My kid is growing at the speed of light, and so is his ability to walk. Gone are the days when I needed a backpack or a child carrier. Now, he just walks, and if necessary, I carry him on my shoulders. My partner Anna, son Elliot and I spent a weekend in Arthur’s Pass, watching trains and kea. On the way back, we decided to climb up to Bealey Spur. Our goal was to reach a viewpoint overlooking Turkey Flat, which is located around 500m east of a hill marked as A9XF (920 m) on the NZ topo map – it’s a wee knob below the B letter in Bealaey spur sign.
As usual, we started off at the Bealey Spur carpark—a decent-sized parking area right next to SH7. Elliot was walking pretty well. I’m always trying to find ways to motivate him around the next corner. This time, it was frost heaving on the track that caught his interest. Elliot loved collecting it and later walking on it. The viewpoints along the way also made the journey interesting. Eventually, we indeed managed to reach the viewpoint, where we took a few family photos before heading back down.
On the descent, Elliot grew progressively more tired and started running down as if chased by angry possums. Eventually, he stumbled quite badly, so Anna offered him a ride on her back, which he gladly accepted. Still, it was an incredible achievement for him. I reckon that if we had stopped for another snack, he would have walked all the way back to the car. However, with the cold setting in, we chose to carry him instead. As expected, Elliot fell asleep in the car on our way back to Christchurch.
Stats: 8 km, 4 h, 367 m ascent
Participants: Michal, Anna, Elliot
Tramped on 22th June 2024.
Route on NZ Topo map (download below)
Photos
Map
Max elevation: 999 m
Min elevation: 631 m
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