Rained out in Arthur's Pass

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Well, we are currently in Christchurch right now trying to find some transportation. Taking shuttles everywhere has gotten old, and just too expensive. After leaving Greymouth we headed back to Arthur's Pass where we attempted to ski a few months back, but this time we were going tramping. Needless to say, this tramping expedition didn't go as well as our previous trip in Nelson Lakes. The weather was against us, I got sick, then there was no where to stay, and on and on and on....Our plan was a 6 day tramp starting on the east side of the Southern Alps, hiking over Harman Pass and back down the western side of the Alps, with a stop at a Julia Hut where there are thermal pools to soak. But, we never got that far. First off, we checked back in at the Mountain House and roomed with a guy from Israel. His name is Ore. Very nice guy, and at first we thought he was American because he had no accent and just had a very American culture personality. He joined us on our trip and so we got our gear together and woke up early the next morning to Bob(the owner of Mountain House) telling us that there was a heavy rain warning issued, and that Arthur's pass was going to get a foot of rain. By the way, it's monsoon season here, and we found out the hard way. He woke us up about 7 am or something like that, and we finally struggled out of bed and got off to the trail. Most of the trail is just hiking up the Waimakiriri(Why-mack-uh-rear-E) river until you follow it's smaller tributary up and over Harman Pass. We could see some rain clouds, but none of them really affected us while we were actually hiking. Once we got to the hut it was a different story. Within an hour of getting to the hut it started raining. This was no rain I have ever seen before. It just poured and poured and poured.....30 consecutive hours of rain. We were stuck at Carrington Hut for a couple days, and once the rain stopped we knew that it still wasn't Ok because the trail follows the river up the valley more where you have to cross it several more times by boulder hopping. With the water up high we knew this was going to be difficult, but we tried anyways. After crossing the river via cableway we stopped for a break and I started feeling very ill. I ended up becoming quite sick and we decided that after all of this that we just needed to go back to Carrington Hut, and then hike out the way we came. So, this trip didn't really happen. Furthermore, after arriving back at the main road we tried to hitch hike back into town. Four hours later we were still sitting on the side of the road in the dark. A guy at the campsite across the street finally gave us a ride into town where we found there was "no room in the inn." Every room in Arthur's Pass was booked out for some cycling race. We ended up sleeping on the floor at the Rec Centre. We didn't care though because we were dry, warm, and just too tired. I'll let you know more once our stay in Christchurch is over.

I'll do better with the pictures next time.

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Photos

Lake Rototiti
From our previous trip at Nelson Lakes. Clint's picture

Ore
Our travelling mate. Hope you like this picture Ore.

Cableway
JT in the basket over the Waimak river.

Waimakiriri Valley
Looking up the valley at the east side of the Southern Alps.

Peaks
I forgot the names of these peaks, but they are all about 2100-2200 metres.

Waterfalls
There are waterfalls everywhere here. You can turn 360 degrees and see probably a dozen waterfalls. This one was only about 15m high.

Fording the river
This was one of the "easy" crossings on the way out.

Cathedral Square
The "centre" of Christchurch. This is the only pic I have at the moment, but I get better ones.