Spring Break!!

August 26-28th

Part 1

A week and a half before break I had no idea what I was going to do; ideas were being tossed around, but I didn’t have a definite plan until the week before. But I guess when your trips depend so much on weather conditions, it’s probably to be expected that you procrastinate on making a decision until the last minute.

The break began Friday evening, when James, Jaz, Tom, and I all crammed into James’s car and drove 4.5 hours up to Christchurch, picked up Luke (Tramping club person), and drove about another hour to Arthur’s Pass village. There we found a shelter at about 1 am and for once there was no tea making, since all of us went straight to bed. We were up and back on the road at about 9, driving 5 minutes to Coral trail-head (correction: the start of Coral Track-there are no ‘trails’ or ‘trail-heads’ in NZ).

For about four-hours we made our slow way up and along Rome Ridge. Sometimes pausing, waiting for the whiteout conditions to dissipate to see the terrain a head of us. The others enjoyed ‘taking the piss out’ of the situation by jokingly complaining.  We’d be hiking along in silence, lost in our own thoughts when someone would speak up saying that we need a complainer. ‘We’re slacking on this, why is no one complaining?!’ And so begin the remarks that they are ‘very concerned about these snow flurries’, ‘there was a snow flake, conditions might be too bad’; ‘we should probably just head down and go to the pub’. Of course, they are all to stubborn and driven to do such a thing, so we didn’t make it to the pub. I was OK with that, for it was cheaper and more satisfying to continue on.

By mid-afternoon we had selected our campsite on the ridge and began to dig our snow-cave (we wanted to go light weight, so we didn’t bring any tents). While the snow-cave was dug, I made our port-o-potty with a wall for some privacy and then our kitchen counter (all from snow, of course). Sometimes, when it’s not too cold out, I love snow camping; it makes you feel like a kid again by building snow forts. By 6:00 pm, the cave was more than big enough to fit the 5 of us and we were able enjoy a cup of tea before setting ourselves to making dinner and organizing camp. Jaz made a delicious curry-who says you can’t eat well in the backcountry? By 8:00 we were in bed.

Sleep was undisturbed, except when I woke to Luke yell “Shit! Shit! Shit!” I jolted awake and up, afraid the cave was caving in. Turns out he must have just been dreaming, as he said when we all looked at him in confusion. In the morning he hardly remembered the event.

5:30 am we were walking along the ridge, hoping to beat the sun to the summit for optimal snow conditions. The going was great until we hit the crux: the rock bulge at the top of which was Rolleston’s summit. Sadly, the snow covering the rock wasn’t good enough for the number of people we had and the tools most of us were carrying (note to self, must invest in technical alpine axes when I return to the US). So we ended up bailing early and heading down the valley to a hut where we stopped for lunch and tea at 10:30 (hey, when you eat breakfast at 5:00, 10:30 is an ideal lunch time). We got to admire Rolleston peak while we ate and contemplated the fact it was still ‘in the way’ for all of us (a phrase from climbing kiwis that means it’s a summit or route they still need to climb).

After the break we made the 6ish mile hike out-a good portion of which was over gravely-braided river beds (something I haven’t experience before and wouldn’t be disappointed if I never did again; they’re pretty brutal on the feet; luckily we had great views to distract us).

 At the tracks end, James and I hitched a ride back to the car about 10 miles up the road (while the others waited, making tea at a picnic table). We re-joined the others with the car and enjoyed some tea, before making the drive back to Dunedin. However, I was dropped off about 20 minutes down the road at my next destination for the spring break adventure.