Feeling HOT HOT HOT!!

February 26-28 2010

Lake Chalice, Mt Richmond Forest Park, Staircase Road End

Team: Me, Karl, Ian, Olivia, Valentina

Photos are a little different this time, they are low-res versions uploaded directly, as I have yet to post any shots to flickr to have links... This might be remedied later, but for now, we'll see!

Friday night saw an unusual start to a tramp for me - catching the bus along the Old Hutt Road to walk over the bridge to the ferry terminal. After a few nervous moments, waiting for everyone to arrive, we were all there and checked in. Dinner was had on the ferry, and I have to say that the Lasagne wasnt actually too bad, although I wish I had brought dinner stuff like Olivia did - that looked fantastic!

We then collected a rental and drove off into the dark, heading for a campsite at a much easier to find road end. It was fairly cold overnight, and most people didnt sleep particularly well I gathered, and we were all glad for some hot water at breakfast time!

Once the tent had gotten some sunshine, and our condensation-damp sleeping bags had spent some time in the sunshine drying off, we packed up and headed back down the road in search of our actual road end. It was a nightmare to get to, and I am VERY glad we didnt do it in the middle of the night (plus there was nowhere suitable to camp AT the road end anyway!)

From there it was down the hill (and a steep b*&ch of a hill it was!) to the hut for lunch. After a suitable rest period of about an hour, we packed up day packs and headed off around the lake, which was estimated to take about an hour. The lake was very low, and it was very hot, so we were immensely grateful to find that at the far end of the lake it is entirely possible to get down from the track to a small beach-like area where we paddled our feet, and sank in the mud. It was so refreshing no one really wanted to leave, but it was also SO hot, and there was no shade, so we were all feeling the heat a bit!

We headed around the far side of the lake, already having decided that perhaps walking up a spur and on to the tops in this weather was a bit foolhardy, as we were all feeling rather tired from the heat. This was a great decision, as once we got to where the spur we were planning to follow went, we discovered it was bluffs at the track level, and so would have been a tad tough to get up!

Eventually we got back to the hut. Well, it felt like eventually, as the heat made everything seem like it took a lot longer than normal! In fact, we had only taken just over three hours to get around the lake, which was about on DoC time of 2.5 hours, plus our half hour lounging about in the lake!.

The rest of the afternoon was given over to rest. Pretty much everyone had a nap, although I decided not to as I didnt think I would wake up in time to get dinner going if I did! Plus I was feeling dehydrated, so I figured sitting around reading and re-hydrating was possibly more important than napping!

Soon enough it was time to start dinner, which was a bacon risotto followed by apple crumble. It went down a treat, and all of a sudden it was 9.30pm and everyone was getting ready for bed! I think because the hut stayed fairly light for ages, being in a nice sized clearing and with good weather, we must not have started dinner quite as early as previous trips. The cards didnt even come out before people headed to bed!

Sunday morning we were up slightly earlier than Saturday, as we were unsure how long it would take to get back up to the road end, and drive back to Picton. Our aim was to get to Picton by just on 1pm (at the latest) to allow us time for lunch before our ferry. Out of the hut at just on 8am, we were at the road end by just after 9am.

Even with a stop at the lookout, and cruising our way down the nasty road, then stopping at the actual road turn-off, we were still in Picton at just after 11am! We split up and all headed off to have lunch wherever we felt like it, planning to come back to the car at 12.15pm.

While at lunch, I got a text from Jackie (our weekend contact) telling us that there was a Tsunami warning, but the ferries didnt seem to be affected. This was good news, we guessed.

We also decided to see about getting on the 1.10pm ferry instead of the 2.25pm one, which we managed, and that was great, as the ferries were being diverted away from Tory Channel and out past Ship Cove instead, adding an hour each way. So we got home at about 5pm, which was nice for a change for a South Island trip - still enough time to go home and unpack before collapsing in to bed...