ZL3/CB-551 West Russell Range - 26 December 2019

Needing to blow the cobwebs out on Boxing Day, I headed to this one I have had my eye on for a while. It has a new DOC easement track (no bikes, dogs or hunting) through Ben More and Annavale stations, near Springfield.
The day dawned with low cloud but no wind so job was on! There are two car-parks, one for 2WD vehicles and for those with a (proper) 4WD, you can carry on and save yourself 30 minutes walk. I decided not to take Francie's nice new Suzuki along it, very deep ruts and lots of water-filled holes...

The track junction, turn left over the stile.

Steady climb but soon hit the low cloud!

Looking across the valley to Big Ben Range - it's there somewhere!

Looking back down towards North Canterbury

Nearly at the summit. This Link Track could be a good option to stay at Benmore Hut and attempt Big Ben the next day? And it was nowhere near 1.5 hours on to the SOTA summit (1211m vs Sugar Loaf at 1203m)

It's up there somewhere!

Made it. As this summit is not on the DOC easement track, I only popped up there for a photo and VHF contacts

The track wends it's way through the Activation Zone so after working the locals on 2m, I tied my 6m pole to a handy DOC waratah track marker and set up on HF. Pretty average conditions but I did work a few VKs including Allen VK3ARH S2S. Highlight of my day was having Ian ZL3GIG call me on 40m CW S2S - his second ever CW QSO, I suspect he is now hooked :-)
After an hour of operating the Easterly wind came up and was blowing the cloud around and cooling me down. I packed up, ate my lunch and headed down. Take walking poles on this one, the track is quite slippery with scree at times.

Wild pigs have been busy near the summit....

Getting there: 12km past Springfield look for the turnoff to Ben More Station. Turn left and drive down, across the bridge and turn right at the end of the road. There are reassuring DOC signs around. Drive to the car-park and off you go. Track is well marked with waratahs. Private property gates are also well marked!
Time: It's about a 2 hour climb (from the 2WD car-park), 7.24km and 681m height gain.
VHF - good to Christchurch, North Canterbury and Rakaia

Mt Lyndon ZL3/CB-460 14th December 2019

I'd admired Mt Lyndon whilst activating it's neighbours, Trig M CB-536 and the "Lyndon Lump" CB-570. When David ZL3DRN invited me to join him on the inaugural activation of this peak, I accepted eagerly. At 1489m it would be my highest peak yet so a good challenge.

Mt Lyndon seen from Trig M (June 2019)

We agreed to meet early (7am at Sheffield) to beat the forecast North Wester. We arrived at Lyndon Lodge soon after and were walking by 7:40am in calm conditions. Ascent was uneventful and we made good time to the summit, arriving about 9:15am - much earlier than anticipated. We had stopped just below the summit to put on jackets and beanies as there was quite a cold breeze...

We took the mandatory summit photos and admired the spectacular views before setting up.

Me on the summit with Lake Coleridge in the background. Peak Hill CB-542 behind the lake on the left of shot.

Panorama - amazing vistas right around

Looking across to Porter Heights ski-field - Mt Enys CB-152 on the right (with snow)

David is already planning my next big challenge - Castle Hill Peak CB-241

We tried to find a spot out of the cold Nor West wind but it was not possible. Gloves and another layer on and we had the pole set up with David's UNUNTenna and KX2 ready to go.
Let's qualify it on VHF first, it'll be easy... Patchy 4G coverage meant spotting was difficult and we were much earlier than alerted. Fortunately Geoff ZL3QR heard us and we were away, thanks to Geoff, Jim ZL3ND, Gavin ZL3GAV and Rick ZL3RIK. It was nice to hear Oliver ZL3OOC call us too.
By this time, we were feeling very cold despite all our gear - looks like I left it a bit late to put the extra layers on during our ascent and should have carried all my extra merino layers - lesson learned.
As we had the HF antenna set up and knowing John ZL1BYZ would be waiting, David called CQ on 40m SSB. Sure enough, there he was! David saw me struggling to write the contact in his logbook, my hands were shaking uncontrollably and he made the (correct) call to pack up and get moving. David measured the windchill at 3 degrees C from a 20kmh Nor Wester (they certainly aren't warm in the high country!)

We packed down, had a quick snack and set off - "feel like taking the valley route back?" he asks innocently. "There are scree slopes, they are great fun". Feeling better once moving, I agreed. It wasn't until we were committed that he casually mentioned there might be swamps and oh, a waterfall to negotiate too! David was determined to get my shiny new boots dirty!

Nearing the bottom of my very first scree descent - what a rush!!

This sure beats plodding down a track!

Waterfall- spectacular but required a bit of turpentine bush-bashing to skirt it

The scree "surfing" was amazing fun and of course as we got down further, the sun came out! Negotiating the waterfall was tricky and was soon followed by chest-high matagouri, swampy ground and even a bit of beech forest thrown in. A really good way to come down but definitely not for the solo activator - you need someone with you if coming down this way.

A great summit and definitely on my "annual list".

Where: Mt Lyndon via Lyndon Lodge end track
Permission: None needed, Korowai Torlesse Tussocklands Park
Time: 1 hour 40 minutes ascent with stops (1 hour 16 moving time)
Mobile: 4G at summit (Spark) but patchy
Repeaters: all Christchurch repeaters