Peak Hill 26th June 2011

Uncle Roddus Tramping Diary:Tramp No.106

Peak Hill 26th June 2011

A nice easy/moderate winter trip, as was listed in the CTC trip calendar, and after talking to the trip leaders they said that it was a particularly beautiful trip in snow with great views of the surrounding mountains and lake, so it said in a description by Pat Barrett. I left home on a cool but frost free morning to meet the rest of the party at Windwistle. The clouds were lumpy and sitting low on the Torlesse range as I headed for our meeting place and I hoped they wouldn't also be sitting on the tops of the 1240m hill we were to climb. The wish for snow was still unfulfilled, even though the forecast earlier in the week had been for a light coating, so it was going to be even easier trip. 20 CTC trampers headed across the old farm paddock from the road heading for the start of a well marked and used track on the south west side of this hill which is now on another DOC conservation estate.

Being a climb of just over 600m on a good track took us a fairly short time with a couple of stops to admire the views and lunch was had on the top with light but cold wind and pretty good views of Lake Coleridge and the Rakaia. The Leaders said that this was the third year they had been up this hill and still hadn't done it in the snow. Better luck next time. A nice trip to fill in the day and look forward to doing it again when we finally get some snow.

The eastern end of lake Coleridge

Lake Coleridge, with the Rakaia to the right

Peak Hill

This lot were too busy socialising and fell behind

A higher shot of the lake

On the top.

Uncle Roddus with the upper Rakaia in the background

The western end of the lake