Sunrise over Fantoms Peak. after our dash up the top of the ole hill , we cooked ip a storm , had a couple of sherberts , then slept like babies!! Its about 2 hours back to the car park from the hut. Great spot.

Syme hut , Mt Egmont ,. Taranaki , New Zealand.
This spot is situated on Fantoms Peak. A top hut allowing a quick route from here to the summit , in summer conditions.
We did the summit in 2 hours from here. @ hours up , and 40mins down !!

Arrival at the Blue Lake Hut , with Anso and Stephane our 2 French friends

The friendly locals !!!!

Pete and I having a break for lunch after completion of the decent from the upper Travers pass.

View from the Upper Travers Pass , down into the cloud cloaked Sabine valley. We spent 1 1/2 hours climbing to this point and what goes up , must go down!! So it was a knee busting scoria and rock decent into the valley.

Blue lake , Nelson Lake National Park , South Island , New Zealand!!!!


What a magic spot. It took 2 days of intense climbing though stunning NZ beech forest a climb over the Travers Pass and then up the Sabine valley until Pete (carpenter from Antarctica) and myself finally arrived here.)
A bit of history , Pete was in New Zealand for a wedding and wanted to hike the Routebourne track. Ive always wanted to do the Nelson Lakes , as they arent quite so well heard of , but 10 times more stunning in beauty.
We met up in Murchision then headed off into the National Park. Pete had read an artical of a route he wanted to attack so we followed that.

WE got here , FLOGGED !! its a heavy long climb with 20 odd kilos of gear in the backpack,including water and food for 5 days.
So a swim was in order . Unbeknown to us , this alpine lake is not only feed by a higher up lake , but also Spring feed. So COLD!!!!! it was a dive in , and a just as quick dive out !!Almost as cold as the mid winter Antarctic swim!!!