Tramping means hiking or backpacking in New Zealand. I finally went on my first trip in New Zealand this weekend (the reason I only now got to go on my first tramping trip is a story for another day). We went to Lewis Pass, which is one of only two passes through the Southern Alps (the other is Arthur Pass, just south of Lewis Pass).
We spent the night at Sylvia Flats, which is just east of the pass. Since we left Christchurch late in the afternoon after classes ended, we just set up tents on the grassiest bits of the parking lot, which felt a lot like cheating, but since we were cheating in the near vacinity of some natural hot pools, it was definitely acceptable cheating. It was great to get out of the city and out of the Canterbury Plains. Our campsite was not only near hot springs but surrounded by mountains, right next to a river, and under the most and brightest stars I have ever seen. It was beautiful.
In the morning, we drove up into the pass a little to the Lewis Tops trail. We hiked pretty much straight up for an hour and a half or so to reach the treeline (except that it's called the bush line here). It was a little intense, but it was really pretty, as we were hiking through what they call a "haunted" beech forest. It certainly exotic and very pretty.
No white blazes here. These were the trail markers we saw.
Once we got to the bushline, my infamous bad luck with weather while hiking kicked in. It wasn't too bad at first, just too foggy for any views. However, halfway through a conversation about whether or not to wear bug spray, it started to snow (at least it made our decision an easy one- no bug is going to be out in the snow...) Then, once we reached the ridge, we got a lovely mix of snow and sleet, mostly going in the horizontal direction. It was about that point that we decided it was maybe a little too cold to eat lunch on top, so we turned around before we'd made it all the way and went back down to have lunch somewhere a little more sheltered. It was a bit of a bummer, but we still had a ton of fun.
The sun came out as soon as we got back to the van. Go figure. It gave us some pretty fabulous views of the mountains on our drive back, though, so I'm really not allowed to complain. Excessive moutnain pictures to follow.
Tramping means hiking or backpacking in New Zealand. I finally went on my first trip in New Zealand this weekend (the reason I only now got to go on my first tramping trip is a story for another day). We went to Lewis Pass, which is one of only two passes through the Southern Alps (the other is Arthur Pass, just south of Lewis Pass).
We spent the night at Sylvia Flats, which is just east of the pass. Since we left Christchurch late in the afternoon after classes ended, we just set up tents on the grassiest bits of the parking lot, which felt a lot like cheating, but since we were cheating in the near vacinity of some natural hot pools, it was definitely acceptable cheating. It was great to get out of the city and out of the Canterbury Plains. Our campsite was not only near hot springs but surrounded by mountains, right next to a river, and under the most and brightest stars I have ever seen. It was beautiful.
In the morning, we drove up into the pass a little to the Lewis Tops trail. We hiked pretty much straight up for an hour and a half or so to reach the treeline (except that it's called the bush line here). It was a little intense, but it was really pretty, as we were hiking through what they call a "haunted" beech forest. It certainly exotic and very pretty.
No white blazes here. These were the trail markers we saw.
Once we got to the bushline, my infamous bad luck with weather while hiking kicked in. It wasn't too bad at first, just too foggy for any views. However, halfway through a conversation about whether or not to wear bug spray, it started to snow (at least it made our decision an easy one- no bug is going to be out in the snow...) Then, once we reached the ridge, we got a lovely mix of snow and sleet, mostly going in the horizontal direction. It was about that point that we decided it was maybe a little too cold to eat lunch on top, so we turned around before we'd made it all the way and went back down to have lunch somewhere a little more sheltered. It was a bit of a bummer, but we still had a ton of fun.
The sun came out as soon as we got back to the van. Go figure. It gave us some pretty fabulous views of the mountains on our drive back, though, so I'm really not allowed to complain. Excessive moutnain pictures to follow.
2 comments:
Emily, great story and great pictures! Glad you finally got to go tramping. Sorry you ran into bad weather at the top. Here's the secret to having good weather for hiking that I learned while hiking with the Boy Scouts: if you go out often enough, eventually you get good weather!
Can you capture in a photo for the blog those magnificent stars that you mentioned? Some thoughts on how to take digital photos of stars in this post.
Hey, I appreciate the tips on taking star photos! Unfortunately, it might be a while before I can get any good pictures of the night sky as I'm back in the city now. I'll do my best next time I'm somewhere properly dark at night :)
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