Kieran Paton (scribe) & Manoel Matos

Having heard that the route up Manakau in the Seaward Kaikoura Range was a long one, getting away from our mid-level camp (1600m) on Surveyor Spur at the leisurely hour of 8.30am was perhaps not the most promising start. But then we had also heard that Manakau was known for its fearsome winds, whereas I had just spent the night at our exposed campsite on the ridge lying in my boxers in a silk liner, bivvy bag open and still too hot half the night with not a breath to be felt. So we had some cause for optimism...

The next section of spur had looked somewhat intimidating the night before - a steep, erosion scarred face of broken rock and scree leading up to a narrow ridge of more of the same, before opening out into the relief of wide open snow covered tops and basins. However, in the morning light with feather packs (at least relatively) we fairly scampered up it, relishing the odd piece of solid rock to scramble up and managing to successfully combat the walk-on-marbles feeling inspired by the rest of it. The narrow ridge onto the tops proper had an airy view on one side, but the other was less steep, allowing the cruxy knobby sections of rock that punctuated it to be sidled (or traversed) as desired. Shortly after we were up on the gently sloping tops and into the snow, terrain that reminded me of the Kawekas back home in Hawke's Bay - just a lot bigger.

Our decision making (and footsteps) see-sawed at this point, between cutting directly across a wide basin and climbing up to a prominent saddle on the main range, or continuing up the ridge and dropping down to it. We were also aware that time was marching on (10.30am), the summit still looked a heck of a long way off and the weather was supposed to close in that evening. So we continued on up the ridge, almost giving up on the idea of the summit, reckoning we'd be satisfied enough with a view out over the Clarence from the main range. However, getting to point 2210 on the spur, the route directly up to the main range looked rather steep, whereas the sidle down to the saddle we had originally aimed for looked quite easy - and the summit rather closer. A quick glissade down a snow gut and a short plod back up to the saddle proved this to be the case as we stood there admiring the view of Tappy and Mt Alarm across the valley and contemplating the gnarly looking 3km summit ridgeline. It was 11.30am and we were thinking we should turn round by 2pm at the latest - but the decision was made to go for it.

Travel along the ridge was initially fast and surprisingly easy. The high cloud cover that had been with us all day helped to keep us a little cool and was a contrast to the baking heat that had tormented us as we slogged up from the river to our campsite the afternoon before. The eerily calm conditions also prevailed except for a light breeze every so often when we turned a corner in the ridge. The rock scrambling was easy and fun with virtually no exposure and broken up by occasional snow plods as we quickly covered the 2 kilometres up past point 2392 and across broad shingle and snow to the small saddle at 2369m. From here a 150m climb in a narrow section of ridge looked quite intimidating, and for once proved to be as exciting as it looked! After some balancy work on a narrow rocky ridge, a short steep step was negotiated with the help of a handy ‘ladder' - a 2 foot wide vertical band of  fragmented red rock amidst the crumbly background that you could just climb on up. The views and drop offs were getting atmospheric by this stage, as we came across two more tricky sections: a sloping ledge with overhanging rock that was tricky with packs on, and a final little slab to get round the big gendarme on the ridge where a spur coming up from the Clarence joined it. Once here however, only a sloping snowy and corniced ridgeline separated us from the summit about 300m away. We plugged steps up in a welcome breeze, and wandered along the last stretch of flattish ridge to gain the 2608m summit at 10 minutes to 2 - perfect timing!

After a few failed attempts at trips lately it was definitely a nice feeling to attain one's goal. The views were amazing, with the Kaikoura peninsular and coast stretching out on one side, and the broad Clarence valley on the other, overlooked by the peaks of the inward range. The snow and rock of the seaward range stretched north along broken ridgelines towards the impressive looking Te ao Whekere. We were keen however to get moving and get the steep scary sections of the descent over with as soon as possible. So after drinking in the views with our eyes and cameras - my battery died conveniently, just after I'd taken half a dozen photos from the top - we plodded back down the snow and tackled the crux section. For me this proved strangely easier than the ascent - something I've been finding a bit with mountains lately, but the reverse of most of my previous experiences. I just down-climbed directly each of the steep sections, and somehow the exposure seemed a lot less and the whole thing less scary than on the way up. Manoel, with a bigger pack, opted out of some of these, but found short sidles on the Clarence side without much difficulty. The descent after this was very quick as we got down to the saddle, cut back across the big basin to the top of Surveyor Spur and scrambled back down to our campsite about 5.30pm. We packed up, had some lunch and headed off down to the river for some very much needed water (melting snow is such a pain) and spent a pleasant night enjoying the ambience of Barratt's Bivvy. The old hut book provided some fascinating accounts of the many epics that people had had trying to climb that mountain - my favourite was the unlikely case of Don French getting stuck in quicksand up to his waist coming up the river in the 90s and having to dig himself out with a snow shovel! After some light overnight drizzle, we got up and wandered out back down the river the next day just before the rain set in.

A most enjoyable trip, and very solid effort for Manoel's first visit to the South Island, especially given that one of his boots was held together by duct tape and string from midway through the first day...