I’ll start out this way…Today’s objectives were to

1. Go for a walk and get some exercise
2. See the snowy mountains
3. Have a play in the snow!

Its winter here in New Zealand (southern hemisphere remember) and the Christchurch winter isn’t filled with snowy days like the Pennsylvania winters where upwards of a foot, two, or sometimes three feet of snow is common. However, New Zealand has some pretty high mountains close to home here in Christchurch, so the search for snow was on!

Arthurs Pass was the destination where the mountains tower over a small village known for up close encounters with Kea birds. Today we decided to try our best to avoid the rain and do the Bealey Spur track just south of the village where rain was forcasted (mountain terrain is highly variable). Bealey Spur also isn’t too high of a tramp for today so that we aren’t exposing ourselves to a potentially high avalanche danger.

Long story short, its about a 1.5hr walk up to the hut at the end of track. Today we didn’t make it to the hut as we got distracted on our search for snow, ice, and mini snowball fights. Up and up the first phase of the track we found the first sign of snow somewhere around the 950m elevation. As we continued up we reached the lookout giving panoramic views of the 1900m plus peaks topped with snow. (Still have to go back one day to climb Avalanche Peak since we got turned away by rain and ended up getting to the historic and very uncomfortable cots in Bealey Spur Hut last time).

Anyways, the day consisted of snowball flights, making fresh footprints in never before touched snow, and even an off track adventure to see how frozen we thought the mountain tarn was and if it could hold our weight – it did, so that was exciting and was a more enjoyable walk home than one with a wet lower half.

I’d say objectives for the day complete, plus one happy girl 🙂 Figured you all might like to see some beautiful snowy mountains.