Bob’s Bivouac
Third time’s lucky. After two unsuccessful attempts (the first time, the weather turned me back; the second time, an exhausted member of my party), I finally reached the biv. I left my car at the…
Canterbury Foothills
Mt Olympus attempt in the winter
I’ve been wanting to set foot on top of Mt. Olympus for a while, and this sounded like a good opportunity. A group of CTC folks left Christchurch at 8 am and arrived at the…
Supermoon at Foggy Peak
I first scheduled this trip in June. Four full moons later, all the necessary variables (such as snow, clear skies, and no gale wind) finally aligned, and the trip was finally on. What’s more, it…
Castle Hill Peak winter ascent
Funny enough, I’ve just realised now, as I’m writing this, that I led a trip up to Castle Hill Peak in January. Oh well, one can’t visit there too frequently; the convenience is just too…
Mt Ida by Lake Coleridge
Mount Ida is a 1695m high mountain nestled between the Harper River, Lake Ida, and Lake Catherine. Fourteen CTC trampers gathered at Z Russley and set off through Hororata to a small carpark by Lake…
Mt Izard to Mt Cheesman winter trip
The weather forecast was so-so, but we decided to go anyway. There were “only” two cars of us, which is not much considering how good the trip turned out to be. We left out car…
Mt Oxford to Ryde Falls
I decided to put a trip up on Thursday. The weather forecast for the weekend wasn’t great, so it was a big surprise when another 15 trampers signed up. We started off at Cooper’s Creek….
Lower Salmon Creek Bivouac is a hidden gem
The weather forecast was poor for that weekend, so I decided to visit Black Hill Hut, which is reasonably sheltered and reasonably far from the Main Divide where the rain usually hangs out. I drove…
Mt Somers Loop Track as a day trip
It’s been less than a couple of years since I did the Mt Somers Loop track in a day. I remembered that when I did it in 2021, it turned out to be harder than…
Snowy Mt Somers in the summer
The original plan was to go to Mt Bruce. I was checking the weather during the week and it slowly deteriorated. Even on Saturday night, it was looking acceptable but then when I woke up…