The Paringa has to be one of the easier West Coast rivers to get up. Standing on the Paringa Bridge on SH6 no gorge sits between you and the mountains of the Hooker range. The farmland is even pretty tolerable! After a pleasant amble with overloaded packs, we spent the last few hours of Boxing Day at the Condons private hut, in the company of rats, mice and nudie playing cards (a real treasure I havent seen since 4^th form, 1993 at Rongotai College). The 27^th saw us heading further up the Paringa through beautiful forest that was enhanced by the light drizzle. Stopping for lunch at Tunnel Creek hut was a fatal mistake, though. The drizzle turned to rain and the thought of climbing 1000m through wet bush to a bivy rock was too much for some. We settled in with the fire and watched the infant Paringa rise and fall in time to the cloud bursts.

This flagrant display of laziness meant a lot of catching up the following day. We ground our way up the 1000m to the bivy rock, had some morning tea then put away another 1000 up tussock, scree, rock and snow to the ridge of Mt McCullaugh. Bruce had done this route before, which was good as the day had completely clagged in. For a while we followed some footsteps from another pair who had been staying at the bivy rock, but eventually they turned around and somehow made their way back past us without running into us, depsite us following their steps. Something about ships passing in the night came to mind. Anyway, with Bruces prior experience we found the incredible ledge that leads around the back of the McCullaugh ridge and then crosses back to the top of the McCullaugh glacier. We bombed down this on a compass bearing, noting some rather large slots that were mostly filled in. We made Bruce go in front to make us feel better. It was great to reach the tussock benches above Murdock creek where we pitched up feeling mightily stuffed. The next day took us past Marks Flat bivy rock, my second visit to that magnificent place, up onto the Solution Range for lunch and then down to the Landsborough. We couldn't get across it, despite trying in a few places, so we settled in with some OUTC people at Toe Toe flat. Had a day off with them, then went back up on to the Solution Range via a route we made up (and which was good) and made a fairly direct descent to Rough Creek in the Clark (wouldn't really recommend this!). Zeilian Creek was a neat place and Zeilian Pass got us back into the Moeraki, and from there only an easy walk and cheeky hut bag with an inevitable hitch to recover the car remained.

Quentin Duthie

Jo Hoare

Bruce Galloway

Richard Davies - scribe