Mum had arranged a dog permit for us to go up Mt Fyffe just before lockdown… and it has been burning a proverbial hole in her pocket. She wanted to do an overnight trip last week, but then I hurt my back or leg. Anyway I was limping then - and now I’m recovered so the trip was back on.

Mum has been on Mt Fyffe twice before - once in snow so deep that she couldn’t get as far as the hut. But this was my first time. It was also a recce trip for our team.

Mum had been awfully busy the night before packing. Then the alarm went off at 4.30am. Something was definitely up! I’d been left at home for Mum’s last trip so I was quick to jump in the car.

Mum thought it was a two-hour drive to Kaihoura - but she had forgotten how far it was (note - there is a trip theme here) and it was a three hours drive. She wanted to start walking at sunrise - but we’d just arrived at the start of the Kaikoura coastline by sunrise. It was pretty though!

Instead of starting our walk at around 7 or 7.30am we only got on the trail at 8.20am - and the weather was a lot warmer than Mum had anticipated. We had a high of 12 degrees and she was in thermal hiking pants with no cooler spare pants (there were warmer spares of everything, though).

The route follows a 4x4 path and is pretty relentless and steep, especially the first 600m. Mum sort of remembered this - but felt it was harder than the previous two times she was sure that the benches were much further apart!

It’s supposed to take two hours to reach the hut. It took us about two-and-a-half hours including stops. Mum had been feeling unmotivated and had nearly turned back once or twice - but she decided that there was no reason not to make it to the hut. So we did.

She seemed to recover a bit when we got there. We met up with Lisa from Belgium and after filling my water bottle from the hut tank we set off uphill again, making fairly good time.

The snow level started shortly after the hut, and we walked up from around 1100m at the hut to 1500m. By 1500m Mum was struggling again (she blamed it on PMS, but wouldn’t elaborate further) and was feeling a bit naseuous. She had planned to have lunch at the hut, but we ended up continuing without a break. So Lisa left us to visit the summit and we stopped for lunch and a rest.

Although Mum was feeling a bit better after her rest she decided that the wisest thing to do would be to head back even though the summit was only another 100m up. It had already been a long day, and we still had to walk down and drive home as Mum had an interview the next day.

So we headed down, taking our time so that we could look out for Lisa on the way back. I had a great game of catch the pine cone in the snow on the way down to the hut.

Not long after we’d pased the hut on our descent Lisa came into view. She runs marathons and she was off again down the hill. We caught up to her a little later when she was chatting to a couple of hikers on their way up and we speed-walked down the rest of the way together.

Mum had a snack waiting for me at the car and she and Lisa shared a coffee and biscuits before it was time for the three-hour drive home. It might have been better if we followed Plan A which was an overnight tenting trip, but that got changed because of the interview and would also have meant Mum carrying a fair bit more gear.

The trip started at 200m and we got as far as 1500m - so it was a 1300m ascent in one day, and although that isn’t the highest I’ve been, given the low start it is probably my biggest elevation gain walk so far. Below are some of the photos.