With the weekend weather forecast clear, dry but some wind our group headed to North Canterbury to complete the Tarn Hut and Youngman Stream circuit.
We turned off the main road at Oxford and onto the Lees Valley Road. It always pays to check on the status of this road, as it is subject to frequent closures due to severe weather. We were fortunate that the road had reopened the day before after a late season snow dump. The road is gravel, winding and steep in places.
The vehicle access to the start of the walking track crosses private property, the entrance is marked by a Department of Conservation sign and is about 3km to the end and car parking area, if you don't have a high clearance vehicle it is easy enough to park on the side of the road and walk the 3km.
From the car parking area, the marked track follows a farm 4WD track beside the Ashley River until you reach the park boundary, where there are two ways to go, either straight up to Tarn Hut or follow the valley to Youngman Stream Hut. Our intention was to head straight to Tarn Hut for the night and out via Youngman Stream.
Once you cross in to the park boundary the track continues to follow the 4WD track, heading up a spur to point 1250m, it's a great climb and the views open up over the Puketeraki Range, Mt Oxford and Mt Richardson. After point 1250m the track levels off before one last climb around point 1334m, and from here the saddle with Tarn Hut and the tarn open up and we could see our destination for the night.
We were fortunate to arrive at the hut and have it all to ourselves, it has four bunks, wood burner, small table and stools, water is from the tarn and the long drop is about 50m up the hill behind the hut, the hut book records that this was installed in 2019.
There is ample room for tents behind the hut or just to the east below some tussocks. This would be the ideal camping spot as it is sheltered from the wind and at night has outstanding views of the Christchurch city lights and Port Hills.
The wind here was cool with some strong gusts so it was good to have the shelter of the hut where we could sit in the sunshine and view the tarn from the open hut door. There was still fresh snow on the ground around the hut, during the course of the day it had softened and was continually melting.
As the evening drew in, the lights from Christchurch city illuminated the sky from below with the reddening of the sunset in the west above, the temperature cooled and the wind began to pick up.
Next day the wind had become stronger with gusts ripping over the tarn and bending the nearby trees. Our plan was to head up Lilburn Hill and then drop down to Youngman Stream. As we climbed the hill the gusts increased with intensity and by the time we reached the top at 1405m to begin the descent both standing and walking was becoming more of a challenge.
There was a 200 metre section of track where as soon as I lifted my foot to take a step I got blown sideways about 5 to 10 metres, it seemed to take a long time to cross this section and get to an area that was slightly sheltered.
After what seemed like hours, we finally reached the relative shelter of the bushline, where the trees took the full force of the wind.
The track then descends steeply down to Youngman Stream where there is a lovely grassy sheltered area beside the river where we had lunch before crossing over to investigate Youngman Stream Hut.
Well rested we returned to the Youngman Stream track which begins by climbing high above a gorge section of the river before dropping back down and eventually rejoining the 4WD farm track, where we retraced our steps from the day before back to the car parking area.
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