A leisurely few days were spent in the NZAC base lodge in Arthurs pass, watching rain fall, bushwalking and attempting to ski! This all happened in early August the dates of which i am unsure of! The first trip i did was a day walk from the base lodge as the weather was supposed to turn within the next day and i needed to get out and about before been stuck waiting for weather! I headed up the track behind Arthurs pass village to the ominously named Avalanche Peak. The climb up was reasonably steep, following a water rutted path through the beech forrest. It is amazing how similar the wet temperate forrest in NZ is to Tasmania. Many of the plant species have very similar chracteristics to the celery top pines, ricea, and beech trees of tassy! Eventuallt i made it above the bush line, some 700-800m vertical climb. Upon emerging from the bushline i reached the snowline and got my overpants, jacket and ice axe out. After around 300m climbing above the snowline i decided it was time to head down as the weather was turning rapidly, with the surrounding peaks disappearing into thick cloud. As i reached the safety of the bushline it started raining....
The next day i took it easy and poked around Arthurs pass village, cooked up a wiz bang lunch and just chilled out. In the arvo the weather broke a bit so i went for a quick walk up to devils punchbowl falls. Quite impressive at around 128m vertical drop! I also had a good look at the old footings for a hydro electricity scheme that was used to power the works for the 14km train tunnel from arthurs pass to otira...
Finally the weather was breaking up on the 3rd day so i decided to go for a walk to Temple Basin Skifield (being solo ruled out safe backcountry sking unfortunately). I set of at around 7am and got to the field at around 9am, unfortunately the tows were not yet open. I hung out and waited for the tows to open at around 11am a staff member asked me if i would like to go help and shovel snow..."yeah no problem thats sounds good"...only to relise that wanted me to buy a full days adult pass ($60) just so i can take one ride up to help shovel snow....no deal! I decided to make my self scarce and headed on down the mountain, with the day now hot and sunny, Mt Rolleston looking pretty impressive being caked in fresh snow....i was itching to go skiing but stuck due to lack of partners! On the way back to Arthurs pass i walked the bridal trail track which was a beautiful little walk, i got back and made myself some dinner and read some more climbing magazines!
The last day i was due to head back to CHCH to meet up with loz and some mates to go for a days skiing at Mt Hutt. I got my kit sorted, cleaned the hut and started walking back towards chch. I managed to get a ride all the way to Christchurch within about 30mins! Tip top!
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| On my way up Avalanche Peak |
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| View down to Arthurs Pass village from Avalanche peak track. |
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| Devils punchbowl falls |
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| On the way down from Temple Basin. Mt Rollestone |
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| Near Jacks Hut walking along the west coast highway back to Arthurs Pass Village. |
