Mt Thomas Forest

Weather was pants on the Main Divide, so another foothill mission for the day. With Geoff, Hayley, Steph and Andrew, I climbed up the 'ridge track' to access Bobs Bivvy.

Just prior to the bivvy site, we noted a turn off for a route down to Pinchgut hut. Nothing was marked on my NZMS 260 Map, but between observing the trail signs and remembering words from a guide book, we hatched an on the fly figure 8 loop.

The trip down to Pinchgut Hut was rather steep in places, but generally well marked with poles. The return trip up the spur to the SE of the Hut was unmarked, discontinuous and trickier, but we found most of the sections of pad on the ridge top. Occaisonal caches of Waratah's gave us confidence and the knowledge that DOC is going to pole the route in the near future.

It was a pretty solid day, capped off by a long meandering return route to the car.

8.5hrs.
24km
2110m of ascent, same descent.

Andrew, Hayley, Steph, Geoff and Chucky

Great views to the Puketeraki range

Descending to Bob's Bivvy site

At Bob's bivvy

Accross the tops toward Pinchgut Hut, Mt Thomas behind

Pinchgut Hut

Slogging back up to the ridgetop

Kauritatahi Hut, Kaimai Mamaku Forest Park

Pip decided to go for a stroll to find a 'lost hut' in the Kaimai's.. Turns out that it was ommitted from the old forest park map, but not actually 'lost'. Still, an element of mystery added to the trip.
The first mission was helping out a group of 4 who had well and truely stuck thier Quad bike on the vehicle track.
Next we had a little difficulty finding the start of the tramping track, but once on it, there wasn't much problem following it all the way through the bush and over Mt Eliza.

On the top of the main Kaimai range, we popped out of the bush briefly and gained views to Tauranga and back into the Hauraki area.

The final bit of track to the hut had some open old slip faces, which granted us plenty more views as we climbed.

The very last section was very boggy, but Kauritatahi Hut was a lovely dry wee haven to spend the night.
On the way home we descended the vehicle track, which had some car eating sized clay mud holes to negotiate.. very slippery and not that pleasant, but we made up for it with a big dose of fish and chips on the way back to Rotorua.

Helping free the locals

Trying to avoid the worst of the ruts

On the tops

Kaimai main range

Nearly at the hut

Kauritatahi Hut

Chucky chills out on the muddy couch..

Thompson's track..

The Libretto Range, Lewis Pass National Reserve

The weather was stellar, so a high level 3 day traverse of the Libretto Range was planned.

Pip and I made it to Boyle lodge early on the friday and as we caught a lift towards our start point near Deer Valley, I was a little concerened about the amount of snow around.

Pip bashes up the ridge

We bush bashed our way up a forested ridge, encountering sections of icy snow and deep powder as we neared the tree line.

Finally above the bushline

Once above the trees and on the ridge, we enjoyed variable conditions, sometimes crusty, sometimes slabby but always generally supportive.



That evening we chose a nice mellow shelf above a saddle to make snow camp. I was still worried about avalanches, so decided to probe the snow pack with my tent pole just before setting up the tent.. BIG MISTAKE. The pack was nearly 2m deep and the pole just wouldn't come out... Soo I had to dig a pit and remove it by hand... not very bright. Also resulted in a split section of pole.. :(

Inspecting the damage from my 'pole pit'

Next morning dawned a bit windy, so we took heed and started off down a ridge into the Boyle Valley for the rest of the journey.

View from the kitchen


Chucky at the snow camp

Descending off the main range

Getting closer to the Boyle Valley

Arriving at the Boyle River

Once in the valley, we moseyd on down and found a spot to camp.

The Jollie Range


The final day was an easy gradient, but rather long trip out down the Boyle to the highway, still in amazing conditions.

Mt Grey, North Canterbury

Went for a nice stroll on a day with a very bleak forecast for the main range with Geoff and Pip. As Patt Barrett says, 'Mt Oxford has one of the best views from any Canterbury foothill summit'.

We could see down to Mt Sommers and all the way to the Kaikoura ranges, from Arthurs Pass to Banks Peninsula.

Nearing the top

Strolling along the North Ridge

Pausing to check out an old hut