As you drive on the road from Christchurch you can see the mountains looming ahead. They look totally different from anything we saw in Australia and despite the fine weather, you can just make out the snow tops through the clouds and mist. They are really spectacular.
Emily and Paul had planned for us to ascend one of the mountains - ‘Avalanche Peak’ which is one of the first mountains they had climbed when they arrived in New Zealand nearly two years ago. We were really looking forward to a good walk, especially seeing as how we thought we had become seasoned walkers after some of our exploits in Australia over the last month. The climb started almost immediately after leaving the visitor centre and before too long we were scrambling up rocks - often (certainly in my case anyway) on all fours. However it was great fun and we moved up above the ‘bush line’ really quickly.
It was when we got above the bush line that we (Chris and I) realised we were perhaps not the great hikers we thought we were as first Chris and then me became really scared on the narrow paths. Without meaning to scare any parents amongst the readers, at times we were less than a metre at times away from the edge of the path, at both sides, with a sheer cliff face the only destination at either side. Emily and Paul who are experienced hikers (and much braver than us!) may well have been taking a leisurely stroll in a park, but myself and Chris were scared out of our wits. Chris couldn’t even take any photo’s!
To make matters worse, as we neared the top, it became apparent that we were going to have to scale a short ‘snow’ section. Equipped only with my trainers I felt nervous to say the least and re-tracing my steps, all the way back down was looking increasingly appealing. Needless to say, I took the plunge and after a bit of swearing and hanging on for dear life with both hands, I managed to scale what felt like a cliff face covered in snow. In reality, it was probably not much more than a slope covered in snow, but I couldn’t look anywhere other than at my hands whilst we were climbing. The one time, I did dare to look back I could just see myself slipping down the slope to my death.
After the snow section, there was only a another few metres to climb, but this was where the narrowest and scariest drops so far were. After overcoming the snow I was ok, but Chris really struggled. Infact he had to crawl along the ridge behind Emily and myself, almost like some sort of pantomine burglar! We did finally reach the top, and the views were incredible. We were still a little too nervous to fully appreciate the views, but Emily got some great photos for us.
We also saw some Kea’s on the summit which are mountain parrot’s and actually quite pretty - they are green all over but then when they fly you can see that they are bright orange under their wings. They are also very tame and cheeky and come up really close - especially when there is a chance of a bit of banana!
We then had to descend the mountain, going an alternative and slightly easier route. After a bit of descending our fear began to diminish as the path became wider. The only problems we encountered on the way down were some very sore quads. It was quite an experience, and whilst it was not until a few glasses of wine in the evening that we began to get over our ordeal we are now feeling quite proud of what we did. We will never be mountain explorers, but it was incredible and is an experience we are unlikely to forget.
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