6/10/2018 2 Comments Mt Te Kinga - West CoastAfter being pushed west of Arthur's Pass due to bad weather on the other side of the divide, I was looking for a good overnighter before heading back to Christchurch at the end of a week of tramping in the area. I had initially planned on spending the week by myself but Instagram intervened and I ended up driving out towards Lake Brunner with a girl I had just met online and who my husband was convinced was probably going to be a 40 year old man. One of the hardest things I've found in the last few years is finding like minded women who genuinely enjoy the outdoors (and can carry a pack), so meeting up with Leila was a bit of a novelty after spending most of my tramping trips with a bunch of rowdy guys! We met in Arthurs Pass mid morning and were at the start of the track before lunchtime. There is plenty of parking and public toilets at the end of Cashmere Bay Road in Te Kinga and we left the car here amongst a few camper vans and a growing swarm of sand flies. The track heads more or less straight up the mountain and once we made it passed the more well worn portion leading to the lookout things got decidedly more interesting. I had read a story the night before about a couple getting lost on the descent from the summit after they started to lose light and at the time had been a bit bemused at how they managed this. I think we lost the track three or four times as we were diverted around fallen trees through dense west coast bush and I began to feel a little more sympathetic towards their situation. The track is essentially well marked but it pays to take your time locating it again when you hit these obstacles and maybe don't get distracted talking! The climb is just over 1000m of elevation in a reasonably short distance making the incline a whole lot of type two fun. As a day walk with a light pack this wouldn't present too much of a problem for most people but with tents and all of our other camping gear my legs were definitely feeling it after an hour. DOC suggests four hours to the summit and this is a pretty fair estimate especially if you're staying the night or know you'll need to take breaks on the way up. With no water at the top, we were hoping that we would find some on the way otherwise the old freeze dried cuisine wasn't going to go down too well. Luckily the track did eventually pass close to Jays Creek about 2/3 of the way up (see map below) and we were able to fill up everything we had before continuing on. Once at 1196m the summit itself is still a good distance away and facing a pretty bracing wind we decided to turn back to find a flattish sheltered spot to pitch the tents. As it turned out this was probably the biggest challenge of the day - after I turned the wrong way trying to get to the Lake in the first place that is. I had a reasonably small one man tent but Leila's was a good deal bigger so some serious scouting had to be undertaken to find the all important level sleeping platform without a tonne of rocks scattered through it. We eventually located two passable (my door opened straight into a substantial flax bush) spots and set up camp for the night.
Apparently the 30th of August is still very much winter and once the sun was gone even the freeze dried stuff was looking super appealing in all its hand warming glory. Despite being not so subtly stalked by a persistent Weka all evening it was hard not to enjoy the view of lights reflecting on the dark lake and the mountains surrounding us on all sides. On a totally clear night this would be a pretty great spot for star gazing and spotting "the pot" (that's a kiwi astrological term). Unfortunately there wasn't much of a sunrise which is probably for the best since I'd brought three spare batteries for my camera and forgotten my memory card. The trip back down to the car wasn't a lot quicker than the climb up since the track is reasonably steep the whole way so you can't get much of a stride on until near the end. Total time: 6.5 hours return Tent sites: questionable New Instagram friends that weren't serial killers: One (well so far so good)
2 Comments
11/4/2022 09:36:39 am
hanks for sharing the article, and more i scmportantly, sadcyour personal experience of mindfully using our emotions as data about our inner state and knowing when it’s better to de-escalate by taking a time out are great tools. Appreciate you reading and sharing your story since I can certainly relate and I think others can to
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11/4/2022 09:57:20 am
ks for sharing the article, and more i scmportantly, sadcyour personal experience of mindfully using our emotions as data about our inner state and knowing when it’s better to de-escalate by taking a time out are great tools. Appreciate you reading and sharing your story since I can certainly relate and I think others can to
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