​Greenstone Caples Duke of Ed Gold Tramp

In the second week of the Holidays the Duke of Ed Gold students endured the Greenstone Caple tramp located near Lake Wakatipu near the Greenstone Conservation area. The first day consisted of a 9km walk into the Greenstone Caples track from the carpark which took us around 2 hours to get to the Mid Caples Hut. On the second day we tramped our first intense day of tramping where we endured 22km through bush and grassy clearing this took us around 6 hours making many breaks when needed. We then arrived at the McKellar Hut after we zig zagged down the saddle to begin cooking our freeze-dry meals. The third day included an 18km venture that  took around 5 hours to complete, the scenery was incredible as we tramped over streams and an old landslide with bridges over the waterfalls and creeks which brings us to the Greenstone Hut. We were fortunate enough to have great weather all four days with the last day concluding in 12km to the Greenstone end and back to the van at the car park. Eight students attended the tramp practicing for the final tramp which we will completed in September. On the behalf of the students we would like to thank Mr Kotkamp our teacher and the parent helpers Lyndsay McGuigan, Craig McKinnel and Jane Clissold for coming on the tramp and helping us to complete our Duke of Ed Gold Hillary Award.
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Maggie Nicholson - Year 13