We all met in Springfield and the vague plan is to drive towards the Lake Lyndon area and have some fun somewhere, because Porter’s Pass was closed we went via Glentunnel and Windwhistle

Some people have funny registrations on their car (IDKLOL)

I’m thoroughly enjoying the beautiful scenery, it’s been a while since I saw this area fully covered with snow

Adam’s Jimny, he runs the jimny.co.nz website and organised today

Normally I fly over these mountains

But it’s so awesome to be driving my Jimny here now

We’re having a little break

Mt Cotton

After our break we continue towards Lake Lyndon

Mt Hutt and Palmer Range in the distance

Adam returning from what turned out to be a dead-end

And off we go again

Someone didn’t take the corner the correct way and is now stuck

Adam with the help of the winch on his Jimny pulled the Jimny that was stuck out of the sludge

Off to the westernmost point of Lake Lyndon

What a day!

Torlesse Range in the distance

Foggy Peak and Castle Hill Peak on the Torlesse Range, Lake Lyndon in the foreground

Looking back

We’re at Lake Lyndon, Porter’s Pass is open now so there’s heaps of people visiting this winter wonderland

A few more group photos with all the participating Jimnys

Looking at Mt Hutt again, it was an interesting day, just way too short

Normally this part of the lake isn’t even there

Castle Hill car park, Torlesse Range behind it

I don’t know why but Kiwis seem to make everything worse year by year, they’ve cut down some awesome trees that used to be here and for some insane reason it’s now strictly no drones

At least the rocks are all still there

But today we’re not looking at the first part of Castle Rock, but at the other parts beyond that, most of which I had not visited before

Like this part, where those crazy Kiwis for some reason have put a fence around, I have no idea why, it didn’t use to be there but Kiwis love fences

Like this beautiful part which is now fenced off

Looks like a dog’s head to me

Cragieburns to our left

Prebble Hill, and it’s a good day for gliding!

On our way to Castle Hill summit, slowly getting there

Made it

The Craigies, normally I fly along those tops

I’m glad I finally visited this part of Castle Hill, it’s beautiful

Yep, me

More Craigies

And more rocks

Rocks everywhere

Makes me think about Tibet for some reason

Nice cumulus clouds!

Looks like a stranded submarine, climbers were up there just before, I could never do that

What a landscape

There’s hardly any wind today, it’s dead quiet here

Having a little break

Split Apple Rock, well, sort of, the ‘real’ one is in the Abel Tasman National Park of course (thanks Hugo)

That angled part must have been the sea floor at some stage I think

Just imagine how much water and time it must have taken to carve these shapes

Cirrus clouds, tomorrow might be not so nice as today

Yet another rock photo

Congratulations, you’ve made it to the last photo of this series!

This must be the 10th time I do this walk but it’s a good little walk to test my new daytrip backpack (verdict: it’s too small for me)

Quite a strong wind here and still heaps of snow, on the way back it had all disappeared

Foggy Peak on the far left

Craigieburn range in the distance

Rachel doing fine

Ben More on the far right, Rachel trying hard not to blend in

A bit of Lake Lyndon and the Craigieburn range in the distance

Torlesse range with Foggy Peak on the right. wave clouds starting to form in the sky and Rachel looking forward to reaching to summit

Yours truly

My ‘face mask’, I normally use it when paragliding but it’s very useful here too

What a landscape!

The summit!

We’ve reached it. Hurrah!

View towards the Black Hill range, landout strip for gliding in the middle of the photo

Trig M, Torlesse, Craigieburn range, Lake Lyndon and wave clouds all in 1 photo

This view makes the 5 hour return completely worth it

Wind is picking up now and wave clouds are forming more and more

Last photo in sunshine for the day, soon after this photo the sky had all turned grey

Map of the route we walked: the Coach Stream Route followed by the Trig M route to the top, and back again

Foggy Peak

Clear blue sky at Lake Lyndon itself

Cool sunset