Lewis Pass Tops

A bunch of us decided to have a tramp around the Lewis Tops - we considered some easy options around the area, such as Boyles hut and Cannibal hut, but decided heck, why hut when we could tent?

So we got tents and went for a night out on the ridge.

It was pretty steep going, but it wasn't really that far (some of us would say) and we were above the treeline before you could say Oh, quelle belle journée c'est en Nouvelle-Zélande! (in a satisfactorily French accent).

There were some really good views! You should get outdoors! We could look a decent way up the St James walkway, in the Cannibal Gorge, and some of the Maruia River by state highway 7, and also the peaks of Trovatore. Further along the track would point us towards a slope with some rocks and snow, which looks reachable within the same day, and across the valley to the left would be Mt Technical, which looks not reachable within the same day.

The tops had a decent gust from time to time, and as we continued further up the tops after admiring the first views, we could see the winds roll across tussock fields further ahead, come out and onto some mountain lakes, skim across the surface, and finally hit us. It is really satisfying to get that kind of visual anticipation - it's like seeing someone run towards you for embrace from ahead, instead of being jumped on from behind.

We found a good patch by a biggish mountain lake, and pitched our tents. Alphaeus (redacted) conjured a Jetboil out of his pack and proceeded to make coffee. While the water was heating up, he reached into his pack once more and pulled out a bottle of Hennessy with a big grin. He placed the bottle into the icy cold lake water (which was pretty shallow) to cool.

We all sat in or around tents either relaxing or pottering about making our hot drinks before dinner time - we arrived relatively early in the afternoon. I began to draft a letter to a friend, Chad (redacted) started setting up his camera for some nice shots for later, and ... others did other stuff.

I cannot remember the details to how it happened but soon Alphaeus managed to convince Reza (redacted) and I to play a game of who-can-stand-the-longest-on-one-leg-in-knee-deep-mountain-lake, and Alphaeus tried to enforce the penance of the loser being a large shot of Hennessy. I tried to laugh it off but thankfully none of us needed to stand too long before the whole team decided it was time to make dinner. The competition was called off and the notion was forgotten - we enjoyed reasonable portions of Hennessy alongside dinner instead.

Only a couple of other hiker-camperers joined us atop the hill, and they sought their own space by a neighbouring tarn/mountain lake where we cannot see/hear them. Dinner and sleep was great - Chad also got some nice shots.

The next morning we all felt really lazy and just dawdled about the area, looking at this and that after morning breakfast and coffee. Reza and Alphaeus decided to head for the slopes for a patch of snow, while the rest of us slowly and non-committally moseyed across rocks, edges of lakes and shrubs in that general direction. We came to rest on a slope where we could see that Reza and Alphaeus are nearly at a patch of snow in the distance. I lay down and soon fell asleep, having my first morning nap in years.
When I woke up Reza and Alphaeus were chucking the last snowballs at each other, and soon made their way back.

I think that was all I remembered of the trip, I'm sure I missed something, like the notoriety of the area for car break-ins, and some talk about a geocache being somewhere there. I didn't write this entry fresh :)