Lake Mavis

Haven’t stretched my legs in quite a while – but that has been changing a little. Played squash (with Warick) for the first time in 4 years last week – loved it. (even if I lost!) ;)

Also, there’s the Taylors Mistake Rogaine Series happening again – very excited about that one too.

Anyways – this weekend it was off to Lake Mavis (Arthurs Pass) with Maaike, Berit and Amy. Here’s a map:

It’s part of the route that Shelly ran a couple of weeks ago during the Coast to Coast event.

So up the Mingha valley we walked, quite pretty beech forest and very very green!

There were some beautiful waterfalls (Kennedy’s)

And then we had to climb the 500m up to Lake Mavis. Basically about 4 minutes walk *before* you reach a well appointed hut – you turn your back on it and walk up hill for an hour and a half. Still – worth the effort we thought.

There were some purty alpine flowers out.

It was a pretty stunning place to park ones tent for the evening. We had to tie the guy ropes (sp?) around large rocks as the wind wasn’t the quietest it’s ever been. Still – beautiful light as the sun went down.

Not the deepest of nights sleep – as I kept feeling that the tent was about to be blown away (it wasn’t – and it probably wasn’t that terribly windy at all).. In the morning it was a bit foggy – which worked out quite nicely as it meant we didn’t fry in the sun on the way back again.

The decent back down from the lake was a little tricksy – well, you just had to find the right bit of scree to run down. Once we’d done that – it was plain sailing back to ChCh.

It was a lovely weekend – really great to get out and stretch the legs. Hopefully some more of that before heading to Europe – and then straight into the Snowboarding when we get back. Fun!