With a beautiful summer’s day in the forecast we decided to head up into the foothills to explore some of the lakes around the base of Mount Hutt. After about an hour we left the main highway and took the dirt road that leads along the shores of Lake Coleridge.
Instead of stopping at the main lake, we continued up the valley towards Lake Selfe. Parking near the lake, we set out on the hiking trail, as we climbed the small knoll at the end of the lake we could just make out the last of the snow on the Southern Alps in the distance. We continued along the track that skirted around the edge of Little Mount Ida on our way up to Lake Ida.
After making our way around Little Mount Ida, we continued climbing through a small stand of pine trees before coming out at Lake Ida. We made our way past an old chalet that the previous owners of the station used as a base of ice skating on the lake during the winter. The station changed hands and the new owner no longer allows ice skating, but in summer the lake is rumoured to have good trout fishing. After having a picnic lunch and enjoying the warm sunshine, dad and Eric set about catching some of these trout.
Mum and I walked on over towards Lake Catherine, the next lake up the valley. With the change of ownership of the station, the walking track was a little hard to find. As we got close to the lake the ground became quite marshy and it was hard to see a dry route over to the lake. We made our way back to higher ground and from our vantage point we were able to watch a pair of cormorants leaving their nest amongst the reeds and heading out over the lake.
We made our way back over to Lake Ida, admiring the landscape around us. The valley bottoms in this area are all irrigated for crops and were a bright green, the hillsides are much steeper and are covered in native tussock grass and are of course littered with sheep whilst the upper slopes seem to be just piles of rocks. The boys hadn’t had much luck with the fish and so we decided to make our way back towards Christchurch.
We stopped at the Rakaia Gorge on our way back, it is hard to believe that despite being just one lane wide, the bridges in the distance are actually part of the main highway!
The river was in flood from all the recent rain, but it didn’t stop dad and Eric having another quick try at fishing. The target this time was salmon, as the Rakaia River is a well-known salmon fishing spot, but once again the fish weren’t biting. Luckily we had some food waiting for us back home, so we set off back to Christchurch planning future strategies for catching fish.