lewis pass

Travers Peak to Trovatore in Lewis Pass

We left Christchurch at 7 AM. It’s about 2.5h drive to Deer Valley campsite. Next time, I would consider leaving even earlier.Foleys Track up to Trovatore is in pretty good shape. There are no markers…


Lake Man

I put this last-minute CTC trip up on Thursday afternoon. The long weekend was ahead and I thought that 2 long days out could suit some folks better than 3 standard days. In the end,…



Mt Norma circuit in Lewis Pass

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.


Travers Peak in Lewis Pass

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.


Mt Faust and Mephistopheles

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).


Mt Garfield in Doubtful Range

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.


Camping at Mt Faust, Lewis Pass

We were craving adventure after spending so many weeks in lockdown! The first weekend showed promising weather, so Sebastian, Anna, and I drove to Boyle Village. We parked our car at a St James car…


Mons Sex Millia tramping report

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 from Lucretia Valley and down via Duchess Stream

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”.