As we drove towards Kiakoura, the snow-capped mountains came in the view on the beautiful sunny blue sky day. Jordan has been on a mission to find a mountain to hike in search for snow, and immediately said ‘Hey that mountain looks climbable!’

We planned to hike the Kiakoura peninsula in search for seals, but when Jordan came out of the i-site (tourist bureau) with a huge grin on his face, I knew he had another plan for us. The travel counsellor told him Mount Fyffe, just in the distance, had a local hiking trail that reached the summit. Since the weather was perfect, we deferred our plans to meet the seals in a quest to find some mountain snow.
Mount Fyffe (to the left) 

The round trip journey was expected to take 8hrs, so considering we had a late start (10am) and were uncertain how our legs and knees would hold up having just finished the Abel Tasman, we packed our day packs with overnight gear should we need to stay in the hut along the trail.

As we made our way up the mountain, it was a constant uphill battled that lasted over 2 hours before we reached the hut for a lunch break. The views were spectacular as green fields and white beaches were on one side, with snow-capped mountains on the other.

Snow capped mountains on one side 
Beautiful ocean view on the other 

Once we had refueled, our quest for the summit began. Immediately we were trekking through snow covered trails over our boots, which slowed our ascent to the top. The higher we reached, the more the scenery changed from lush forest to barren cliffs with shrubs that clung to the mountain soil.

Trekking through some snow

As we reached the summit at 5300ft, a sense of accomplishment overcame us as we cheered and celebrated reaching our destination. As we sat at the top, for a few minutes, everything went quiet, the wind died down and it was a perfectly serene setting with a view that took your breath away.

Enjoying the view 

On to our decent, we sprinted down the snowy slopes making great time as we reached the mountain hut again. Continuing down the steep mountain our knees began to feel the burden as we descended down the rocky trail.

Making the long trip back down 

A long 7 hours later we reached the carpark and were happy to hear the bubbling brook beside the car. Stripping off our hiking boots our feet were relieved to feel the cool river water rushing over them. The river also proved to be an excellent means to chill our wine and cider that had been sitting in the car all day. After another delicious salad and hot soup, we toasted our Feijoa Cider (courtesy of Mary & Antony) to our summit up Mount Fyffe!

Our Cider chilling in the river 

Unfortunately though our quiet campsite at the bottom of Mount Fyffe was interrupted by a pick-up truck barreling through around midnight with a few guys hanging off the truck bed. A little spooked (as we couldn’t see where they went), we made a quick decision to pack up and drive to town to the safety of the local i-site parking lot. It was probably just some guys having fun on a Friday night, but considering it was a dead end road, known to have empty tourist cars, we felt it was better to be safe than sorry.

We ended up having to go back in the morning as Jordan forgot his ‘jandals’ (aka sandals) but we were able to catch a beautiful sunrise with a pink sky over the mountains. The road leading to Mount Fyffe was called ‘Postmans Road’ which was fitting (Jordan’s nickname in highschool was Posteman)


Check out Episode 13 – Mt Fyffe