City to Surf

Completed the Christchurch City to Surf this morning, a 12km road race that finishes just down the road from where we live. Took it pretty steady and was happy with my time of 54:27 . It's impossible to run too fast for the first few kms anyway - half of Christchurch turns out for this event, which always makes for a great atmosphere.

Avalanche Peak Race

So as expected, my lack of training didn’t pay off. Somewhere over 4kms in the Crow Valley I went from having a great time to Not Having Much Fun At All.



Everything started out just great, of course. Got to the top of Avalanche Peak in just over 1h 15min and felt great. It was a perfect day for the ascent, the mist was clearing off of the top and I headed up with a small bunch of people climbing at around 15-18m a minute, quite a pleasant pace (or so I thought)


At the 1km mark - and having great fun.

Running along the ridge towards Rolleston (which we hadn’t done last year because of the weather) was fantastic, a rollercoaster of small climbs and descents, followed by an amazing descent of the scree to the Crow Valley – so much easier than with a tramping pack on your back.

The boulder field at the bottom was a great opportunity to eat a few mouthfuls of chocolate and get my breath back. It turned out I had picked up a reasonable cut on my leg when descending the scree, I hadn’t even noticed until a race marshal pointed it out.

So I headed off down the Crow Valley. This was fun too, there are a lot of sidle sections of track in the bush and descending over boulders. You then ford the Crow River and after sideling a couple of screes soon pick up the good bush track that cuts out to the Waimak. And it was here that I realised that I was stuffed.

Up until that point the ground was fairly technical, moving over it quickly was limited by the difficulty and individual skill levels. However the bush track should have been easy running, on so many tramps I have commented to Carolina how great it would be to be able to run this sort of track, and when I finally got the chance my body just said: No not today. This was somewhat unexpected, as normally I come to an agreement such as “OK, but this will hurt for a couple of days” or “OK, but you’ll be throwing up at the end”. Instead it was more of a: “Ha – you’ve been tramping for the last 2 months. Wasn’t much running was there?! Expect me to run continuously for the next 12km or so – you must be joking!”

So the gravel bash down the Waimakariri turned in to a horrible torturous section that I just wanted to end. The parts where I walked people came past me in slow motion, - they were running just faster than I was walking. The parts where I ran I was clearly catching them, but it couldn’t be sustained. The problem was, my energy starved brain finally worked out, was that I didn’t have a running pace that was slow enough. Somehow it was just impossible for me to run slow enough to stay with the group I was in.

I got there eventually, - there were a couple of sections, at Klondyke Corner and on the Bealey River Bridge where the spectators caused the Pride in me to force a more sustained run for a few minutes – until out of sight at least. Finished in 3h 50 min, which was around 20mins down on last year given the length of the course. To give you some comprehension of how bad I felt after the race: For two hours or so, I was Never Going Running Again, and for a day and a half there was No Way I Was Ever Going to Race Avalanche Peak Again.

Next year I will do some proper training.


At the finish: smile is purely for the camera. At this point things that I hated included (but were not limited to): the Waimakariri River Valley and Gravel, the hot and sunny weather, people shouting at me to run faster up the last hill, the hill at the Bealey Hotel, being 34, thinking I could run 25km and climb 1400m without any training, Replace Sports Drink for not working as well as expected, Chris and John for getting me hooked on this event last year.

Preparing for the Avalanche Peak Race

So this weekend is the Avalanche Peak Challenge. A 25km mountain run from Arthurs Pass village that starts with a 1000m or so climb up Avalanche Peak itself. I present below my modified version of the organisers suggested training schedule for such a race.

OK, so that is a bit of an exaggeration - it's not like I’ve been doing no exercise at all, but I definitely missed out on the hill runs that I was doing last year. No Rapaki Track in the Port Hills for me this time. Hopefully the longer tramps that we have been doing recently will help with the endurance a bit. We shall see on Saturday.

Discovery Stream to Sudden Valley

This was another route on which we had turned back previously. Last May with an early snowfall we had retreated back to the Hawdon Valley after freezing our feet off in the Discovery Stream. This time we had much better weather and lower water levels.

We camped at the Hawdon Shelter with the aim being to get an early start on the Saturday morning. However we just ended up sleeping in, so it wouldn't have made much difference time wise whether we had come up on the Saturday from Christchurch. It was of course much more relaxing camping at the start of the tramp though.

We reached the Discovery and Hawdon Stream Confluence in around two hours after a pleasant walk up the Hawdon Valley and stopped for a first lunch on the banks of Discovery Stream, relating in the sun.

Discovery stream is very open near the confluence with the Hawdon, but then a short gorge like section must be negotiated. This was great fun with the low water levels and we managed to scramble up to the next stream junction without getting very wet at all, the clean and dry boulders providing great grip. When we were here last May we had been forced in to the bush on a couple of occasions to avoid obstacles in the stream. No need for that today.

One of the great things about this route is that it passes through so many different types of scenery. After finishing the stream section, there was then a short and OK bush bash to gain the upper basin. The bush spur climbs around a short but spectacular waterfall to suddenly emerge in a barren rock field at the start of the basin. The stream completely disappears underground at this point.

From here it looked like there was a choice of routes to gain the main Mt Scott - Amber Col ridge. The grassy slope looked very possible, but there was an oh so nice stream running up a gully next to it which looked very feasible and much nicer than the grassy slope. The gully was enticing, so we took that route. Yes it looked very steep on the map at the top but still OK.

And it was very nice. Right until the last 20 metres. The stream became a waterfall above the last remnants of snow which wasn't a problem in itself as you could turn it on the left, but the rock had become dank and slippery. A few awkward slippery moves above a steep drop showed that this wasn't a great route choice. A pity - if the rock had been dry it would have been very doable.

So back down we went, - and then back up the grass to the side of the gully. This still had a slightly stomach churning moment, sidling above the top of the waterfall, when a sloping scree / rock field that ended abruptly on the waterfall cliffs still had to be crossed.



The hanging basin above the falls was a fantastic place, carpeted in soft grass and would have made an ideal campsite. We were very tempted. However at around 5:00pm it was a great time to be on the tops, completely clear and with a beautiful late afternoon light. So we continued around the ridge towards Mount Scott. There are great views from here, across the Edwards Valley, to Falling Mountain and down in to Sudden Valley, already masked in shadows.

The descent to Sudden Valley is on mainly good scree and as a consequence, is fast, great fun and easy. Going in the other direction would be a bit of a grind. We decided to camp near the bushline, rather than carry on down to the biv and found a flat spot just away from the river.

High cloud arrived overnight, making the Sunday a grey day. We carried on down Sudden valley, past the biv. The track at the end of the flats has been recently recut and marked and is in good condition. It sidles above the Barrier Falls before descending directly back to the river. From here an interesting gorge section soon opens out on to the lower flats. It was then an easy walk back to the start and the Hawdon Shelter.

Bush and Baths

Almost a year ago to the day we had attempted this route in reverse, going up Rocky Creek and descending Griffin Creek. An hour before darkness we stood less than 40m vertically below the saddle between the two valleys at the base of what I recalled to be "a 15m waterfall, at least vertical and probably overhanging". We'd had enough and headed back to Rocky Creek Hut, not sure if we were even on the right route. All we knew was that it had taken us far too long to get up Rocky Creek and that crossing to Griffin was now out of the question.

We were still keen to see Griffin Creek and Hut however as well as complete the circuit so a fine Saturday morning saw us parked once again at the Rocky Creek end together with three Nelson based trampers who were walking up Rocky Creek.. We however were going to do the trip in reverse, so all being well we would see them at Griffin Hut later in the day.

Walking in to Griffin Creek was more straightforward than we expected. The track is well marked and although very steep in sections there are plenty of tree roots to pull on. The bush is the beautifully lush West Coast type.

Only the scrub zone is overgrown which takes about 10 minutes to negotiate and we stopped for lunch just off of point 974m where we had lunch with an inquisitive weka.

The descent from here is pretty narrow, but the trees block out most of the exposure and pretty soon we were at Griffin Creek. This is a lovely valley with deep river pools and Blue Duck. We counted 8 in total, but maybe 2 were the same and following us up the river.

It's only 45 minutes up to Griffin Hut which is a real treat with many homely touches. The best past is that a bath has been installed down by the creek. This is heated by making a fire under it. Sitting it a warm bath in the bush whilst a weka tries to steal your clothes is a wonderful experience.

The other trampers that we had seen at the Rocky Creek entrance didn't arrive until gone 8:00pm so we went to bed expecting another big Sunday.

The track over the saddle is pretty overgrown. It starts off OK and then you walk in a creek for a bit, but after that it's a fight to make progress. The 1km from the hut to the saddle took us 2 hours in total. We couldn't see much from the saddle itself as the cloud had come down, the saddle is just high enough to reach the scrub zone.

The initial descent from the saddle is better and pretty soon we were crossing the slip mentioned in all of the route guides.

We then found ourselves at the top of the waterfall that we had been below a year previously.
On closer inspection, it was more a waterslide than a waterfall, with three flat sections in between three short steps. Maybe in total 5m. It's funny how your mind plays tricks on you.

The waterslide was easily negotiated and an hour later we were back at the turning to Rocky Creek Hut, on the route we had walked last year.

Rocky Creek is much prettier in its lower sections than the confined and overgrown creek head. With the knowledge of several shortcuts on a lot of the bends we are getting much faster at this section of the route and pretty soon we reached the start of the route to sidle across to the Taipo Valley.

For the second tramp in a row we bumped in to Frank and Honora. They were busy cutting the track on the descent to the Taipo Valley and had done a great job, especially on the river flats which were no longer a maze. We arrived back at the car after having taking 8 hours from Griffin Hut, which we thought was quite a respectable effort.

Penguins and Round Rocks

So we went penguin spotting down near Oamaru.
There are two colonies. The 'Yellow Eyed' penguins are viewed on a beach from a cliff top and are free to visit. There was something on the beach that looked suspiciously penguin like but it was hard to tell without binoculars. See if you can decide from the photo below.

You have to pay to see the Blue Penguins and sit quietly in a large shelter so as not to disturb them when they arrive ashore and photos aren't allowed. We saw about 120 making there way up the beach in the twilight and running across to their nests.

On the Sunday we went to see the Moeraki Boulders. Had a great breakfast in the cafe which overlooks the beach and boulders first. Managed to get down there just before all the other tourists turned up too, which was a big bonus.

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.