The Path Less Travelled

Well I have just completed my first ever tramp with the Christchurch Tramping Club, and what a fantastic weekend it was! we began by meeting up at 7am on Saturday, pile the packs in the car and off to Mesopotamia Station it was, we arrived quite late (around the 11am mark), geared up and began walking. Within the first few minutes of walking we had we boots and freezing feet. The tramp was up Black Birch Stream and only took about 3-4 hours before we reached a large clearing and put up tents for the night. Since it was only just past 3pm a few of us decided to climb to the top of a mountain just behind the campsite (only a 700m vertical climb) but with an awesome shingle scree to run on the way down (which was a first, but honestly sooooo much fun!!!). I spent the night in my bivvy bag instead of one of the tents which was fine, except for the fact I punctured my sleeping mat and froze...there was ice on the outside of my sleeping bag! Anyway the next day started with frozen boots, porridge and a lot up jumping up and down to keep warm, but once under way we warmed up quick with a climb to nearly 1800 meters where we stopped and enjoyed the views, we continued on to Black Peak at over 2000 meters above sea level with plenty of snow to plow through. The day finished up back at the cars at just before 5pm (I think it was about 7hrs of incredibly hard slog with a laden pack). However this had to be one of the best weekends away in a long time, and a big thanks to Jim for allowing me on the trip, and also a big thanks to all the people from the CTC for being so inviting and friendly! Cheers guys!