Mon February 4- Even though we could have spent more time on the North Island of NZ, we took the morning ferry from Wellington to Picton because we had big plans for the South Island! The seas were calm, but as we were making our way into foggy Picton we got our first kiwi rain. And rain it did... It practically poured the whole day! First thing we did was look for a tailor to fix Maurits' pants. Via the local laundromat we found Jill from Stitch 'n Time and she did a great job! :-) Thank you!! Next stop was the bus station to pick up Stella and all squeeze into our Nissan Tiida rental car. Stella is a friend of Laura Beth's; they both grew up in good old Lexington Mass, and Stella was on a 3 month trip in New Zealand! Always great to meet a friend in a far place and hang out! Since it was raining, we had an excellent excuse to relax in the local bar and see a little bit of the Super Bowl. While we shared our stories the lights in New Orleans went out, the 49'ers came back, but the Ravens still won. The rain stopped just long enough for the three of us to pitch our tent at the holiday park. We cooked dinner at the campsite and chatted the evening away.
Tue February 5- Day 1 Nelson Lakes - Mount Robert car park to Coldwater (2.5 hours)
During the night the wind and rain really picked up again, but during breakfast the rain stopped for real. It would actually be perfect weather for the next week... We said goodbye to Stella and dropped her off at the ferry terminal. She was going to spend her last week on the North Island. Too bad we could not do a hike with her! While Stella sailed across the Cook Srait, we drove on to the little town of Saint Arnaud in Nelson Lakes National Park. We went to the National Parks visitor-center and debated for over one hour about which walk we wanted to do. The ranger was patient and helpful-in the end we decided to do the 7 day, 80 km+, Travers-Sabine Circuit. Initially we had been thinking about doing a 4 day trek and spent some time in the Athur's Pass area as well, but in the end we thought: "if you decide to do one thing, then do it well!" We had to pick up some additional food at the little St Arnaud store, pack our bags and dry our soaked tent. We drove to the Mount Robert car park and with a rather heavy pack we set out at 5:45pm for a 2.5 hour forest walk to Coldwater Hut where we would pitch our tent for the night. Very nice and easy evening walk! We made dinner on the jetty at Coldwater Hut (which is on lake Rotoiti) and enjoyed the beautiful lake-view sunset.
A little note about the many backcountry huts in New Zealand. Besides the Great Walks, (more on that in a later blog post,) whenever there is a hiking-trail; there are inexpensive huts to stay in. These huts are basic: no reservations required, payment in an honesty-box, communal sleeping in bunks on plastic mattresses, a wood-heater, a dunny nearby, some tables, a kitchen area and a water source (tank-water and usually a lake or river nearby for when the tank is dry). You basically only need to bring a sleeping bag and a cooker. For a modest fee you can also camp nearby the huts and use the hut facilities for when it is raining or when the sandflies are too aggressive. We like to camp nearby the huts, this gives you access to the hut when needed, but the tent gives you a quiet night without the communal snoring. This is exactly what we did on the Travers-Sabine circuit.
Wed February 6- Day 2 Nelson Lakes - Coldwater to Upper Travers (8 hours)
Happy Waitangi - New Zealand's dependence on Britain - Day! We had a great night's sleep and accidentally slept in a little... not that it really matters, but with a big hiking day ahead it is wise to get an early start. By 9 we were on our 8 hour walking journey to Upper Travers hut. The whole day we walked through lovely beech forest besides the Travers River, making our way up the (you guessed it) Travers Valley. It was a beautiful day, lots of sun and it was nice to walk in the shade of the trees. Around 5 in the afternoon, at the end of quite a long day with a heavy backpack, we arrived at the hut which is beautifully situated at the far end of the tree line and has a great view of the valley below and the pass (Traver Saddle) above. After some searching we found a nice camp spot right on the river. Since it was not raining, the chance of a flash flood was negligible. On our way down to the campsite with our heavy packs, Maurits tripped and snapped his hiking pole in half!!! Soooo annoying!!! But calm as ever, Maurits threw some large rocks in the river to rid the surge of negative energy... After cooling off and having a wash in the freezing river water we were both ready for dinner. We made dinner in the hut and talked to a group that was hiking the 'Te Araroa.' The Araroa is a 3,000 km hike from the North of New Zealand to the far South. Very impressive and interesting to hear about their experience on this long distance trek.
Thu February 7- Day 3 Nelson Lakes - Upper Travers to West Sabine (6 hours)
We woke to a thick morning fog with no view. We were hoping the fog would lift, so we had a leisurely breakfast and took our time to get ready. Around 9 we got going and as we were making our way up the Travers Saddle the fog lifted! We had awesome views from the top of the pass! It turned into a 'leisurely' day, we enjoyed the views and took our time on the 1,000 meter decent to West Sabine hut. After we left the steep and slippery scree slopes behind us, we hiked through another beautiful beech-forest next to the Sabine River. We crossed a deep (but luckily bridged) chasm before we arrived at a nice flat campsite just before the hut. A beautiful spot right next to the river, but the sandflies were h o r r e n d o u s ! ! Sandflies are the most abundant wildlife in New Zealand. They are small little black flies that give you an itchy bite. Luckily they cannot see in the dark and go to bed after sunset... We quickly pitched the tent and sought refuge in the hut. We played Yahtzee with Marcus and Steffi from Germany (who would trek alongside us for 5 of the 6 nights on the circuit) and had dinner in the hut away from the sandflies.
Fri February 8- Day 4 Nelson Lakes - West Sabine to Blue Lake (3 hours)
Today we had an easy 3 hour walk to Blue Lake - a lake with the clearest known fresh water in the world! Apparently you can see about 80 meters through the water. Only the salt water around Easter Island is clearer. To get to our destination, we once again hiked alongside the river (upstream), through the forest, and the closer we got to Blue Lake the shorter the trees became. Blue Lake is right on the edge of the tree line at about 1,200 meters. When we started our trek, we planned for two nights at West Sabine and do a day-walk to Blue Lake. But as we were hearing about the 'niceness' of Blue Lake we decided to spend a night at the lake, which turned out to be an excellent decision! The weather followed the same scenario as yesterday; fog till about 10am and the rest of the day crystal clear! We got to the spectacular lake just before lunch - WOW! We found a camp-spot right on the lake where we pitched our tent and had lunch. One of the best camp-sites of our trip! After some food and relaxing around the blue lake, we went for a 2 hour afternoon walk up to Lake Constance. This short climb in the blaring afternoon sun was worth the effort because it afforded some spectacular views of the blue lake on the way. Lake Constance itself was very nice, but it lost the beauty competition with Blue Lake. Back at our campsite we tried to go for a swim and check out the 80 meter visibility, but the insanely cold water forced us to just have a quick splash. The sandflies were not too bad at our campsite and we were able to make dinner right on the lake. At dusk LB was quietly standing still taking picutres of the beautiful reflections on the lake when a small bird flew from across the lake and landed on her head- what a surprise! It then flew to some nearby rocks and Maurits got a picture of it...hehe. The hut was a short stroll from our camp and not visible from the lake. Since we were the only ones camping, it seemed we had the whole place to ourselves! Exactly how we like it :-) What a great day!!
Sat February 9- Day 5 Nelson Lakes - Blue Lake to Sabine (8 hours)
We have seen quite a few brilliant starry nights on our world-trip and this night was one of them - truly amazing! We got up at sunrise and for a welcome change it was quite cool packing up the tent and eating breakfast. Around 8am we set out on an 8 hour walk to Sabine hut. We had yet another day of great weather, unbelievable... It was hard to believe that about a month ago a massive flood wiped out quite a few bridges along the circuit... We first backtracked the 3 hours to the West Sabine Hut, where the East and West branch of the Sabine river come together. Then we followed the Sabine River downstream, through the forest, to the Sabine Hut at the far end of Lake Rotoroa. It was a pretty long and tiring day and we were rather happy to arrive at the hut. For a moment we thought of staying in the hut, there weren't any good campspots and there were a lot of wasps and sandflies. But then two 'rough & tough' kiwi-fishermen showed up, their boat had broken down, and they were going to spend the night in the same room as us. One look at their giant cooler filled with low quality beers made us decide to fight the wasps and pitch our tent more or less right on the walking trail. We had dinner on the jetty where the breeze kept the sandflies a little bit at bay. The lake water was quite warm, but the sight of huge eels kept us from swimming. After dinner, while our fishermen-friends were downing their beers, we played some more Yahtzee with Marcus and Steffi. Despite Maurits' childhood-Yahtzee-experience playing with his grandparents, the dice were not rolling his way...
Sun February 10- Day 6 Nelson Lakes - Sabine to Angelus (6 hours)
In general our sleeping bags were way too warm for summer in New Zealand (and Tasmania) and this night was no exception. Sooo hot... Luckily we had no problems with the wasps! Today we climbed up to Lake Angelus, 1,150 meters above Sabine. We followed the very steep Mount Cedric track, climbing 1,000 meters through the forest in about 2.5 kilometers. As we were making our way up the mountain we left the morning fog below us for another sunny and warm day. Once above the tree-line we had great views of the lake below and the mountains around. A beautiful ridge trail with great views to the left and right led us to Lake Angelus. We found a picture perfect camp spot in the 'freedom camping' area not far from the Angelus hut. We setup camp and had a brrrr swim in the nearby river. We checked out the nearby hut and to our surprise there were not that many people. Angelus is a popular hut and you have to reserve ahead during the summer months. Somehow this Sunday was not that popular... This meant that the hut-ranger did not care that we used the facilities in his hut. Since we were freedom camping, for free, we were not supposed to use the hut. The ranger was actually very friendly and loved talking to us about our travels. This was to our good fortune because by late afternoon we saw a small thunderstorm coming our way and it actually rained! Not for long though... It was actually a beautiful sight with the dark clouds rolling over the peaks! We had our last tasteless freeze-dried dinner (we were very done with them!) and walked back to the tent.
Mon February 11- Day 7 Nelson Lakes - Angelus to Mount Robert car park (6 hours)
A lovely cool and breezy night made us sleep very well! We woke up to an amazing sunrise with clouds below us in the valley. As we got going on the Robert Ridge Trail our expectation was for the clouds to disappear, but instead the clouds lifted and soon we were walking in a white-out. It was still a very nice walk along the mountain ridge; cool temperature with clouds coming and going. We ate our last lunch at the 'Relax Shelter' before making our way down to the car-park. Around 2pm we were back at the car after a wonderful trek! We gave Marcus and Steffi, who were bussing through New Zealand, a ride to the bus-stop in Murchison. Bussing in New Zealand is not great; city to city is no problem, but when you want to go hiking it is difficult and expensive to get to and from the trail... We said goodbye to them and continued on (in our car) to Greymouth where we found an interesting B&B. We had a welcome shower and a mediocre pizza and beer. After 5 nights of New Zealand 'Backcountry' freeze-dried dinners it certainly did the job.
Pretty good sunrise aye?
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