Nelson Lakes National Park

My last weekend hiking trip while still living in Christchurch was north to Nelson Lakes National Park with Bernard, Jenn, Daniel, and Drew. We headed up on Friday afternoon and checked out the pretty lakes on the way, then settled in to camp at the trailhead after some very impressive tinkering to get our camp stove to work.

Lake Rotoroa

Lake Rotoiti

The forecast for the weekend had been a little snow but not too bad so we thought we’d be fine, but we woke up to at least a few inches of fresh snow on the ground – crazy! This meant there was snow on the ground for our entire hike and everything was slippery and muddy and annoying. We got to Speargrass Hut, which was halfway in distance to our destination but only about a quarter of the way up in elevation. Soon after we passed the hut the snow got to knee and then thigh deep and the weather looked stormy. We decided to turn back and stay at the halfway hut because we knew the snow would only get more impossible to trudge through and we still had hours of climbing ahead of us. Making it up to Lake Angelus would have been awesome but it just wasn’t worth the risk and effort.

Snowy campsite in the morning at the trailhead

The hut we ended up staying in

Annoying river bed we hiked up

Happy to be turning back!

Instead we enjoyed a relaxing evening in front of the fire playing cards and doing crossword puzzles, then hiked out quickly the next day. When we got back to town we needed to get gas but found out there was a scheduled power cut that day so we had to hang out for a few hours until the power came back on. Small towns, eh? Luckily the lake wasn’t too bad a place to kill time and before we knew it we were bound back for Christchurch with a satisfying fish and chips stop on the way.

I have my last two finals today and tomorrow and then I’ll be done! I can’t believe that this is my last week in Christchurch and how fast my time here has gone by. I’m really sad that something I’ve enjoyed so much is coming to an end but I’m just trying to be grateful for this amazing experience and enjoy it while I can.