The middle weekend in November is the Canterbury Show weekend and this means that we got an extra day off of work. After spending Friday at the show admiring every possible variety of sheep and watching exciting events like the welly throwing competition and the duck herding, we decided to take advantage of having a little extra time off of work to head up into the mountains for a day hike.
The weather was beautiful and we had a lovely trip up through the Southern Alps to Arthur’s Pass. The drive up through the mountains is always pretty, although sometimes it is hard to remember that this is one of the main routes across the island, especially when crossing some of the one-lane bridges!
After passing through the hamlet of Arthur’s Pass we started to descend into the Otira Valley. We stopped at the lookout to admire the amazing engineering in this area before continuing on to the trail head.
We arrived at the car park around lunchtime and decided to enjoy our picnic by the side of the stream rather than carrying it up the mountain. Looking up the valley to the grassy tops we knew it was probably going to be a pretty steep hike.
The track immediately took us into the dense forest and we found ourselves climbing steeply alongside a small stream. In places the tree roots had formed steps which allowed us to gain height pretty quickly, although you often had to use your hands to pull yourself up some of the steeper sections.
Eventually we came out of the trees and were rewarded with beautiful views of the surrounding mountains. This high in the Alps, the snow had only recently melted and the Mount Cook Daisies were just starting to bloom.
As the track levelled out we were able to see Carroll Hut in the distance. We dropped our rucksack off at the hut and took some time to explore the tracks and tarns near the hut. We returned to the hut and sat on the porch of enjoying the view and having a quick snack before braving the trail back down to the car.
As we made our way back down towards bush line we had a clear view of the braided river valley below. The view was beautiful, but it also made us realise how far down we had to walk before we got to our car that was parked in the bottom of the river valley!