Mingha - Deception - October 2007

Uncle Roddus Tramping Diary: Tramp No 66

Mingha - Deception - October 2007

This was a club trip I did some time in October 2007, exact date unknown. This is a relatively easy classic Arthurs Pass overnight trip. We stayed at the club hut at Arthurs Pass on Friday night and had enough people to have two groups do the crossover to avoid the problems of transport at both ends. Unfortunately, out leader got sick over night, so he stayed at the Club hut while we went on ad did the trip. I was in the group that started up the Deception River at about 7:45am on a cool overcast morning. After crossing the swing bridge we proceeded on the long hike up the Deception until we lunched at the Upper Deception Hut after about 5 hours walking. We then completed the last stretch climbing up to the saddle to Goats Pass Hut, where we spent the night. The hut has no fire and I strongly remember having one of the coldest nights I can remember in there and it wasn't even frosty. One of the Women had a rough night as she must have got the same bug as the leader, but was well enough to walk out in the morning. With an easy day ahead, we didn't get away from the hut till about 9:30am on the Sunday. The walk down the Mingha River is particularly beautiful if somewhat short and we were at the vehicle by about 2:15PM.

Some random photos from this trip.

Otehake Hot Pools - 19-20th May 2007

Uncle Roddus Tramping Diary: Tramp No.65

Otehake Hot Pools - 19-20th May 2007

This was my first, and so far only trip, to the excellent Otehake hot pools. A CTC club trip, we left Aickens corner at about 11:00am on a warm Saturday for a moderatly easy walk into the pools, past the lovely Lake Kaurapataka, through some impressive beach forest and then over the flood route heading up the Otehake. Took us around five hours to get to the pools, which were in excellent condition, and set up camp in the awesome camping spot on the island in the middle of the river. The rest of the evening was spent soaking on the warm pools and eating cheesecake for dessert.

Sunday dawned overcast and wet and the rain came down heaver after breaking camp. A wet trip out and got back to the cars about 1:30pm.

Checking out the lake.

The lake.

Basking in the hot pool.

Uncle Roddus's new tent

Heading back out on Sunday.

Bolder hopping.

River Crossing.

Mons Sex Milla - 29th April 2007

Uncle Roddus Tramping diary:Tramp No 64

Mons Sex Milla - 29th April 2007

A regular trip on the Christchurch Tramping Club's calender, this particular time we had a party of about 10 or 12 trampers who set off from the St James Walkway car park about 10:30am on a clear and warm day.

After following the four wheel drive track some way, we then slogged our way up the hill to the tarn just below the summit where upon we rested and probably had lunch. We then continued on to the summit, arriving there upon around 3:00pm. Some of the keener members of the group wanted to carry on along the ridge to Garnet peak, whereas Uncle Roddus joined the soft group heading straight back down one of the ridges, due the the fact that he hadn't been out in several months. The soft group arrived back at the cars about 5:30pm and had to wait another 40 minutes for the other group.