On the 6th of August a group of 8 of us from the Christchurch Wilderness Hiking group set out to do the Lake Rotoiti loop in St Arnaud (Nelson Lakes). Everyone was up bright and early and met at mine & my wifes place at 6.30am ready to set of on the 3 & a 1/2 hour journey. After checking at 6am in the morning and seeing that the Lewis pass was open the trip was a go, little did we know they closed the pass not long after this, luckily we had chains in my car, but was unfortunate that the other vehicle didn't (they later had to hire theres from Hanmer). So with this obstacle we decided that since we were all geared up we would head into the Hope Kiwi. Was a beautiful snowy day through the Lewis Pass.
Here you can see the road conditions driving towards Windy point.
Below: The start of the track.
This is a 5 hour, 18km fairly easy walk.
And we set off, conditions mild, the 1st five which inluded myself, Antonia, Gokul, Brad & Elise. Start time 9.30am. The other 3 didn't start off until 11am (Owen, Woody & Maciej):
This is the basis of the walk, although my Garmin Etrex told me this was 18km in length, so i am not sure which one is accurate:
For more details on this hike click the link below:
http://www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/places-to-go/canterbury/places/lake-sumner-forest-park/things-to-do/tracks/hope-valley-windy-point-tracks-and-routes/
My wife sprained a muscle in her leg so this walk took a little longer than the suggested 5. I had the other 3 go on ahead and gave them a UHF radio to keep in contact. They made it to the hut a lot earlier than us and had started the fire and boiled some water, this worked out very well.
Here is our first sighting of the Hope Kiwi Lodge:
As you can see, smoke coming out the chimney, this is always a great sign when you are cold & wet.
My wife & I had carried a cake, candles & a small bottle of Moet in as it was our friends birthday and we thought why not suprise him out in the middle of nowhere, this is the aftermath:
This hut in the middle of winter isn't the warmest, the windows are single glazed and the hut is rather large, so if you do plan to do this walk in winter do make sure you have warm clothing and a good sleeping bag. If you do this in Summer (which I have) carry plenty of insect repellent.
The next morning we woke earlier made porridge & set off early (well some of us did) Maciej decided to run the 5.5km to Lake Sumner and boil a cup of tea & then run back and catch up, in which he did:
After a few stops and a lot less snow we made it back to the cars mid afternoon to blue skys and clear roads. As always a trip like this has to end with a group photo (below) and a stop at the nearest takeaways which in this case was Shark & Taties in Culverdon for a beautiful chicken burger.
If you would like to join one of these trips, click on the link below to become a member:
http://www.meetup.com/Christchurch-WILDERNESS-HIKING-Meetup/
