Camping in the Frost

A retrospective post.

Last Queen’s Birthday weekend (June 2016), James and I went camping in Arthur’s Pass. This holiday falls early in June and for some reason we thought it would be fun to sleep in a tent at the start of winter. We spent two nights sleeping in a tent when the temperature definitely went below 0^oC. The day in between  we spent walking up the valley. The original plan was to stay in a hut at the top of the valley. Unfortunately that had been damaged the year before and was still uninhabitable, and the next one was too far for the time we had. So a stroll up the valley it was, a lovely walk with great views and small amounts of wildlife as it was still quite cold and patchy snow on the forest floor.

The evening drew in fast once we got back to the campsite, we layered up and began prepping our meals. Boiling water took a long time in the cool June evening, but our meals were satisfactory enough, 10-year-old non-perishables weren’t the best tasting but it could have been worse. By the time we’d finish dinner and some sweets for dessert it was 7pm, pitch black and frost was already beginning to form on the grass, bed time it was!

12-13 hours later we awoke to another heavy frost, very well rested. It was a cold job packing the tent but manageable and we hooned out of there early morning. On the way back to Christchurch we stopped off at the popular Castle Hill spot where we took some photos and climbed over the rocks. A picnic with a view before sending James home on a plane. A long weekend well spent.