Camp Lake, Kahurangi National Park

23-24 April 2023

A weekend trip was planned, but the weather forecast predicted a storm to go through on Friday night and clear around midday on Saturday. Not an auspicious start. All nine of us agreed to delay the trip for a day, and so, of course, Saturday dawned cloudless.

We spent Saturday night at Trilobite Hut, at the road end. Haunted by a gale prediction for Sunday night, we headed up the Cobb Valley early on a cloudless morning.

Just past Chaffey Hut we turned onto a steep and lightly marked trapline which led us up towards Mount Prospect. At the 1500m contour we sidled off-track round to the north, to enjoy lunch with a spectacular view towards Fenella Hut. Dropping down to and through the trees, we soon got to our planned campsite at Camp Lake.

The forecast gale was starting to develop by then, so after much searching for sheltered tent sites, we decided to carry on instead. We went further north, and picked up a lightly marked bush route leading down to the Tent Camp in the valley. The wind was howling over the Tent Camp, but it was nice and sheltered, and we had a delightfully cosy evening around the fire.

The rain had cleared by morning. It was still cool and blustery, but a lot better than overnight. A leisurely walk down the valley back to the cars gave us time to hunt for trilobites and to have ice creams on the way back to town. We were out for nine hours on Sunday and three hours on Monday.

Participants were Rob, Maria, Chris E, Jenny R, Chris H, Catherine, Kathy, Joy, and David S (scribe).