9 early birds met at Z Russley at 7am from where we drove to Arthur’s Pass Village. We parked at a wee car park at the end of Mount Bealey Road and off we went to battle a steep hill. Somewhere in the middle of this initial steep and bushy part most of us appreciated the early start as the sun was already up, shining harshly on our sweaty backs.
After our first day trip to Packhorse Hut, we felt like we knew the basics and were ready to try an overnighter. I still think that the most difficult part of the whole “going tramping with a 10 week old” is the planning stage. A cloth? How many? Clothes? How many? A blanket? How big? Wool or polar fleece?
I had a leg injury a few weeks ago. As I’d like to do Three passes at the end of January, I thought that I should give my leg a proper test if it’s capable of such a demanding adventure.
Jollie Brook Circuit is cirka 30 kms loop track close to Lake Sumner. To get there, there is about a 40 kms gravel road stretch that was quite easy to follow with 2WD.
As fresh parents, everything is still very new to us but we thought that we’d done enough reading and short trips that it was time to tackle the first wee tramp with our little man.
Scenery Nook is a wee inlet on the far side of Banks Peninsula. It’s accessible by boat or across private land – as the CTC unfortunately doesn’t own a yacht just yet, we chose to approach on foot.
I had had this tramp in mind for a while so I was quite excited when the day finally came to try out this epic day adventure in Black Range. 4 brave CTC souls, the ideal number for a car load, started off at Bealey Spur Hut car park at around 8.30 am.
The plan was to do the Ben More circuit but the weather forced us to look for a less exposed location as far from the Main Divide as possible. Akaroa seemed to be far enough.
The Port Hills are the closest hills to Christchurch and I’d been thinking about traversing them since I first moved to the city. One day in July I asked Emma if she’d be keen to co-lead this trip as we would need 2 cars, and I knew that Emma was used to running trips like this before breakfast. She enthusiastically agreed – though at the time we had no idea that 30 trampers would sign up for the trip!
We started off at Craigieburn Campsite Shelter. Chris was leading us at an easy-going pace while Alan was covering the back. At Helicopter Hill Saddle, a few of us went to check out Helicopter Hill and the rest of the group continued along Craigieburn Edge Track. We had a quick lunch below Camp Saddle.