The Rakaia river cuts its way past Mount Hutt deep in inland Canterbury, after a late snowfall its a great place for a hike and some photos.

Rakaia Gorge is about 100km from Christchurch and sits at the foot of Mount Hutt, spanned by two single lane bridges with an island in the center.  Its an area I've driven through many times, and stopped briefly, but never really explored.

There's a 4 hour (ish) there and back hike on the banks of the Gorge from the bridges , as Christchurch was being drowned by rain I headed out to see what the walk was like.

Parking at the stop by the first bridge I head down to the river bank downstream of the bridges , after a chat to the bored jet boat pilot I borrow his jetty for a 3 shot HRD of the second bridge.

Then step back for a wider panoramic of both bridges (click pic).

And off I hike up past the first bridge onto the track proper. The track meanders along the bank with some small climbs that show Mt Hutt nicely framed with the river.

After that there's a 100m or so climb over some rough and slippery surfaces, giving an excellent view back over the two bridges:

About half an hour further I found a large open area completely covered in gorse, shame, but a nightmare to get rid of and fairly endemic:(

The end of the track seemed to loop round an outcrop and the track had become more a muddy animal path than a decent track, the sun was getting pretty harsh on the landscape by now and I managed one last shot, using the polarizer to full effect, otherwise this would have been all glare:

So after that I turned round headed back to the car park, collecting my shades on the way past (I'd noticed I'd dropped them and thought I knew where). Back at Bridge 1 I decide to take a shot on the bridge with Mt Hutt behind. Swing my pack off my shoulder and out , flying, comes my Sigma 10-20, landing hard onto the road. A chunk taken out of the mount cap and its stiff but seems to still be taking pictures. Will need a few more tests I think. After that its a quick walk to the car, put my bag in, then a swift walk back along the track for 15min to where I lost the camera.... I think I need a proper photog backpack.... and a minder...