Mt Somers or should that be winter...

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Leaving our hiding place by Lake Pukaki for the second time we rejoined the main road and headed northwest-ish toward Geraldine, taking a few scenic routes along the Tekapo Hydro canals. We took another side trip up to the top of the Mt. John observatory that sits on top of the 1031m high Mount John (funnily enough) - we didn’t get to see inside it or any stars, but the view was nice. That night we stopped in a camp site at Geraldine.


The next morning we got back on the road and made it to the western side of the Mount Somers conservation area in time for lunch, but not in time to do the longer walk that we had considered. Nevertheless we took a stroll for a couple of hours and found some old abandoned coal mines that kept us amused for a while. As we were walking the snow started to fall, but by the time we got back to the car it was all over and we thought nothing of it. We decided to move on to the eastern side of Mt Somers, where there was a waterfall to visit and potentially a nicer spot to overnight. We had given Don an old friend of mine in Christchurch a ring earlier and had agreed to pop over to see him the following day, so every little bit closer helped. Camping up for the night at the end of a nice quiet road, by the start of the Sharplin Falls track we got our stuff ready for a quick walk in the morning and went to bed.


It seemed really dark in the morning when we woke and there was a strange pattering on the roof. Drawing back the curtains revealed a winter wonderland of thick snow covering everything, including the van windows. It looked like we were going to have to go a lot further north to escape winter yet! The walk to the falls was beautiful and with no one else around (unsurprisingly) everything was untouched and perfect. Returning to the van I tried and failed to move the van from one side of the carpark to the other without chains and so we set about fitting them, hoping that conditions weren’t going to be too bad for us to get to Christchurch that day. As I was scrabbling around under the van and digging the snow away from the wheels, a local farmer bombs up the road on his quadbike, with his obligatory dog riding shotgun. He has come up to see what conditions are like and offers to follow us back to the main road and get his tractor if we can’t make it out. With a bit of slipping and sliding we do get back to the main road and waving off our friend we rejoin the tarseal, which is passable but still has a fair amount of snow on it.


As we wound our way towards Christchurch over the next few hours the transformation was quite surprising with the winter white out conditions, turning into green grass and sunshine - you could never have guessed at how much snow had fallen only 100km away. Arriving at Don’s (the guy who used to run the Te Nikau hostel when I worked there) we were given a lovely welcome, complete with tea and toasted sandwiches and it was difficult to imagine that we were almost snowed in just a few hours earlier.

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