So to put it lightly, this past weekend was the best two days since I’ve been in New Zealand. To put it not so lightly its in the mix for the best two consectutive days ever. Myself and 4 friends headed out on Friday afternoon for a camping/hiking trip up into the Southern Alps. What we thought was just going to be a warm up camping trip turned into a mountaineering peak counquering adventure of a lifetime. We headed out to our planned destination of Broken River Ski Area, about 5 kilometers up the road we encountered a locked gate where we were forced to park our car. The 5 of us began our ascent up the steep winding switchbacks that just to get to the main parking lot of the ski field. During the winter they have a cart mounted on a track to bring you up towards the field because the next section is so steep…obviously since it is summer here that was not operating so we continued on our merry way up the impassable switchbacks. We were frequented with spectacular views on our way up which was just a small dose of what we would see from the summit. When we reached the top of the lift from the parking lot we realized that we were still about another kilometer of switchbacks away from the base of the ski field…When we did reach the base we were in the middle of an alpine meadow surrounded by a steap rocky bowl looking out onto the surrounding Alps. We determined that our best route to the summits would be to follow the grass as high as we could into a rocky section rather than try to tackle the large amounts loose rock that covered the center of the bowl. We began our ascent which quickly turned into a low grade mountaineering endeavor when we realized that the bowl was much steeper than we anticipated. After scrambling over and around the rocky features that we faced the 5 of us safely summited nervous knob and were greated with one of the most breathtaking full 360 degree panoramic views I have ever seen. Up until this point I don’t think that it had hit any of us that we were in fact hiking amongst the Southern Alps of New Zealand! We rested up top and then traversed along the saddle of the bowl over to Sunny Peak which was a little higher and we recorded an altitude of 6050 ft!(our car was parked somewhere at somewhere around 3000 ft) We raced the shadows back down the basin following the lift line, which because of the steep pitch of the bowl, and lack of stable base, is actually just an extremely long rope tow that you clip a harness on to.

We made it back to the car and drove back down the dirt access road a bit before finding a place to set up camp for the night. We cooked up some pasta and had a well deserved beer, kept cold in our make shift chilly bin(kiwi speak for cooler) in the alpine stream running behind our site. When the stars came out every one of us was blown away. When I say that this was the most amazing night sky I have ever seen I mean it was the most amazing night sky I have ever seen, only to be rivalled by round 2 on Saturday night. We had a full view of the milky way and the Southern Cross and with no light pollution at all we could see even the tiniest farthest away stars. It was breathtaking. We awoke early the next morning largely due to the fact that it dropped to around 30-35 deg. F so all of us except our friend Austin (who was in a -15 deg. Sleeping bag) were pretty damn cold and were looking for a warm breakfast. On the cold note, it didn’t help my cause that I spent the night in my hammock which lets body heat escape in all directions… Anyway for breakfast we cooked up some oats and apples with brown sugar and peanut butter for flavoring.

From there we decided to head up Arthur’s Pass which is the main throughway from coast to coast and cuts through Arthur’s Pass National Park. We reached a town near the top of the pass and stopped at a visitor’s center where we were directed first to a 131 metre waterfall and then up the road to another ski field. The waterfall was breathtaking and rivalled everything I saw in Yosemite. Not to mention, unlike in the US where staying on the trail is strictly regulated, in NZ it is only reccomended so needless to say we went right up to the base of the waterfall to get the full experience.

At this point I’d like to apologize for this incredibly long post, but you need to understand that this was indead one of the best weekends of my life.

We walked back from the waterfall, which was only a 20 min. hike from the road, and drove up to the parking lot for the Temple Basin ski field. As was the case with Broken River, the actual base of the ski area was completely inaccessible by car so we began yet another vertical trek up rocky swithbacks. I’m not really sure what these people do in the winter…they obviously really like to ski though because you have to work your ass off just to get there. The steep switchbacks led us up to the lodge which was in a picturesque alpine meadow straight out of the movie Sound of Music. The 5 of us stood in the meadow looking back out at snow capped peaks and for all intentional purposes could have been standing in Switzerland. We ate lunch behind the lodge and while the others napped I went off and explored a small waterfall we had seen, hoping to find a pool to take a dip in. I ended up finding a little oasis of three waterfalls all with their own little bathing pool down in a ravine and I treated myself to a nice, albeit cold, private bath. I then went back and woke the others to share my findings and we continued to explore down the ravine. We ended up finding multiple much larger pools which we could jump into from the surrounding cliffs! The last and best one we found was about 10-15 feet deep and fully lit up by the sun. It was full of crystal clear blue water and surrounded by 15 ft. cliffs on all sides, truly paradise after a full morning of hiking.

On our return to the car, we decided that since we had already made it to the top of the pass that if the west coast was less that 100 km away that we would head down and see the Tasman sea just to top off the weekend. Upon checking the gps at the car we found that the coast was only 75 km away so off we went to the Tasman. We ended up camping next to a cattle and elk farm right on the water. Since we were on the west coast we were treated to a stunning sunset over the Tasman Sea and Austin and I decided to sleep out on the dune under the stars (which as previously stated were the only stars to rival the previous nights) while the other three slept in our van. We awoke the next morning to the sound and smell of the surf, cooked up some oats and headed back up the pass.

On our return journey we stopped at Castle Hill, which is a major rock climbing destination due to the incredible amount of massive boulders that reside there. After walking around and adding to our long list of amazing sights we concluded our adventure and returned to Christchurch. Just when I thought that the weekend was over and I was finally going to be able to relax, a game of pick-up ultimate frisbee started on the field directly outside my window. I was obviously obligated to join. It is now almost 9:00 pm Sunday evening and I am falling asleep at my computer, not looking forward to rejoining the real world and going to class in 12 hrs. for the first time in 2 months….

Check out the photo album for lots of pictures from this epic weekend

CHEERS!