Tramping in Arthur's Pass

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OK... no, the title isn't meant to sound rude, but that is litterally what we were doing! Arthur's Pass is right smack bang in the middle of the Southern Alps. Tramping is what the Kiwis call hiking.

The journey up from Christchurch was damp, but very scenic. There is the first photo of DJ posted here. Marvell at her beauty! Lots of rocks, hills then mountains very much looking like all the scenes from Lord of the Rings. We stopped for lunch on the way at Lake Lyndon which was a lovely place to stop and munch on our sandwiches. The overcast weather only added to the mood of the place. We then carried on towards Arthur's Pass. It is a tiny town which only really exists to cater for trampers like us and the train line passing through the mountains. The post office as you can see from our photos was a little box of a cabin. The general store also was the main liquor store, café and petrol station. We stayed at the YHA there, which was quite a nice modern building that was very comfortable and brilliant for views up and down the valley on the first floor lounge!

The following day we wandered down to the DOC office (Department of Conservation - they manage all the national parks and maintain the walking tracks) and signed our intentions form. When you go on major walks in National Parkland most of the time you need to sign a form in the local DOC to show your intended route and general intentions, and then return the form on your return. The basic idea being that if you don't turn up when you said you would, they send out Mountain Rescue! All of this was in aid of our walk up to Avalanche Peak (1883m up) A good hour and a half trek up through beech forest and then another 2 hours above the bush line scrambling up rocks and to the top. We stoppped just short of the top as the clouds started to come in and the wind was picking up, but the view we had for our picnic lunch was amazing despite not reaching the top! See the photos - words don't do it justice!

The walk up was hard enough, but the walk down was particularly tricky. One of the photos shows the pathway down, pretty steep down rocky outcrop. We both made it though! Although we were both pretty tired at the end of the day, so we slept very well!!

That was pretty much our time in Arthur's Pass. Not much to report, but lots of walks and stunning scenery. We next headed off to Lake Tekapo. More to come...

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Photos

Arthur's Pass National Park
the snow peaked mountain in the middle of the pic is where we were staying