It was one of those rare days where you drive away from the murky weather in Christchurch and head west into sunshine, blue skies and fresh snow on the mountain tops. We had nine trampers (8 human and 1 canine) happy to brave the low temperature, which actually wasn’t uncomfortable due to the sunshine and a complete lack of wind.

The Dracophyllum Flats track was in good condition and we headed through the trees at an easy pace with Evelien’s dog leading the group. We enjoyed a morning tea stop in the sunshine (and with a view) when the track come out into open flats. At the Cheeseman road we headed back into the trees onto the unmarked Cockayne Alley bike track.  We stopped for lunch half way up the 400m climb at another sunny viewpoint. This worked out well as once we reached the treeline we found we had about 20 – 30cm of snow on the ground. The highlight of the trip was the walk through the snow for the final 100m uphill and along a flat track to the ski field road. The view was fabulous so a couple of photo stops were essential. 

We had taken longer than expected to reach this point so we headed down the ski field road at a decent pace. After a short time we reached the Cuckoo creek track which took us down through the trees to a junction part way along the Dracophyllum Flats track.  It was getting late now so we continued on reaching the cars just before 5pm.

A longer trip than usual for an easy-moderate trip but the pace was comfortable, the tracks good  and everybody seemed to enjoy the trip especially a club member on her first snow tramp, a prospective member on her first trip with PTC and of course our four-footed tramper.

Heather & Kevin, Chris & Graham, Evelien & Fenna 🐾, Kim, Carolyn, Mel [HH]  Photo’s by HH and KH