Woolshed Creek at Mount Somers is a very well know tramping hut in the south island of New Zealand, only an hour’s drive from Christchurch. I’ve been to this hut many times throughout my years as a scout and tramping on my own, however I had never gone in the winter months where snow usually does settle if you’re lucky as the hut sits at about 900m above sea level.
Our adventure started out as the usual tramp does, arriving at the car park and walking into the ominous bush. There was no snow in sight for the first half of the track and before we hit that point I was wondering if we may had been too late in the season to find any.
However as we continued, it became apparent there was more snow than we both initially expected.
We continued walking, to be greeted with a white landscape that stretched far into the distance.
Once we arrived to the hut, we took some time to take of packs, but it was a short time between arriving at the hut and us going out to explore this cold landscape.
We meet a lovely polish couple while in the hut, as well as a double date around our age who we had some good discussion with. However, our short escape from urban life was soon to come to an end, and we had to say goodbye them and the landscape the next day.
I definitely plan to escape back to Woolshed again in the near future, and at some point scale the summit in the winter once I invest in some crampons. If you ever visit the south island in winter, Woolshed is not a walk to miss.
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