Tramp

This past weekend we headed out for a good tramp in the Richmond Ranges.

For those that don't know the Richmond Ranges are between Nelson and Blenheim. They aren't glacially formed, so the hills are steep, the ridges are up and down and the valleys are tight.

We left town on Friday night, and drove over to the Wakamarina Valley. This valley is just behind Canvastown, which was a gold mining town way back when. We walked for about an hour into Devils Hut where we spent the night.

Saturday

We were up at 6, and walking by quarter to 7. The track headed down briefly to the river, then straight up to Mt Royal. We'd only been walking for about 25min when I noticed some moisture coming out of my pack. I opened it to find, one of the beers I was carrying had burst. Bastard. It went all down the back of my legs, sticky! Adam finished what was left of the can.

On arriving at the top a fantastic view greeted us. We could also see the routes that we would be traveling along. They didnt look to bad from where we were standing.

We headed off after a quick munch along the untracked ridge to Mt Fishtail.

Arriving on top of Mt Fishtail at midday was good timing and lunch was very much enjoyed. We could see the next ridge where we would be heading and it wasn't looking so friendly. Plenty of bluffs and lots of up and down.

Mt Fell-where we are heading is the tops in the distance.

The hut on Mt Fishtail was the only place that we could get water, but unfortunately getting to it would involve a descent and a further climb. Ged talked us into it, which ended up being a bloody good thing. I stripped off and cleaned the sticky beer off my legs and shorts.

We left a bit of skin on the scree slopes getting off Mt Fishtail. It wasnt long before we were descending and climbing as we traversed the ridge. It didnt take much longer before people started getting tired. Breaks became a bit more frequent and there wasnt a whole lot of talking.

After pushing through some tight scrub and climbing Mt Fell we arrived at the hut.

Ged with Mt Fishtail in the background, and the ridge we walked along.

Unfortunately there was a father and his 2 children there already. This meant 7 people and 6 bunks. Adam, Brent and I managed to share 2 and a bit bunks but it wasnt particularly comfortable!

We did enjoy beers, steak with blue cheese, a cous cous salad and a green salad. Not your ususal tramping tucker.

Sunday

The next morning we were greated by another great day. We were on our way by 7:45. A quick climb out of the hut onto Mt Fell and we began our descent towards Pelorous River. We negotiated one rocky gut, and Adam just avoided getting his legs taken out by a falling rock.

Shortly after we were met with a fixed wire. The wire is so you can descend a narrow steep gut and ledge. Below both is a big bluff. It was a little hair raising.

The rest of the tramp was mainly downhill with one reasobable climb. By the time we arrived at the Maitai Dam my quads were toast!

All in all an awesome weekend. Saturday was about 12 hours on the go, with 3400m of climbing. While Sunday was 9 hours on the go and 1500m of climbing. Good times.