Red Lakes

The tramp today went very well. The place we went to is called Red Lakes, which is on the way (or a slight detour from) the route to Coleridge Pass. We stumbled across it a couple of years ago and decided to go back again for a repeat.

We crossed some farmland to the first lake, and a couple of us jumped in for a quick swim. Refreshing that early in the morning. We then walked along the side of the first lake, and the side of the second lake (by wading and sometimes swimming) until we had got passed these two lakes. The alternative to wading would have been bush bashing along the side, which would have been more time consuming and painful.

The we crossed al low rocky saddle, and down into a narrow gully. The gully was full of native shrubs, so the going was slow, with plenty of scratches form the Matagouri and Bush Lawyer. I lost a small amount of blood, but others lost more. We then climbed up along the side of the gully, which was very rocky and bolder, the group split up a bit at this stage, with one group (including myself) taking a high road, and another group taking a lower road. We met up again at the end of the boulders, then continued to the end of the gully (with some more bush bashing).

There we had lunch below Coleridge Pass, with Mountains all around us. The afternoon was spent walking out again along farm tracks, and then off to the Hororata cafe for carrot cake and coffee. An excellent way to spend the day.