I’ve been keen to explore further south along the St Arnaud Range and St Ronans Steam looked like a nice access point for this weekend. The trip was not forecast to be a fast one as Hazel 5 and Rosa 7 were keen to come along, so with blue skies and little wind forecast we aimed for the highest tarn at nestled along the tops. However we underestimated the slowness of small people bashing through head high beech forest re-gen, windfall and swampy stuff and decided to set up camp as the sun was leaving on a plateau dotted with some smaller tarns further down. We were happy not to push on the intended campsite tarn as it was very uninviting being still frozen and surrounded by snow. The area offered lovely views east with a fair amount of snow tucked up in the south facing basin and was very lush with the streams full of snow melt.
Friday/Sat just gone was looking like a really nice but short weather window. Husband and kids had taken off on Thursday with their Aunty, and Grandma and Grandad to check out the Molesworth and stay at Saxtons Hut. I had quite a bit of work on so decided to get up early Fri and 4WD up the Leatham Valley and walk in to the hut to meet them. After getting briefly stuck in the river on the way up I set off from Bottom Gordons Hut, up Gordons Stream and over Saxton Saddle and was greeted by the gigantically...
A while ago I explored the Arthurs Pass area with my good friend Dulkara, we walked up the Taramaku River, bush bashed through the thick & steep bush up to the open tops where we spent three days traversing the ridges. On the second afternoon, after lots of up and down ridge-line scrambling we approached Lake Morgan...
Camp Stream Hut, a historic musterers hut on the Te Araroa trail near Tekapo with Roundhill in the background. A magical place to visit, especially in the late afternoon although once the sun falls it becomes bitterly cold. On this particular trip the walk out was sodden with snow melt and my feet lost feeling in the last main river. Brr…