gorge sidle above the Andrews Stream is higher than the saddle itself. Its amazing how much of this climbing goes unnoticed when you are fresh and walking in rather than heading back.

We were lucky enough to be caught up by Frank King and Honora Renwick on the walk out. In fact they walk so quietly that I didn’t even realise they were behind me until they spoke, quite unexpected as I hadn’t thought we would meet anybody late on a Sunday afternoon. Carolina had met them on Stewart Island several years ago, but I never had, despite seeing their names in just about every hut book in Arthurs Pass. They had been in to Ranger Biv and still looked as fresh as a daisy!

So, all in all a great weekend weekend trip , but a bit of a longer day than anticipated on the Sunday. And we still have the Savannah Range to traverse from the East Hawdon Stream next time.

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.

Christmas in the Ahuriri and Temple Valleys

The four day Christmas break gave us the opportunity to do our longest tramp since June 2008 and we chose to go to the Ahuriri Valley - an area we hadn't visited before.



It's a long walk up the Ahuriri valley to Top Hut, especially with heavy packs and not having a 4WD we had an extra 7km to walk as well. It was good to see so many people out and about on Christmas Day, - there were families camped in the bush by the river and cyclists at Haggans Hut.



Boxing Day started wet, so we had a delayed start at Top Hut waiting for the rain to stop. The 1000m climb to cross in to the Temple Valley was great and we managed to stay dry all the way up as we climbed with Mount Huxley in front of us.



Amazingly we had 10 minutes of blue sky whilst we were on the saddle, but could already see the next weather system crossing the nearby tops at an alarming rate.



5 minutes after starting the descent to South Temple, the rain came in and continued for the rest of the afternoon. This didn't stop us having fun on the long soft snow slopes that we glissaded down, - losing height rapidly.

We were pretty soaked by the time we arrived at South Temple Hut, but dried everything out with the help of the fire. For a while the rain was pretty heavy in the evening and we were worried that we might get stuck in the hut. Luckily the rain stopped some time in the night and the rivers, although higher than normal were still perfectly fordable.



On the Sunday we crossed back to the Watson Stream. The views to the Temple Valley from here are outstanding.

We had originally had in mind the possibility of continuing on in to the Maitland’s Valley and Snowy Gorge but 400m of scree and rock put us off. The descent to the main arm of the Watson Stream is slow and a long boulder hop - you could be on the moon or mars in the upper sections as the vegetation is non existent. We camped at the bush line in Watson Stream on open grassy terraces





The final day was a long walk out of the Ahuriri Valley in the heat, meeting even more people coming in to enjoy the valley and mountains, including a gentleman on a horse.



All in all a successful tramp and an enjoyable way to spend Christmas.

Brown Hill - A Big Day Out

I found this route on another Trampers Website and was keen to have a look, it isn't mentioned in any of the other guide books we have.

We left Christchurch in the pouring rain but the sun was coming out on the other side of Porter's Pass and the weather improved all weekend.

It was a pretty lazy Saturday all in all. We started at the Andrew's Shelter and wandered up to Casey Saddle, - very easy walking with hardly any climbing. What we should have done was then get the big 1000m or so climb out of the way... but it was just too nice at the Andrew's Biv site so we camped there and enjoyed the fine weather.

This left us a big day on the Sunday, - some 1700m of climbing and a 10 hour hill day in total. Luckily we started walking at 7:00. We climbed up to Brown Hill through mainly open bush and headed south along the range. The view from here is extensive - with the whole of the Poulter River on display.

There is some more beautiful old bush around the 1282m saddle which was a delight.

The reascent up to 1709 was a long climb and we had started to slow down as we traversed the last of the tops. The descent to Binser Saddle had some thick bush at the end and from there it still seemed a long way back to the car.

As we headed back over Porters we drove back in to the rain, which apparently hadn't stopped in Christchurch all weekend. This is probably the last time we get to go tramping before Christmas, so it felt good to have a bigger day out.