Another day of very few words — but this time many more pictures.
Why are there mountains? So that we can climb them of course. Today our objective was Avalanche Peak, which rises above Arthur’s Pass Village. I had been worried about this day, because I had read that, although the weather may be fine down in Christchurch on the Canterbury Plains, it can be ugly up at the summits of the Southern Alps. However, we were blessed with a warm sunny day with, unusually light winds at altitudes and so here we are setting out on this adventure.
Although the distance we were hoping to do today was not overwhelming, the trail ascended 3300 feet (and then, of course, descended!), making this more of a climb than a hike. Probably for variety, the guidebooks suggest going up on the Avalanche Peak trail and then down on Scott’s trail, which is less steep. However, we decided to make our day easier by taking the easier Scott’s trail both ways. From what people told us who were coming down with us after going up Avalanche Peak trail, this was the right decision. Unfortunately, although Scott’s trail was less steep than the alternative and well maintained, much of it still struck us as quite steep and more difficult becuase it was so rocky. Nina asked me to take this photograph to illustrate how difficult this was; but, in fact, we encountered many sections that were worse than this — and it was all more difficult coming down.
Lower on the mountain, we were mostly walking through hardwood forest.
This reminded me of one of the photographs that I took in the Hinewai Reserve.
Below is one of the natives that kept us company along the wooded part of the hike.
One element of alpine forests that I love is the variety of lichens and mosses. 
As we got higher, the trees disappeared, replaced by alpine meadow.
It is amazing how flowers at this altitude survive in any niche that they can find.
Up above the tree line we could see other, impressive, nearby peaks.
It was only after we had been above the tree line for an hour or so that we finally were able to see the approach to Avalanche Peak; it is along the ridge on the right side of the peak in this photo.
It was about here that Nina decided that she had had enough climbing for the day.
I went on about 15 minutes further, at which point I encountered this section of trail — loose rock with a steep drop on either side — and decided to turn back. My family knows well that I do not like to be near (or have others near steep) drop offs.
As we made our way down, we repeatedly got great views of this, Punchbowl Falls.