Victoria Range - Xmas 1984

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Victoria Range - Xmas 84 Leo Homes Boxing Day saw Janet and I heading by down the slope, came out at the back Newmans bus to Springs Junction on a door of the hut (two man box). From clear day steadily getting hotter. the bottom it was hard to see the The walk up to Rahu Saddle after route we descended, above the hut was lunch was fortunately cut short by a collection of bluffs with no two friendly locals. We left the obvious route through them. After a road soon after and were pleased to very late lunch and a swim in the enter the coolness of the bush. A tarn, we strolled up-stream to camp. couple of hours' walk took us to a nice campsite, by some tarns near the Friday saw the weather unchanged, so bush edge. we headed off up the valley getting slowly burned. Access further north The next day dawned fine and rapidly was hindered by a large rocky peak. warmed up. One tube of sunscreen was To avoid this we kept to the east of not going to be enough. We climbed the range and dropped into a stream onto the ridge at the head of the draining a large tarn below the rocky valley. The ridge gave mostly good peak. Travel up this stream to the travel, apart from a couple of places saddle at the top of the valley was where obvious routes around rocky good. The top of the ridge was quite outcrops existed. We dropped off the broken in places but reasonable ridge and with a little zigzagging travel was found by keeping to the ledges below the ridge top. We VICTORIA RANGE dropped into the head of a valley draining to the west to find a campsite for the night. L Roads Paenga Next morning was misty, so we packed Rivers up slowly and by 10 am we left with Tops the mist clearing to yet another fine - Tracks day. We climbed back onto the ridge C* " Route C through a forest of spaniards. Lunch Campsites Coliste was had by some tarns, as we watched Huts the clouds developing. By afternoon we were watching thunderstorms pass Peaks to the north, south, east and west of Mt us. We pitched camp, both tent and Victoria fly for a change, in a basin between Creighton Peak and Mt Crosscut. We Mt Ralph had just started to cook tea when we 4A got our thunderstorm - rain, hail, Wheel Ck thunder and lightning = nicely timed. SHANIE a When we awoke the mist covered the Mt Crosscul Maruia Lar Valley below us, but by the Creighton time we had had breakfast it had Peak lifted to cover us and the peaks around us. We traversed around the side of Mt Crosscut on some broad snowgrass terraces. The mist cleared, Wasienu so we stopped for lunch and a look at River the view. Then it was into the bush and onto Larry Saddle for an afternoon's rest. The fine weather meant we had three days to travel over what Maruia we should have been able to complete E in one long day, so the afternoon was spent sunbathing, washing and relax- 4 # ing in the sun. f An exceptionally clear morning gave us a view of the Southern Alps down as far as the Mt Cook region, as we climbed onto i Mt Ralph. We also saw a # herd of chamois just below us. The helicopter we saw earlier in the week Rahu was obviously not hunting these. Saddle Lunch was had on Mt Victoria followed SPRINGS by a descent through the bush to find JUNCTION a campsite above Coffee Creek.

A short stroll down through open beech brought us to the edge of the farmland by the Maruia River and a campsite for the night. What a lousy night's sleep - sandflies and mosquitos just to remind us of that extra advantage of travelling the tops - being above sandfly level. The next morning the weather broke, so after enjoying the West Coast hospitality of the local farmers, we headed for sunny Nelson by Newmans. Note: While the range south of Manuka Creek becomes quite broken, the area north of here and the Brunner Range offer good travel. It is an area I would recommend to any small (campsites tend to be small near the tops), reasonably fit party. Janet Dobbie - Victoria Range, Westland