Leader: Michele Cunningham

On a fine Saturday morning a group of four trampers gathered for a day trip up to Parachute Rocks above Lake Rotoiti in Nelson Lakes National Park. There were a few sandflies around as we parked near the lake and got ourselves organised. However, we soon walked them off. There were surprisingly few wasps, which was nice to see.

The group set off at a cracking pace leaving the ‘leader’ struggling to keep up.  The day started with a steady climb up through lovely bush on a zig-zag track which kept the gradient pretty manageable.

After a climb of about 700m we reached the bushline. It was only a short scramble to the Parachute Rocks themselves, perched high above the eastern side of the lake. It was a clear sunny day with only a light breeze at that stage, as we enjoyed morning tea with a stunning view.

We then scrambled up the next 300m (straight up this time, no zig-zagging) to get to the ridge.  Up here the light breeze had turned into a moderate and quite chilly wind, so jackets were donned. 

We didn’t have to go far along the ridge before we could get a panoramic view of Lake Rotoiti. It is slightly boomerang-shaped, with the ridge on this side being on the inside of the boomerang.

I have only ever been on the opposite (Robert Ridge) side before, where parts of the lake are always blocked from view, so this was quite a novelty, and definitely required “panorama’’ mode on the camera. We also bumped into a lone photographer with a large camera and tripod, busy taking photos of alpine plants.

A little further along, we found a nice lunch spot slightly off the main ridge, looking down into a basin. We then dropped off the other side of the ridge towards a trap line that Chris knew, as an alternative route back down.

After sitting just above the bushline soaking up the warm sun and the view, we headed back into the bush.

This time it was straight down, holding onto trees and following the trap line ribbons. For the most part the track wasn’t too hard to find, and before we knew it we had popped out on the main lakeside track and headed down to a pebbly beach where Steve jumped into a swim. Then it was a short jaunt along the lakeside back to the carpark where more swims were had to finish the day off in style. A very pleasant day all round.

Trampers were: Chris Louth, Steve McGlone, Bett Koch and Michele Cunningham (scribe).