Leader: Jane Coulter

Cass Trip Report: Sonja Teague

Friday:
We arrived in the daylight to the many red buildings of Flock Hill. There was some lively chatting and I got to bed promptly for an early rise.
Saturday:
5am-ish a hardy bunch of ladies set out to get photos of the aurora from Cave stream car park. With trial, error and helpful suggestions I think everybody got a clear photo of something. Apparently the reddish glow in some of our photos was the aurora.
A carload of us then went to the ever changing Lake Pearson to catch the sunrise.
After breakfast I thought that with David driving somewhere I could get 40 winks. I suggested we go up the road past Lake Sarah as I had never been there and it follows the railway most of the way. Being the passenger and there were 15 gates to open and shut the quick nap didn't happen!
In the afternoon we all went to Narnia rocks. The steam proved more challenging than previous years. Though we all got through there were some great splashes and 99% of the cars made some sort of scraping noise.
The pot luck dinner and evening entertainment was a hoot. If you haven't been to one yet you are missing out.
Sunday:
Steam train photography.
We started at Cass, chased it to Arthurs Pass and back to Springfield. It took an eternity for the first sighting but interesting discussions with other NPS members and enthusiasts helped the hours tick by. Then it was quite exciting “leapfrogging” the train.
-- David has a new 4wd wagon and was determined to put it through the paces. Starting with idling in slow traffic going out of Christchurch, sedate cruising up to Flock Hill accommodation, nose, tummy and back end scraping through the river to Narnia Rocks, up and down awkward bits (where I was sent out to check if he could make it), slithering along on muddy tracks, rally driving from Cass to the next train stop, zooming past a few cars at a time down the straights to Springfield. To my relief the car passed all the tests although my complexion changed colour a few times.

Cass Mid Winter gallery.