We are lucky as shortly after we start a train passes by, which is nice because I don’t get to see those often anymore

The track soon diverges from the railway track and goes down here, there’a train bridge further on

The train bridge, every train going between Christchurch and the West Coast passes it

We however need to cross the Slovens Stream by foot, barefoot that is because walking through a stream with your boots on just sucks

The actual Avoca Homestead is across the Broken River and though the map mentions a ‘Derelict Bridge’ I didn’t expect it do be on the other side, meaning de facto there is NO bridge, big bummer!

Further downstream we noticed some people (Argentinians as it turned out) who were more determined than we were to reach the hut and walked through the very cold river, well done! We’ll wait for summer to do the same though

Somewhere along the Craigieburn Road, Torlesse Range in the background, I often fly there

At the Cavestream Loop Track, just to enjoy the view of the Torlesse before heading home

Great views of the Craigieburn Range

We’re nearly at the top

Made it! Torlesse Range in the background with Castle Hill Peak in the middle, that’s where I fly most often, Springfield is on the other side of the Torlesse Range

Purple Hill in the middle, Mt St Bernard just to the right of it, it’s the same mountain really

A while later (after a good rest, basking in the sun) you can see the Easterly (the clouds) pushing in through Porter’s Pass in the distance

Time to go back, here’s me descending Helicopter Hill

And Rachel

A map and height profile of today’s loop track (7.9 km)

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