Monday the 8th of July to Wednesday the 10th of July. Catching up with Anna Murdoch, Tom McKellar, Tim Bright, Claire Cannon and Brad Scott.
This trip is one I will always remember and not necessarily for the all the good time we had on it. We set out on a beautiful day up the Waimakariri, aiming to head over Harman Pass to Julia hot pools, before heading out own the Taipo River, staying at Carrington Hut and Julia Hut along the way. The travel was fun and we made good progress and were thusly rewarded with plenty of time to dig out, temperature adjust and sit it the hot pools of the river bed (no photos though!)
Unfortunately though I set out on this trip with a cold, and by the time we walked out down the Taipo in the rain this had developed into a proper chest infection, complete with fever, and painful productive cough. Hence why there are no photos on the Wednesday, I literally took none. It's a long way down the Taipo and we arrived at the carpark just on dusk. Only to discover a trampers nightmare. No car, so many thoughts went through my mind at this point, did we park it the wrong place? The others arrived and thought or rather hoped that this was some sort of sad practical joke. But alas no. My faithful companion of every trip until now, my lovely courageous Subaru Legacy, Scuby, was stolen. Thus it was that we stood on the side of the road in the early dark waving our headtorches and hoping that there were enough cars on the road to pick up 6 wet trampers in the dark.
When we got back to the start Anna's car had also been broken into and cleared out, but at least it was still there. So we at least had a way home!
The crew heading up the Waimakariri
Looking up the Waimakariri
Still heading up the Waimakariri
Carrington Peak
Team still in the Waimakariri, looking towards Carrington Peak
Tim crossing the Clough Cableway. Got to keep the boots dry!
Heading up towards Harman Pass
Looking back down our route
Ice and waterfalls
Snow dusted tops around Harman Pass
Team in the snow
The way of hoar frost
Made it!
