There were quite a few CTC trips over the Easter break, however all were multiday adventures with no day or two days alternative for those who can’t get away from Christchurch for too long. I…
Read More
After my last trip to Lewis Pass on which we got rained on, I decided that the next time when we’ll be spending 5h of our Sunday in a car, it’ll be on a sunny day. And this was the day! 17 brave CTC souls including 2 adventurous prospective members took off from Palmer Lodge car park at about 9.30 AM.
The plan was simple: Go from Traverse Peak to Trovatore. The forecast wasn’t too bad, a wee bit cloudy with moderate winds. After arriving at Lewis Pass, the tops were in clouds. We followed a well marked track to the bushline where we had a wee lunch and off we went towards Traverse Peak.
Another 2 peaks in a day! I did it as a CTC trip as I committed this year to lead a trip a month. Main points from the trip (I have a baby you know, I can’t write novels anymore).
The third Tramping Monday had similar attendance to the first one – only 1 person. Jacqui and I drove to Windy Point which is not too far from Engineers Camp.
Mons Sex Millia (1835m) is the highest point of Poplars Range near Lewis Pass. It was quite a lazy looking Sunday morning when 11 CTC members, yawning after the early start and being eaten alive by sandflies, appeared at the Boyle Village carpark. After a short briefing, we took an obvious path leading to Boyle Village.
Brass Monkey Bivouac is a highly elevated bivvy precisely settled on the tops of the Lewis Pass ranges. There is no direct route to it. There is an article in Wilderness Magazine “5 ways to Brass Monkey Bivouac” that briefly describes 5 ways to get up there. As this was only my second trip as a leader of the Christchurch Tramping Club trip, I opted for a relatively easy route up via Lucretia Stream. For the way down I chose the route via Duchess Stream which was a bit more… ehm – let’s stick with the word “adventurous”.
The St James Walkway is a 66 km multi-day hike in the Lewis Pass, New Zealand. You can often read that it’s suitable for beginners or even families with kids. Well, it truly is if you are well prepared. Though, it’s still a long hike through New Zealand wilderness and it could be really demanding especially when the weather goes wrong.