After lunch I got picked up within minutes and arrived in my intended destination of Ashburton for the night. Ashburton is town about an hour south of Christchurch. Lieing on the Canterbury Plains the surrounding area is very flat so there isn't much to see other than farmland. It's not the kind of place you would visit as a tourist but it has plenty of shops and facilities which I needed. My intention was the following day to get as close to Staveley as I could to hike the Mount Somers Track. Ashburton was the nearest town of a considerable size to that so I could buy food to do the trek. As I arrived a lot earlier than expected I took a short walk along the river which was nice. I then relaxed in my accomodation come evening.
Thursday morning I wasn't sure how the day would go with Staveley being very remote. I knew I could pretty easily get a lift to Methven which would have been a 3 hour walk from Staveley but I couldn't believe my luck that I not only got picked up within minutes, but was picked up by a local guy who was a trail runner unsure of where he fancied running so decided to go to Staveley too! The Mount Somers Track is a 2 day 1 night hike around Mount Somers, although I planned to do 3 days 2 nights to attempt the summit one of the days. After getting ready the guy who gave me a lift ran off and I followed on the same path behind.
The path was initially very steep and there was a heavy frost which made is slippery but equally beautiful. There was a viewpoint not far from the car park with some great views, before the path dropped a bit and followed this stream which was stunning with the frosty surroundings. There was even a partially frozen waterfall as one point with icicles all around it! The path then climbed steeply again before reaching an area called the pinnacles which were some rock formations, with the snowcapped Southern Alps as a back drop. There was also a hut up here and shortly after reaching it the guy who gave me a lift passed me and said he had ran all the way to the saddle so fair play to him. I had lunch at the hut.
After leaving the hut the path continued to climb up to the saddle which when reaching the top was 1170m so pretty high, although nothing compared to the mountains around me! The path then dropped down the other side eventually reaching a point called the water caves which were some rock formations which the stream flowed through. Shortly after this I reached the Woolshed Creek Hut which was my bed for the night. It was a pretty solid days walking. I was only one there when arriving which surprised me as it sleeps 26 people, although a Kiwi couple arrived shortly after. They only stopped for a rest though although they were over 2 hours from the nearby car park with only an hours daylight left!
Come morning it was absolutely freezing and outside was a solid frost. My plan for the day was to attempt the Mount Somers summit. Officially there is marked route up the south face although they strongly advise against this as that face gets the least sunlight and during winter the path is effectively ice which means crampons and ice axes are recommended. I instead thought I'd attempt the summit up the unmarked and less steep west face. Shortly after leaving I reached the emerald pools which was a swimming hole, although I was not planning on a swim. I instead took the swing bridge over the gorge and headed up through the scrub.
Before long the path headed down to this stream which was an interesting crossing as the rocks were covered in ice. Nearby there was a waterfall which was surrounded in snow and icicles which was pretty stunning. The path then rapidly started to rise and I eventually reached a feature known as the bus stop overhang which literally had a bus stop sign! From here I left the path and headed towards the summit, initially climbing this rock face before it levelled out a bit to this scrubland. It was very hard work making progress though and before long there were patches of snow everywhere.
I eventually made it to about 1400m but from here there was a considerably greater amount of snow and it was a little unstable. After accidentally triggering a small avalanche I rested on some rocks and decided I wouldn't continue. The issue was a hard layer of snow had formed over a soft layer which was great when the hard layer took my weight, but every so often it broke and I would sink a considerable way. The views were still stunning though but if I were to die no one would even know I'm missing let alone where I was. After having lunch I headed back down stopping at a few rock formations for views, eventually heading back down to the bus stop and the marked route. En route back I stopped at the waterfall and emerald pools again as they were pretty special! When arriving back at the hut there were a few people there and before long they had cheese and biscuits and all sorts out and let me help myself as they had loads. They even insisted I had dinner with them afterwards which was nice. More people later arrived and there were 14 people in the hut by bedtime!
Sunday morning I had to decide whether to return to civilisation via the south face of Mount Somers back to Staveley, or to follow an old miners route back to the township of Mount Somers itself. I opted for the latter. The route basically climbed to this viewpoint back towards the creek before dropping sharply to an old mine which had a few old relics lieing about. The path then dropped down to a 4wd track which I followed until reaching Mount Somers and the inland scenic route 72 which was my way out. The road wasn't very busy though but I eventually got picked up. I had to decide whether to go to Methven or Geraldine and I opted for Geraldine. I arrived here by afternoon and after sorting myself out relaxed in the quiet hostel. Come evening I went down the pub for a roast dinner although it was full of old people playing ukeleles for the annual Geraldine Uke Fest.
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