Category Archives: Bushwalking

Short walks on East Coast of Tassie (21-25 June 2023)

Fly into Launceston. Beautiful day, if very cold, 2°C – car still covered in ice when we go to pick it up. Groceries then coffee & French vanilla slice in Campbell Town. Lunch in the very busy car park at Freycinet National Park. Hate to see what it’s like in summer!? Head up Mt Amos. Dire warnings at the trackhead – which for once actually seem legitimate. The granite would be a slippery death trap in the wet.

Lower slopes of Mt Amos

A steep section!

Almost up the steep stuff

Really fun walk up, overtaking a few people. Timed it well as a large group left the summit as we arrived. I leave off climbing a rounded boulder as not sure I could get off. Fabulous views but light a bit flat for the photographer. But still, it’s pretty speccy! And Tom made it! His hardest walk in 3 (?) months. My biggest climb since mid-April. Kicking goals all round.

Views from the top over Wineglass bay

Tom enjoying the scenery

A photo of the two of us (a rarity)

We spent a while up the top but with it being the Winter Solstice the sun was setting not long after 4:30pm… As we descended we came across a couple we’d overtaken not far from the start still on their way up. Think they’ll be pushing it get down in the light. The descent is unlikely to be faster than the ascent, if anything slower with a number of steep smooth granite faces to be carefully negotiated (for most it’s an on your bottom proposition).

Speccy sky as we start the descent

Not sure how much use the poles are when the rock is this steep

Views over Coles Bay

Safely back down we head for our airbnb. Some confusion with East v non-East streets but Coles Bay isn’t that big so it only delays us 5 minutes. Views of the Hazards out the window and a hot drink in hand – the most satisfying day we’ve had together in months.

A casual delicious dinner 2 minutes walk up the road, and then the only downer of the day – NSW getting thumped in the State of Origin.

We both sleep well and with sunrise not till 7:30am there seems no hurry to get moving. Back to the far less busy car park in the morning. This time to do the Hazards Beach – Wineglass Beach – Wineglass Lookout loop. A fairly overcast cool day kept our breaks fairly short.

Tom walking on Hazards Beach

Crossing the isthmus to between Hazards Beach & Wineglass Bay

Find a lunch spot on the rocks at Wineglass bay

Tom tuckered out from the ‘very hard’ walk up to the Wineglass Bay Lookout

Requisite happy snap of Wineglass Bay

The only whale sighting of the trip (it’s a bike rack)

Then a quick nip around the Cape Tourville Lighthouse track. Worth it for the views, not for the (modern) lighthouse.

Making it back into Coles Bay just as the rain started I was exceedingly disappointed to find the only open cafe’s coffee machine was on the blink.

The rain fell and fell. The forecast rainfall continued to increase.

Dinner for tonight was a short drive away. We were the only booked patrons for the evening – like having a restaurant exclusively booked out… In the end there was one other couple and as we were finishing up a group of 5 who were offered take away pasta as the kitchen was largely done. So hopefully the restaurant managed to break even for the night. And home in time to see the women win their SOO game.

Most of this rain fall on the second afternoon/night we were there

The rain didn’t let off and by 8am 90mm had fallen in 17 hours with more to come. No point leaving our accom before we had to. A visit to the patisserie in Bicheno was the obvious next stop since it was still pouring. We rescued a young woman from sitting outside by sharing our table. She was travelling from Austria and we had a good chat. The croissants were very good.

Then since it was still raining The Farm Shed for some wine tasting. 10 wines. No change to my view on Pinot Noir but I persist in trying. We came away with a bottle of that classic cool-climate varietal Tempranillo!

Bicheno Blowhole – hard to distinguish from the swell

The rain seemed to have pissed off so we checked out the blowhole then headed to St Helens. We wandered down to the waterfront admiring how still the water in Georges Bay was, particularly given the large swell all the way up the coast.

Very still waters of Georges Bay

After much agonising we ended up with somewhat healthy dinner supplies and headed back to our cosy airbnb. Reading, dinner, a GWQ (15/25), several rounds of Boggle. The first game the highest scoring 2 person game we’ve played (Tom 29, me 28).

Another great night’s sleep and sleep in. Eventually we got out into a surprisingly sunny day. Headed to Binalong Bay and walked from Skeleton Bay – Skeleton Point – Grants Point. We rock hopped a bit around Skeleton Point though Tom came a cropper and bashed up his left shin fairly impressively. Between Tom’s shin and a somewhat ‘meh’ feeling about the walk (it was fine… just not going to deliver anything we hadn’t already experienced) we decided to head back to the car a bit after Grants Point rather than continue to Dora Point.

Scrambling near Skeleton Point

Scrambling near Skeleton Point

Coffee on the deck at Meresta was speccy. Beautiful day. Headed out to The Gardens which were disappointing. A short track surrounded by houses, farmland and infrastructure and not really anything more scenic than we’d already experienced. Plus a chilly nor’easter made it quite cool. Instead we backtracked to Sloop Rock Lookout and found a spot out of the wind for lunch. No sign of any whales though.

Lunch at Sloop Rock Lookout

Since we didn’t have any other ideas for the day another coffee at Meresta would have been rude to bypass. Then back to accom, reading, wine/cheese before heading out to find dinner without a booking. No luck 1st try but ok on 2nd. I had what seemed like an entire cauliflower in my bowl of cauliflower bites to start which unfortunately spoilt my appetite for mains.

Walking Binalong Beach

Didn’t sleep that well and we’d planned a busy final day back to Launceston so were on a tight schedule. Got away later than hoped and it was grey rainy day. Our first objective Ralph Falls – we thought better of not long after attempting the road. Eventually finding somewhere to turn around we beat a retreat to St Columba Falls which were pumping impressively.

Tom with St Columba Falls behind him

Lovely fern section on the way to St Columba Falls

Then the Giant Tree circuit.

Largest girth tree in Tasmania

Largest girth tree in Tasmania

Rain made for less pleasant driving conditions for much of the day. I was relieved to get to Scottsdale for lunch at a cafe there. Continual rain meant a slow trip to the airport, and a bit of a rush to repack only to be delayed. Ah well. A reasonable 5 days for a trip organised less than a week in advance.

K2K post-bushfires (14-16 Apr 2023)

I have walked the Kanangra to Katoomba route three times previously – way back in 2007 as a 3 day trip, (& photos), in 2017 in 1 day and then in 2018 as a 2 day trip. I thought I had a complete set, but with the devastation caused by the bushfires in 2019 and subsequent regrowth changing the nature of the walk, I now have a new version.

When I saw Huw had put K2K in 3 days on the program for the weekend after Easter it seemed a way to make up for my lack of exercise over Easter. I was also keen to see what the scrub was like as it’s always hard to judge what other people’s scrub meters are set at.

I vividly remembered how destroyed I’d been at the end of the 2018 trip so I was counting every gram that went into my pack – probably resulting in my lightest overnight pack ever – 7.1km base weight (excl food and water).

The taxi arrived to drive us out to Kanangra. I was pretty nervous when the driver said he’d never been there and hoped we’d be able to give him directions. Muttering to Huw “does he realise we’re going out on a dirt road?”, Huw’s reply of “well, he’ll find out” didn’t instil a lot of confidence. When we eventually got to the Kanangra Walls turn-off the driver was about to pull over and drop us off! Huw, non-plussed, says “oh no, it’s another 20km along here”. To his credit the drive didn’t bat an eyelid as we hit the dirt – unfortunately the road isn’t in great condition currently and wasn’t helped by being very wet. However, we made it to the Walls car park with only a few hard pot hole hits and the driver was paid and on his way back to Katoomba.

The drive had been somewhat slower than expected so we didn’t start walking until just before 10am. Given the low cloud there wasn’t much point going to the lookout even though Jonas hadn’t been there before.

A somewhat gloomy, damp start to the trip

We were a bit surprised to head down the steps and find a radio blaring with nobody in sight. The workmen’s cars were the only other ones in the car park and one of them appeared a bit further along the track. A lyrebird further up the track provided a much more enjoyable soundtrack! The views also popped in and out as we wandered out to the plateau.

A few views trying to break through the cloud

The plateau is a lot more open than it used to be – the banksias which burnt haven’t rebounded and it feels like it would be harder to lose people at the moment.

The team climbing up to Brennan Top

Slippery Gordon Smith Pass

We had a late morning (only just) tea at the end of Crafts Walls around 11:45am. Then it was on, over all the familiar ups and downs. The descent into Gabes Gap was quite vegetated, though no problems finding the track. We had a late lunch on Mt High and Mighty – glad that the weather seemed to have cleared up. Unfortunately a new bout of rain swept through as we were going up the knolls so the raincoats came out again.

The track is still much the same out to Cloudmaker – just a bit greener on the sides

The track out to Cloudmaker had been much the same as pre-fires – a little more bushy in a few places – but clear and easy to follow – up until about 100m below the Cloudmaker summit. Things suddenly became very overgrown and I picked my way up a very vague pad to the summit. I then spent a good 5 minutes trying to get the logbook out of the container. I don’t think the container had previously been attached to the rocks – but now there is a metal spike holding it in place – so you can’t turn it over to shake the logbook out. Eventually I got it out, and the others still hadn’t arrived. I then heard Huw & Jonas off to the north. Frances arrived at the summit shortly after so I quickly put an entry in and we headed off to meet the others and find out way down to Dex Creek. I noted there had been a few parties heading out to do K2K in recent weeks so I was hoping they had left a bit of a track for us to follow!

Mount Cloudmaker

We navigated our way down to Dex Creek, on and off the track, without any great issues, arriving at 4:50pm. As I finished putting my tarp up it started raining. As we’d had light squalls going across most of the day I thought this would be the same. But no! It bucketed down for about 45 minutes. The forecast had been for any rain to clear up by late afternoon – and certainly nothing of this volume.

I knew the tarp I’d brought wasn’t seam sealed as Tom had had a miserable time in it in unseasonable rain in the NT last year – but I hadn’t bothered doing anything about it as I was not expecting rain at night. There wasn’t much I could do other than squeeze my wet hair out as the drips came down onto my head through the centre seam… Somewhat belatedly I realised I could collect the rain water off the tarp and make some soup. It wasn’t long before I had a cup of water in run-off and then some hot soup to warm me up.

Hiding from a downpour just after we got to camp

Eventually the rain stopped and we were able to get a fire going and dry out a bit. At one point a native bush rat wandered past knocking over Frances’ cup & spoon – but none of us had any issues with pesky creatures overnight.

Looking a bit drier the next morning

We were aiming for an early start the next morning as we knew it could be a very long day. We were away a bit later than planned at 7:30am. The first 500m out of Dex was clear and easy, but then things got very slow. With the downpour the night before the bush was saturated, so it didn’t take long pushing though 3-4m high regrowth for me also to be saturated.

We were navigating via a combination of map & compass (me & Jonas), memory/instinct from many, many trips on the route (Huw) and GPS/recent trace (Frances). I was completely confused about our direction, which Frances was saying was fine, so I was happy when we reached a small clearing and I could look at where we were on her phone. We had headed north directly after getting on to the ridge above Dex (rather than heading towards Carra Top then swinging). We didn’t find any evidence of a track here and it was very slow going. It was a nice break to reach the rocky outcrop prior to the saddle south of 953 where we could clamber up and get some views.

Relief to pop up and get some views before descending back into the 3m+ high vegetation

Then it was back into the scrub and over 953. We got some of the classic views that this section of ridge used to be so memorable for coming off the northern side of the 953 high point, just before the little scramble, heading into the saddle before Mount Moorilla Maloo.

Huw emerging from a scrubby section

Aah. Classic Kanangra views

Huw scrambling

It was relatively straight-forward walking from there to Mount Moorilla Maloo, but as we swung north-west we lost the pad we’d been on and were back in some pretty thick regrowth. After swinging north heading towards Mount Amarina we found a pad which made life easier. It still went through 3-4m high regrowth but we were perhaps going at 2km/hour rather than 1km/hour. When we found ourselves in a slightly rocky/open section around Mt Amarina we took the opportunity for morning tea. We had earned it after 2.5 hours covering 3km.

Francis heading off in one of the less (!) thick sections

We continued following the pad over Kullieatha Peak and then to the slopes of Mt Strongleg where it started traversing the slopes to the east. Jonas & I lost it, and I was inclined to just go on the main ridge but Huw reminded me that the trail had previously contoured around on the east, so we persisted. Meanwhile Frances was 20m below us and said she was on a pad. It wasn’t clear if what she was on continued so the rest of us headed up as we were getting stuck in mountain holly. Turns out we should have gone with Frances as she was able to follow the pad around to the main ridge without any issues. We picked up a pad coming off the Strongleg summit but it would have been faster for our party to have stayed low.

What vegetation awaits us on our descent from Mt Strongleg?

Fortunately the vegetation once we started descending the Strongleg ridge eased off. There was still regrowth (more podolobium & hardenbergia rather than eucalypt) but a lot lower and less dense. We followed a pad most of the way down. Unfortunately we lost the pad close to the bottom and briefly ended up tangled in passionfruit vine (not sure what it actually is but that’s what it looks like). I also hadn’t been following the compass as we we’d just been sticking to the pad, so we ended on bluffs above Kanangra Creek. Possibly if we’d been following the ridge line we’d have relocated the pad earlier – we found it for the 100m or so down to Kanangra Creek and a very well deserved lunch just before 2pm.

Views to the Coxs River

I was quick to hop in for a swim – and delighted to wash the hundreds of leaves that had fallen down my shirt off. Given the time it was a pretty easy decision to camp on the Coxs rather than push for Mobbs Swamp. This allowed us the luxury of an hour sprawled out, drying out tents and relaxing. We were accompanied through lunch by a large monitor that was moving around in the bush and cliffs around us the entire time we were there – I’ve never seen one quite so active – possibly agitated as we were sitting on his favourite sunning rock?

Beautiful lunchspot on Kanangra Creek

But we still had to get to the base of Yellow Pup, so a couple of crossings of Kanangra Creek and the Coxs River were needed. Both were flowing well, though we didn’t get more than just over (my) knee-deep. Huw said the whole area had changed, but my memory from 3 trips over 16 years wasn’t good enough to remember what it had been like before!

Junction of Kanangra Creek and Coxs River

Crossing the Coxs River

We found the start of the track up Yellow Pup and then set about finding places to camp. There wasn’t a lot of great camping spots, but we all found something. It was a pretty warm evening, quite the contrast to the night before. Despite my apprehension about the big day the next day I had to admit the Coxs has much nicer ambience than Mobbs Swamp.

Camp at Yellow Pup Point – not a lot of flat options

Evening festivities

We agreed on a 6:30am departure the next morning. Some people were ready earlier so set off as they were ready. I was ready at exactly 6:30am so that was when I left. The lower part of Yellow Dog didn’t seem to have burnt in the fires and was much the same as in the past (though maybe less used so a bit more vegetation hanging over the track). I caught up with Frances on the first long switchback, and then we found Huw not long after that. I waited for Jonas – the only one in the group not to have done this route before – to make sure he made the turns.

Views from part way up Yellow Dog Ridge

Jonas & I overtook the others again and made it to the top at 8am. Time for breakfast, or more importantly time for a cup of coffee!

Mount Yellow Dog & breakfast time!

We set off again around 8:45am. The track from Mt Yellow Dog through to Mobbs exists but is very overgrown. We took a bit longer than we would have in the past – having morning tea around 10:30am at Mobbs. I was quite surprised to see what the campsite at Mobbs now consists of. I’ve only camped there one before, back in 2007, and my memory was a large gloomy flat stretching a long way into the bush, with room for many, many tents. I didn’t poke my head off the track, but it seems now there’s just the one clearing, which is all a bit slopey and wouldn’t fit that many tents. I didn’t take a photo of it.

A short break at Medlow Gap

After a bit of pfaffing getting water at Mobbs Swamp we were off again. The track from Mobbs to Medlow Gap was pretty easy going in the scheme of things. Frances said last year it had been muddy the whole way, but fortunately it had dried out.

As we made the final major climb of the day up Mt Debert the weather closed in. There were clouds and light rain as far as you could see and the wind picked up considerably. I wasn’t looking forward to the walk along Narrow Neck full stop but it would be even worse in those conditions!

Huw & Jonas descending to Little Cedar Gap

The strong wind was good for something though – by the time we had made it to the base of Tarros Ladder the cloud had been largely swept away. We opted for lunch on the eastern side round the corner from the ladder as it was out of the wind and had reasonable views. It was also after 1pm and my stomach was rumbling.

Lunch out of the wind below Tarros Ladder

Frances had been muttering about being worried about going up Tarros, but I knew she’d done it so many times before I hadn’t taken her that seriously. But once she got on the ladders the verbal commentary and stress coming out her mouth was quite a surprise! We all made it up and took in the views (while trying not to get blown away) from the top.

Jonas bounding up Tarros Ladder

Huw & Frances ascending Tarros Ladder

Looking back at our route

Not that the ascent is over at the point, I hurried on wanting to get the day over with and also hoping to get out of the wind. The last time I’d done K2K we’d done the same distance on the second day and it had destroyed me. And this time, with the landslips on Narrow Neck closing the road to vehicles, we had an extra 3km to do. My feet weren’t in the best shape after 2.5 days of wet feet, but having aired them out at lunch I was hoping it would be enough to get me through.

If only the car was only 9.5km away…

The fire trail bash begins

The fire trail bash continues

Late afternoon views

I was still pleased to see the locked gate as it was a definitive marker of how far we’d come, but still 3km to go…

Once this was a blessed site, now it’s still 3km to go

That said we probably got to take in a few views that would have gone past in a blur previously.

Probably not a photo I would have taken before…

The lone car which had been out on Narrow Neck when the landslip occurred has been well and truly trashed.

A well and truly trashed car, stuck on Narrow Neck

Late afternoon views

The new access track

I think it’s a bit further than 42.5km!

I was at the top of the new access track at Narrow Neck Lookout just after 5pm – earlier than our 5:30pm estimate. Feeling a lot better than I did after the 2018 trip.

The lady who lived over the road from where we’d left our cars popped her head out to ask about our trip and then we were off back home. I never enjoy walking Narrow Neck but otherwise it was a reasonably enjoyable trip – particularly given what I was imagining it could have been! Excellent company and great to get out for 3 days after failing to utilise the Easter weekend.

Three Mates Bluff (11 Mar 2023)

This was advertised as “almost entirely off-track exploration” but was also “aiming for a mid-afternoon finish”. Well we definitely had an entirely off-track exploration, but we did not achieve a mid-afternoon finish. Being back at the cars about 5:15pm was hardly a late day but when you’re trying to get back for the Club’s annual reunion weekend it wasn’t ideal. It also wasn’t ideal that it was a 32°C day in mid-March. I’ve been so used to worrying about rain I didn’t really focus much on the temperature forecast leading into the trip.

Negotiating the dissected ridge on the way in

The first few hundred metres we picked up an old fire trail, and when that ended the going was initially quite good as the soil seemed too poor to support much regrowth. We got to an interesting section of dissected ridge which was slower but fun to negotiate and gave us some good views.

We “just” need to get past those two knolls…

More dissected ridge line

Once we got through the dissected ridge line we really slowed down getting out to the first knoll. It was scrubby, not the worst I’ve been in, just quite a lot of vines, which made it very slow. And somehow all up that the first 5km out to Three Mates Bluff took us 3 hours.

Views from Three Mates Bluff

Fortunately Tom and I had studied the slope maps the night before so were pretty confident we would be able to find a down to the river from the bluff. I’m not sure the rest of the party was so confident as Tom headed off to scout a route down. It wasn’t long before we got the call to follow him down. I do love a direct route and this one was a goody – though maybe a bit more exposure than I had advertised to the participants.

The start of direct descent to the river

Heading down

Tim scrambling

After we’d got through a series of scrambles Tom thought we’d just be able to walk down from there. But then we hit an interesting conglomerate cliff line, but I was able to find a way around it on the left and then the rest of the slope was straight-forward. By amazing coincidence at the same time we got to the river there were 4 kayakers managing their kayaks through the rapids. I did not take long to get in the water – it had been a hard morning’s work but at least we now had the ability to cool down and recharge with lunch.

We reach the Shoalhaven at the same time as these paddlers

After lunch we headed upstream, criss-crossing the river at rapids (picked out from the aerials) to avoid bluffs/scrubby sections. The section of the Shoalhaven we walked up had some very attractive cliffs, which was fortunate as they could distract us from the swathes of Cobblers Pegs we were walking through. My shorts resembled a carpet of them for most of the time we were walking the banks.

An early river crossing

Fourth (and last) river crossing

We had another much needed swim before ascending from the southern end of Apple Tree Flat to the Brooks Plateau Trail. We enjoyed some shade and views from a convenient cave just before getting to the very top.

Views from the shady cave just before topping out on Brooks Plateau

Tom enjoying the views

I think everyone was very happy to hit the Brooks Plateau fire trail and have 2.5km of easy walking to finish the day.

A much tougher trip than planned, and would have been more enjoyable if the temperature had 10°C dropped off it!

Everyone headed to the Club Reunion afterwards where we enjoyed another swim in the Kangaroo River before settling in for an enjoyable, social evening.

Little River (3 Mar 2023)

Admiring Aqua Pools early on

Tom looking pleased with himself

Reflections

Why hello there

Quite the structure

Beautiful Little River

Easy sand walking

Great lunch spot

Different approaches to staying dry

More water avoidance

Taking in views

Looking up Little River

Final stretch of fire trail walking

Ettrema (18-19 Feb 2023)

Ah the joys of putting walks on the club program 3 months in advance… and watching and waiting the weather forecast. I guess 36°C is better than a shedload of rain!? A mini-heatwave over NSW was due to peak on Saturday, with possible severe thunderstorms before a slightly cooler (mid-20s) Sunday. Fortunately our Saturday schedule involved lots of swimming opportunities so I wasn’t too worried about the heat – but Sunday would be a different story.

We had a leisurely 10am start (which just meant leaving home at 6am, rather than something starting with 5). Some largely vertical scrub welcomed us to the area but it didn’t pose too much difficulty and it wasn’t long before we were in the upper reaches of Myall Creek.

Tom taking an early dip on a very hot day

The team scrambling in Myall Creek

Jon’s hat was an early casualty – obscured somewhere in the depths of one of the pools he jumped into. In return the creek offered a couple of drink bottles which had presumably fallen out of previous travellers bags. Jon’s attempts to fashion a replacement head covering kept us amused through lunch.

Lunch in some (rapidly diminishing) shade

Scrambling in Myall Creek

Walking in Myall Creek

Lauren going for a slide

Enjoying another cool off at the Pool of Certain Death

Negotiating obstacles in the creek

Everyone waltzed across the exposed traverse with no concerns (and probably wondered why I’d made such a big deal about it in the pre-trip vetting). It seems less threatening from the top I think?

Belinda on the traverse above the Pool of Impending Doom

Kosta was the only one who braved the high jump, but plenty of lower jumps kept us cool. The hot wind blowing up the creek when we finally headed off reminded us of the heatwave conditions.

Kosta launches

Kosta on his way down

Tom jumps

Lauren simply runs off

Belinda jumps

Where did Jon come from?

Kosta jumps

No longer inhabited

Beautiful Ettrema Creek

The thunder started rumbling as we had (yet another) swim half way to camp. Only a few hundred metres out from camp the roar of (literal?) impending doom rushed towards us. It sounded like a wave of water, but in fact was an immensely strong rush of wind down the gorge. Fortunately we had the audible warning so we could brace ourselves, as it was strong enough to knock an unsuspecting person over.

Storm clouds start to brew

As we got to camp it started spitting so shelters were quickly erected and retreated into. Or not so quickly in the case of the tent which had arrived without its poles 🙁 I kept expecting it to blow through as these sort of storms generally do, but it persisted for a while. Eventually the rain eased off enough to come out and get a fire going. Then the rain returned. Eventually I called “happy hour” even though it was still drizzling. It was an excellent combination of contributions, even if the ‘rats’ may had made a serious dent in the chips while we were huddled in our tents. The storm eventually retreated for good and we had a pleasant evening around the campfire.

The next morning we were away just after 8am. While the forecast was a lot cooler than the previous day, it was still a lot warmer than I would have liked for the big climb we had up Transportation Spur. So the earlier we could get climbing the better.

Tom in Ettrema Creek

Beautiful scenery

We made good time on the rock-hopping down Ettrema Creek. After filling up water at Gallows Gully and having a pre-cooling swim at morning tea we started the climb. Well, we almost started the climb – I almost walked over a large red-bellied black snake so that waylaid us with photo-taking – but then we started the climb. Sadly in Belinda’s case without gloves as they had gone AWOL sometime between leaving camp in the morning and morning tea.

This one’s inhabited!

The initial rocky section of ridge was quite pleasant but it soon led to scrub. Fortunately someone had done a lot of hard work before us and we could use their tunnelling efforts. Unfortunately I lost their pad part way up so things got a bit tougher (for me at least) after that.

The start of the climb up Transportation Spur

Less clear further up Transportation Spur

We had a well-earned break on the first significant knoll where there were good views to enjoy while we recovered. The highlight of the break was Belinda finding her gloves in her pack… A proliferation of very keen march flies had me getting us moving again, as I was sick of being bitten on my legs.

Enjoying a well earned break part way up Transportation Spur

The next section was also scrubby but not as thick as what we had come through. It is interesting to observe the different vegetation bands as you go up the ridge.

Finally at the scramble up to Pardon Point!

Climbing up to Pardon Point

Narrow scramble

The wind somewhat kept the march flies at bay, but there were still voracious – biting through clothing and causing welts to form on some of our more sensitive bodies.

Peter and Lauren enjoying a lunch at Pardon Point

Jon enjoying the views

We’d been hoping the remainder of the walk across the tops wouldn’t be too scrubby. We did pick up a few rock bands to walk along, but also had a couple of quite slow sections in the headwaters of creeks. It was with great relief to almost everyone when we finally spilled out onto the road. The remaining couple of kilometres on the road passed in the a flash as our speed may have tripled!

Some clear walking on the tops

Glad to be back on the road!

We finished off a great weekend with dinner in Nowra before the long drive home.

The storm on Saturday night must have been very severe elsewhere as a number of party members had concerned messages from loved ones hoping we’d got through it ok!

Nelson to Christchurch (3-7 Jan 2023)

Nine glorious days of fine weather had to come to an end at some point. We thought it was at the end of the our 9-day trip, but the good weather still existed on the other side of Takaka Hill. In Nelson we had a glorious dinner by the river the night we finished, and then a lovely (if we ignore the sore feet) walk towards Tahuhanui.

Sunset in Nelson

A relaxed start the next morning had us meandering towards Murchison where we enjoyed “caesar salads” (with the non-traditional ingredients of cabbage, carrot, tomato..) – I didn’t care about the unusual ingredients I was just happy to be eating fresh vegetables! Post lunch we had a short stop at Maruia Falls, before our indulgent night of the trip at Maruia Hot Springs.

Maruia Falls- created by earthquake uplift

Unfortunately no one gave me the memo to bring my fly face net – it would have been perfect. Submerged in the outdoor hotpools it was just my face that the sandflies had access to. Next time it will be an essential item on the packing list – and to be honest, might be something worth throwing in for any NZ trip in summer.

Maruia Hot Springs

The weather was meant to be worst the two days we were in Arthur’s Pass. We tried to be ambivalent about it – after all we had just had the most amazing weather for the part of the trip where it was most important. Heavy rain warnings were in place for much of the North Island and parts of the northern South Island. While we weren’t under a warning there was still the potential for plenty of rain. On the bright side we were in a motel not a tent!

Lookout Keas about!

Those pesky keas

A guilty looking culprit

The rain set in not long after we arrived in Arthur’s Pass village. When it eased off a bit we took the chance to walk to the Devils Punchbowl (waterfall).

Devils Punchbowl

This was followed by an early dinner at the Wobbly Kea. Arthur’s Pass seemed to have the most pronounced staff shortages of anywhere we had been, leading to reduced menus/opening hours and at times poor customer service (not at the Wobbly Kea which was excellent despite its challenges). I understand the issues and have sympathy for the individual business owners, but it does make travelling a bit of a drag. How’s that for first world problems?

The next day we’d been hoping to do Avalanche Peak but with the conditions there was little point. Checking the MetService forecast in the morning we saw there was 38mm of rain forecast for Avalanche Peak for the afternoon, but only a few millimetres for the morning. Better get out and doing something in the morning then. Though then we checked some other forecasts which suggested the afternoon would be better than the morning. Who to believe? In the end we got going and had a relatively dry walk up the Arthur’s Pass Walking Track. At the top we even climbed a bit of a way up the Temple Basin track to get a view of a waterfall (when the clouds cleared enough).

Precipitation

Large daisy

Part way up the Temple Basin Track

We were somewhat bemused as we started seeing a string of people just starting out as we got nearer to the village on our way back – one commented “what a stunning day”. I guessed she’d driven from Christchurch which was still having good weather (but look out the next day). We looked very overdressed in our tramping rain jackets – which admittedly I did need to take off just before the end as I’d got too warm. A small part of me was wondering if we should have waited – but then about an hour after getting back to our motel it poured. And poured. And poured. So much so the smugness threatened to overwhelm our motel room. Eventually it eased off enough for us to run across the road for a coffee. And do a bit more wandering the small tracks around town. Once again glad I wasn’t in a tent.

The next morning we set out in wet conditions towards Christchurch. I had picked out a walk but it involved a 2000m+ peak which seemed a bit pointless/masochistic given the weather. I would have liked to give the Cave Stream Creek cave a go – but at 13°C it didn’t seem like the most sensible option for the day either. Instead we just checked out the inlet and outlet – next time.

Cave Stream Creek exit (creek entrance)

Funky scenery

We also stopped at Castle Hill and did the tourist walk there – the rock formations were great. Eventually we found ourselves at the Botanic Gardens in Christchurch – where randomly we bumped into 2 people we’d met at Fenella Hut on 1st Jan. And there endeth the holiday.

Douglas Range Traverse (Dragons Teeth “High route”) 26 Dec 2022 – 3 Jan 2023 (Days 7-9)

Continued from days 4 – 6

Day 7: Lonely Lake Hut to Fenella Hut

As seemed to be the case almost every day on this trip we started the day with a stiff climb. I was surprised how quickly we exited from the bush and started getting views. The weather was amazing and I was thrilled we had been able to sit out the previous day – I couldn’t help but think of the 9 others who’d left Lonely Lake yesterday who probably didn’t get any views.

Once we left the bush line we followed dramatic ridge after dramatic ridge. Views in every direction! Valley cloud – Tom’s favourite! So many photo stops.

Valley of cloud – can you spot the Brocken Spectre?

Approaching Lonely Lake from the north we didn’t get a view of it until we were almost in it. Whereas if you approach from the south you have many views from quite a way out.

Looking back – Lonely Lake the hanging Lake on the mid-right, Dragons Teeth prominent back left

There were some less than pleasant sections. In particular going over spot height 1610 – this was our first encounter with Golden Spaniard (aka speargrass) for the trip. Up until then I’d been pretty comfortable grabbing hold of whatever vegetation was in front of me when I felt the need. No longer. Some particularly pathetic yelps came out my mouth as I managed to get Golden Spaniard spikes into the scrapes on my knees from the previous days.

All in all this was a magnificent day of walking – but not a good one to do in bad weather. There was still enormous exposure in some sections – and at times I was a bit uncomfortable, I do like having three points of contact and when you’re just walking on a narrow ridge top you only have two!

Climbing the slopes of Kakapo Peak

Traversing the screen slope below Kakapo Peak

A new view! (towards the Cobb Valley)

I saw a few of these through the trip

The closer we got to civilisation (Fenella Hut) the more elaborate the cairns became. Then we started bumping into people. Aagh!

Someone went to a lot of effort with that cairn

The sidle around Waingaro Peak was surprisingly taxing – maybe we’d mentally switched off by that point thinking we were almost done.

Sidling around Waingaro Peak

Fenella Hut

I got more sandfly bites in the first 10 minutes at Fenella Hut than I had in the rest of the trip. We soon retreated inside to escape. Then we walked the “2 furlongs” (400m) to the swimming hole. The write-ups had made a big deal of the swimming hole and with good reason. A tarn perched on the ridge-top with easy access on rock in and out, deep & long enough to swim laps in it. Amazing.

The amazing swimming pool (tarn) near Fenella Hut

Tom with Xenicus Peak behind him

We had been a bit concerned about how busy Fenella Hut was going to be. There had been 12 people there the night before. Neither of us sleep very well in huts with other people, maybe we’d get used to it if we did it more? So even though there only ended up being 6 others we decided to set up the tent. It ended up being a good call as we both had the best night’s sleep we’d had on the trip.

That didn’t stop us socialising with the very chatty group that were in the hut. Three of them had come down from Auckland specifically to spend New Years Eve with Nelson-based friends. One problem – the local friends had not been at the trailhead when they arrived and had not turned up in the 3 days they’d been staying there. We got introduced to the blocks of cheese – Zoe and Zac – named after the missing friends. There was a fire sale that night on all the spare food which had been carried in for them.

Day 8: Fenella Hut – Mt Gibbs – Round Lake – Cobb Lake – Cobb Hut – Fenella Hut (day walk)

Since we still had an extra day up our sleeve (thanks to the amazing weather) we opted for a second night in the vicinity of Fenella Hut.

We had talked about getting up early to do a day walk – mainly to try and get some of the walking done in the early morning before the sun got too intense. But when I looked out the tent there was low cloud so there didn’t seem to be any hurry. Eventually we got up and it looked like the cloud was going to clear so we got going.

I was expecting to feel like I was bouncing up the hills with only a day pack. Sadly that was not the case. The 500m ascent to the Mt Gibbs ridge was just as hard as any other climb we’d done (if not worse).

Views down the Cobb Valley – our exit route the next day

Tom a mere speck on the ridge connecting Xenicus Peak and Mt Gibbs

It turned into another stunning day, and we enjoyed our two morning teas. One overlooking Xenicus Peak from the end of the rocky ridge before the saddle, and the other after summitting Mt Gibbs, overlooking Island Lake.

Contemplating what we walked over the previous 7 days

Views over Island Lake

By comparison our lunch spot at Round Lake was a bit boring.

Descending to Round Lake

We’d considered moving into the hut for our second night to avoid having a wet tent to pack up in the morning. However as more and more people arrived that didn’t happen. The second night had 11 or 12 in the hut, and 5 (including us) camping. One group of 5 had come over the high route like us and we enjoyed debriefing the trip with them. Another adventurous couple were on day 10 of a 15 day circuit around Kahurangi and they were now needing to rush the Douglas Traverse (low route) to try and beat an incoming severe weather system later in the week.

Day 9: Fenella Hut to Trilobite Hut (road end)

Even though our pick up wasn’t scheduled until 1:30pm we decided get away early-ish so we weren’t under any time pressure on the walk out.

The historic Tent Camp on the walk out

The first couple of hours were dry but eventually, in a first for me on the trip, we had to put our raincoats on. It was pretty incredible that for a 9 day trip that was the only time I used my raincoat. There had been rain on a couple of occasions earlier but it was either overnight or on our rest day.

Hmm, do we need to get the raincoats out?

Since we seemed to be making good time we did have our customary two morning tea stops. At the first one a robin came to visit. It was very bold and eventually started pecking Tom’s pack!

Robin intent on pecking Tom’s pack to bits

Even with our two breaks it only took 4 hours to walk out which meant we had ages to wait for our pick-up. The group of 5 that we’d enjoyed chatting with the previous night arrived and hung around for a while so that helped pass the time. And it turned out there were 2 others also waiting for the same shuttle. They were an interesting couple based in Westport who had a lot of local tramping knowledge.

The Cobb Valley trailhead (Trilobite Hut)

Bang on 1:30pm our shuttle arrived dropping off 2 people and collecting 4 of us. As we chatted on the way back it transpired the two people who had been dropped off were the infamous Zoe and Zac – they had made it just a day after their friends had left!

A few hours later we were back in Nelson well satisfied with an amazing trip.

Douglas Range Traverse (Dragons Teeth “High route”) 26 Dec 2022 – 3 Jan 2023 (Days 4-6)

continued from Days 1-3

Day 4: Adelaide Tarn Hut to Anatoki Peak tarns

The crux day had arrived. It dawned clear and I tried to prod Tom into action at 5am (first light). He was unimpressed and refused to move until 5:30am. We were away by 7:25am in clear but breezy (cold) conditions.

Dawn at Adelaide Tarn, with Mt Olympus just in the sun

Climbing to the saddle above Adelaide Tarn

On the map we had approximately 2 kilometres to cover for the day. Time estimates from JC were between 5 to 9 hours. The second half of the route had the potential to be the slowest per km rate we’d ever covered.

Almost immediately we were over thinking the route – not far below the saddle there is a steep descent down a chute – a bit of faffing about before realising it was easy (or would have been without a pack) and more importantly the way to go.

we just need to get around those peaks…

The first section is relatively straight-forward, sidling below Mt Douglas and then following forested sections along the main ridge towards the Dragons Teeth.

On to the main ridge below Mt Douglas

Easy walking in the forested ridge

Then it was a matter of staying on course as we meandered up and down and around various open sections, bushy sections, exposed sections. The cool day quickly warmed up with not a cloud to be seen. As we were traversing the eastern side of the range we were getting the full sun – amazing conditions but almost too nice.

Crossing the first slab

As we started descending along side a cliff line we came to what seemed to be a relatively recent slip*. I was over the shale slip before Tom got there – it was fairly sketchy. Rather than him come across if it wasn’t the right way and both of us have to reverse it I kept going to see if it seemed right. It was well trodden under foot but no cairns or markers.

It kept going a fair way so Tom came across, and we kept heading down. As I started climbing down a vegetated bank (well-trodden but probably not likely to last that long due to the erosion) Tom had a look at the GPS which had an OpenStreetMaps route loaded on it. It suggested we were off the route by 30-odd metres. So he headed back up. Just below the slip there was a ribbon on a tree which we’d missed. So he came back and we went back up with our packs. Climbing up at the ribbon I then found a tin lid on a tree on the ledge we were now on.

Some way below a relatively new dodgy slip – we initially missed the route climbing up to the right after it

So in theory back on track. But that ledge got skinnier and skinnier and I wasn’t overly game to edge out and see what happened. But there didn’t seem to be any other options. In the end I climbed up a vertical bank of vegetation (not a regularly-used option!) and got onto the spur. Tom did a similar but slightly less scratchy route. According to the GPS we were in the vicinity of the route.

We forged our own route up a wall of vegetation to get over this spur

From the spur we had a good view of what was coming up. Consulting JC’s notes we couldn’t really make that much sense of what we could see in front of us based on his description. Nevertheless we followed them and found ourselves back with some markers going into the bush.

Back on the “route” heading over another set of slabs

The route then traversed some narrow ledges, with quite a few climb-ups using trees as we made our way around the base of one of the long buttresses. The route was somewhat airy – there was just a line of vegetation between you and a significant drop.

The route alternated between being surrounded by bush and more open sections

The orange tags were a welcome site as they confirmed we were where we were meant to be (we hoped!)

Tom on one of numerous exposed climbs

Looking back to the saddle (far left of the photo) where we started from. Tom a speck down the slope

Eventually we popped out onto an open snow grass section. At which point Tom realised that we had not come anywhere near as far as we thought we had – which is why the notes hadn’t matched what we could see. We were now where we had thought we were an hour (or more?) earlier. The notes made a bit more sense now!

We had continued to be baked as we traversed the east-facing slopes and having had a fair bit of sun over the previous 3 days we agreed lunch needed to happen in the forest. This was a shame as there were some really great spots to stop, but none of them had any shade.

We found a reasonable spot in the forest for lunch before arriving at JC’s “open shale area”. It was fairly evident where to turn off, so maybe several years of his notes being available have helped with the route finding in this section. That said soon after as we exited from a rocky gully the pad appeared to vanish. There was clearly an orange tag indicating to go into the bush but then not much evidence on the ground. After a bunch of pushing through vegetation (and undoubtedly confusing things for future parties) Tom found some orange markers. Thank goodness – this route is fairly committing and having come this far the thought of reversing it to go the low route was almost unthinkable.

Tree trying to swallow a marker

After some easy bush travel we hit the final “very steep climb”. This was around 150-200m of many 2-3m climbs, normally needing to haul on at least one tree if not two. Without the vegetation the route would be perilous – fortunately the vegetation, for the moment, is solid.

Near the base of the final 150-odd metres of scrambling ascent to get onto Anatoki Ridge

Looking down from where you “top out” from the vertical stuff

There was a palpable sense of relief when we finally topped out. I think Tom’s first words were “Well, that was terrifying”. My response was “I have no desire to do that route ever again”.

Somehow we came around that spur immediately behind Tom!

We tried to put our finger on why we felt like we’d underestimated the route. It was within our capabilities but we hadn’t enjoyed significant sections of it. It was way more airy, and the climbing was pretty sustained in sections. None of the moves by themselves were overly difficult – we did all the moves with our (still quite heavy) packs on. But the need to haul on vegetation over and over again with very large drops below you was mentally taxing. The warmth/time in sun also didn’t help general fatigue.

We’d had a big drink before we’d left camp in the morning, and then sculled another litre at one of the streams we’d crossed, in addition to carrying 2 litres of water each. Tom ran out of water just after we topped out, and I finished mine just as we got to one of the tarns below Anatoki Peak. Some comments I’d seen made me wonder if there was more water than usual when we did it – we crossed several running streams and there were lots of tarns below Anatoki Peak – so finding water wasn’t an issue for us – but I don’t know if some of those dry up at times?

If you’re going to attempt this route, every party member needs to be a confident scrambler with pack on, and fine with exposure. Pack-hauling would be quite sketchy/difficult. You do not want to get part way through the route and find you need to turn around.

One of the groups we met later in the trip told us of a solo walker who was behind them in this section. A helicopter appeared and went straight to a spot on the route so they assumed the walker had called for help/set off a PLB. Others we met later on had heard that the walker had got stuck with no way to go forward but couldn’t reverse.

Tom on Anatoki Ridge, with the Dragons Teeth behind him

JC said the tarns (with great campsite) were at the top of the K on the word “peak” on the map. Once we had a drink at one of the low tarns I didn’t have any desire to spend any longer than necessary finding a campsite. So I asked Tom where this “K” spot was in relation to where we were. At that point Tom realised he didn’t have the GPS on a NZ Datum, and so despite having map and GPS, it required him digging into his pack and fiddling with his phone for a while to come up with an answer. Both of our feet were suffering by then as our socks and boots hadn’t dried out from the day before. Oh to get to camp and get them off!

Tom trying to work out where “k” on “Peak” on the map correlates to on the ground

We had made it in around 9 hours (including 2 morning teas, lunch, and a water sculling stop and of course much photo taking). We didn’t feel like we’d wasted much time route-finding other then just below the shale slip. Travelling with heavy packs definitely slows you down – hats off to JC’s group who did in 6.5 hours presumably with similar-sized packs.

We didn’t discover the “great campsite”. I climbed a ways further up, and there were so many tarns, but I couldn’t see anything obvious from a camping perspective. Maybe our expectations were too high.

We continued to be baked for a few hours as with the way the rock slopes there wasn’t really any shade – and the sun doesn’t set until 9pm! Ah some relief when the sun went below Anatoki Peak!

I rejected Tom’s tent site selection, and convinced him to set up near a photogenic tarn. Being wedged between two rocks made pitching the guy lines a bit tricky. It didn’t seem to matter too much at the time as there wasn’t much wind…

Our campsite below Anatoki Peak

However the wind swung around and picked up by the time we went to bed. So it was blowing directly into the big end of the tent. We had a somewhat disturbed night as the front pegs got completely blown out a couple of times. Fortunately we managed to locate the pegs each time! When it happened again at 5am I suggested we just call it quits and pack up.

Day 5: Anatoki Peak tarns to Lonely Lake Hut

Camp spot chosen for photo potential rather than protection from wind

We picked up the cairns near our campsite and easily followed them along the eastern slopes (more baking in the sun to come!). JC made mention of a difficult bit, though easier than anything we’d done the previous day. By comparison the sidle on a narrow ledge was very straight-forward!

1 of 2 slightly sketchy sections between Anatoki Peak and the Drunken Sailors

I got us slightly off-track thinking I’d seen a cairn well above us when in fact it was a goat standing in a saddle. But besides that the only spot where we had any issues with the route was the second slightly sketchy section for the day. This was climbing up the slopes of 1564 and needing to traverse around to the saddle below the twin peaks.

I had seen a cairn from a distance but then once we got in below the bluffs I couldn’t see it and there were multiple pads on the ground. The more obvious route along a narrow ledge was difficult to get on to. Eventually we came back to it having exhausted other options and I realised there was an easy(-ish) place further along to get on, and from there it was no worse than, say the ledge traverse in Myall Creek in Morton NP. There was a second section of narrow traversing around the corner which then took us to the cairn I’d seen some time ago climbing up.

The second slightly sketchy section (cairn in left foreground)

JC had suggested the twin summits worth climbing were at 1564. After morning tea we ascended the twin summits – one each!

Tom on one of the twin peaks at spot height 1564

We continued sidling and eventually we were in the saddle below the Drunken Sailors. I guess at that point we could say the High Route was complete, as that is where you would re-meet the route if you did the low version.

Tom with the Drunken Sailors in the background

Vegetable sheep

I was (as always) keen to push on to the hut – as it felt like it should be just around the corner. Tom wanted to do yet more foot surgery. But once I realised the hut was a lot further away and I found some shade (a rare commodity) we stopped for lunch. It probably illustrated how little shade the previous 4.5 days had offered that we were so happy to be able to enjoy lunch without worrying about getting burnt. The spot was absolute bliss, next to a delightful running creek.

Lunch in the shade!!!

Eventually we tore ourselves away from the shade and continued down towards Lonely Lake Hut. It took a long time for us to get a view of the lake, but I loved following the creek down beside numerous cascades. The hut itself is set well away from the lake on the bush edge. It is a great spot with views, a picnic table, and to our immense relief a flat, sheltered tent spot. There are other camping options nearer the lake but after our windy night we were just happy to have somewhere we would get a peaceful night’s sleep!

There were already 3 people at the hut when we arrived – having walked in from Fenella Hut that morning. They highly recommended a swim so we didn’t waste much time heading down to the lake. I was excited to find a nice pool below the outlet.

A beaut swimming hole below the outlet of Lonely Lake

We quizzed the others on the weather forecast and they suggested it was supposed to be reasonable until at least the 3rd or 4th. This was excellent news as it meant we could spend 2 nights at Lonely Lake. We were both ready for a rest day.

As we were all settling into dinner another 2 people arrived. George and Holly put our efforts to absolute shame. They had left Adelaide Tarn around 9am, and come the whole way, including climbing one of the Teeth, and got in at 6pm. Though they were carrying packs that looked far more like day packs!

They said there was another group of 4 also on their way – this group arrived some time later looking much more like what we would’ve done if we’d tried to combine the two days. They headed down to the lake to camp so we didn’t chat much to them. But between the original 3 and George and Holly we had a very convivial evening out at the picnic table, even though the mist had turned quite wet. The damp was what eventually sent us to bed.

The very cute Lonely Lake Hut

Our sheltered, flat campsite next to the hut

Day 6: Lonely Lake Hut (rest day)

Knowing we didn’t need to go anywhere was amazing. So amazing that we slept in till almost 9:30am – that’s 12 hours in bed. The mist/mizzle from the night before had just got denser overnight. There was little to be seen and the other groups left it late to depart in the hope that the cloud would lift. As it was they all set off in less than stellar conditions, and by 10am we had the hut to ourselves which meant a nice dry (very late) breakfast. We had intended to climb the Drunken Sailors but as we remained in the cloud for almost the entire day I wasn’t unhappy that there didn’t seem to be much point!

No views for most of our rest day

Between reading the hut log books going all the way back to 1973, doing a quiz, screwing up a sudoku and almost finishing a cryptic crossword, the day passed rather quickly. A group of 4 did arrive later in the afternoon having come through the low route due to the drizzly conditions – they camped down by the lake so we had the hut area to ourselves for New Years Eve. Not that we made it up very late!

The evening ended up being quite lovely

The view sans-cloud!

*confirmed to be <4 years old by someone we met later in the trip. He had done the route 4 years earlier and it didn’t exist then.

The trip continues here.

Douglas Range Traverse (Dragons Teeth “High route”) 26 Dec 2022 – 3 Jan 2023 (Days 1-3)

We’d been thinking about the Douglas Range Traverse for a few years. We decided this was the year, and having a read a bit about the “high route” we thought it was definitely up our alley. After all, we love scrambling routes, particularly if it means you can bypass a 700m ascent/descent (the alternative if you go the “low route”).

John Chapman, well-known Australian bushwalking guidebook author, had published some notes for the high route. Having used JC’s notes for the Western Arthurs and Frenchmans Cap in the last couple of years we were familiar with his style, and had some gauge on how our walking times correlated to his (including breaks we were generally about the upper end of his estimates). We took on his advice to allow extra days to give us the best opportunity of good weather for the crux days.

Having booked everything in September we were then beholden to the weather. I tried to avoid looking at it in the weeks leading up – particularly given how inaccurate we’d found the forecasts in the preceding two weeks. I allowed myself some cautious optimism when it seems a slow-moving high was due to arrive on Christmas day. All I could say to people was “the forecast was about as good we we could have hoped for”… knowing all the time that once we started we wouldn’t have any way of getting any updates (other than from other walkers).

Someone inconveniently left a van in front of the starting sign!

Day 1: Trailhead (Bainham) to Beatham’s Clearing

So laden with 9-days of food, Tom’s fancy camera, and 3 litres of water each (! this is NZ!) we were dropped off at 10:30am the trailhead for Boulder Lake. Needless to say our packs were on the heavy side. And it was forecast to be a hot day.

The most challenging route-finding of the day was the first 50m, but soon we were on track. Plodding would probably be the best description of our movement for the day. The trail wound its way through 7-foot high manuka for much of the morning. This is not high enough to give any shade, but high enough to keep out any breeze (not that there was much). It felt much like a sauna.

The route to Boulder Lake used to start from a different spot which made the walk into Boulder Lake shorter/easier. We intended to take JC’s recommendation to split the day into two – our drop-off driver suggested we’d have enough time to push on to Boulder Lake, given there’s so much daylight. We discussed the situations where that might happen – “if there’s no water at Beatham’s Clearing”, “if we’re both feeling amazing at Beathem’s Clearing”, “if there’s no room at Beatham’s Clearing”. All fairly unlikely.

The interesting parts of the day were the limestone karst country – crossing numerous deep slits in the ground. And I saw two pigs, and heard/smelt plenty of goats.

Morning tea on the track – the body language says a lot about how oppressive it is

As we approached Beatham’s Clearing Tom declared there was no way he was going any further. I agreed. Perhaps a sign of how fatigued we were, we got to the “Water” sign – and rather than even walk 5m down the side-track to see if that was where the camping was, we decided to keep walking. We probably only went 5 minutes, but it felt like a lot longer before it became apparent there was no camping coming up. I felt like a complete idiot when I got back to the “water” sign to find that looking from the other direction on the track you could pretty much see the clearing. Anyway, we were there, no one else was. There were some water sumps. We didn’t have to go any further.

There was a well-trod path beyond the sumps, that I was doubtful would yield any better water, but we followed it anyway. Down, down, down we went, we did find some flowing water. (After all looking for water is probably a skill set we utilise a lot more than the average NZ tramper). Somehow we managed to siphon 4 litres out of a very small pool that the water was trickling into. Didn’t realise Tom had that trick up his sleeve. So armed with drinking water for the next day we used the sump water for cooking (not that I think it would have been problematic for drinking). We were both feeling pretty average and dinner had to be forced down – if only to reduce the weight on our packs!

Serviceable camping at Beatham’s Clearing

Day 2: Beatham’s Clearing to Boulder Lake Hut

I slept like a log unsurprisingly. Tom was also feeling a bit better so it was back to it early to try and beat the worst of the heat. The forest was taller in this section so we weren’t directly in the sun like the previous day.

Views back towards Farewell Spit

It was another beautiful day and the views from Cow Saddle were outstanding.

Our first look at the Dragons Teeth from the slopes of Brown Cow

Tom had read a few things which suggested the sidle below Brown Cow was a bit dodgy. JC barely mentions it, so I wasn’t expecting anything much. Admittedly we had perfect conditions but it was nothing of concern to us. Like most things it could be a bit more daunting in torrential rain and wind.

Traversing below Brown Cow. You might (just) be able to make out Tom on the track

Slopes of Brown Cow looking towards Boulder Lake

After the long, tedious descent to Boulder Lake we decided we should do the side trip to the lake outlet. I stumbled into someone’s campsite as I turned off the track. My guess was he had got in very late the night before having mis-estimated against the DOC times – given he was only just packing up at 11:30am!

The side-trip was worthwhile. The old dam wall was quaint, and the waterfall below it was impressive (if hard to get a view of). We had a wash in the stream there, not realising there was an amazing waterfall and pool behind Boulder Lake Hut, before heading back to our packs and having lunch. I also scored a walking pole, which had been left sitting on the edge of the lake well away from the main track.

The old dam at the outlet of Boulder Lake

Arriving at Boulder Lake Hut at 2:30pm there was a couple either just arriving or just leaving – turned out to be leaving. They had also mis-estimated the effort to get in, and so were splitting it up on the way out.

As if on cue the rain started just as we arrived (and they left). We thought we might have the hut to ourselves, but a group of 3 local women arrived later so we enjoyed the evening with them – even if our internal thermostats were very different. They decided to light the fire, after we’d had the windows open all afternoon to try and cool the hut down!

It continued to rain on and off for the rest of the evening, at times quite hard. We all went to bed quite early and I’m not sure if I was the only one still awake when a solo walker arrived just on full dark. She must have been very relieved to get to the hut after what I’m guessing was a very long day.

Boulder Lake Hut – the only hut we slept in

Day 3: Boulder Lake Hut to Adelaide Tarn Hut

We were up very early, and decamped to the verandah to try and avoid disturbing the other 4. We knew it was going to be a wet morning as our first task for the day was making our way up a tussock filled valley. My newly acquired walking pole was invaluable here allowing me to prod for all the holes that exist between tussock.

We’re heading towards the saddle in the distance. What you can’t see is the tussock is saturated after rain the night before.

Once we started up the ridge out of the valley a foot pad became clear and we slogged our way up before, what became a regular occurrence, of “first” morning tea. Our feet were saturated so we gave them the chance to dry out even if they had to go back into wet shoes and socks afterwards.

Almost at the saddle. Lower half completely soggy.

We thoroughly enjoyed the next section of ridge, a bit scrambly, amazing views and once again great weather. The narrow ridge definitely reminded me of the Western Arthurs. Second morning tea was taken after the narrowest section of ridge where we could appreciate the views looking back over what we’d traversed.

Dragons Teeth are getting closer. The next part of the route follows the ridge line.

The next goal was the Eye of the Needle – the pass below the Needle that leads to Adelaide Tarn. Thinking we could see it from a long way out, we were pleasantly surprised to find what we’d thought we were aiming for was much further away than where we were actually going! Many things I’d read in advance had suggested getting into the Eye was tricky. Maybe the footpad used to be more indistinct, but we didn’t have any issues (once we’d worked out where we were!). We got over Needle Pass and got the views of Adelaide Tarn with the Dragons Teeth looming behind just before the cloud descended.

Nearing the Eye of the Needle

First views of Adelaide Tarn

The rest of the afternoon was pretty gloomy.

Adelaide Tarn – the tiny hut perched on the other side of the tarn

Adelaide Tarn Hut is a tiny 4-bed tin hut. The bunks are old-style with metal mesh for the mattresses to go on – and if you’re more than about 5ft 5 you’re going to struggle to fit on them lengthways. Having seen the interior of the hut we didn’t take long to decide we’d camp – which was to Brenda’s benefit when she arrived a few hours later. She ended up with what looked a very comfortable set up (double-mattresses and being of a suitable height).

The inside of the hut was rustic.

I didn’t particularly enjoy hanging out at Adelaide Tarn. The hut is perched on the edge of the tarn, with the toilet above it. The area immediately around the hut and toilet is very muddy which makes it difficult to go exploring once you’ve taken your sodden shoes and socks off. Apparently there were nice campsites near the outlet but we didn’t get over there.

If it had been sunny I could see there were some nice swimming options (I did have a brief dip below one of the waterfalls). So, all in all, I was very glad that the weather was such that we weren’t needing to sit out one of our extra days there!

Low cloud makes for a moody afternoon

 

Continue to read about the next 3 days…

Kapiti Coast (22-23 Dec 2022)

Yet again the weather forecast leading in had been unfavourable, but by the time the day arrived things were looking good. Our bus/train/bus combo got us to Paraparaumu Beach in time for a coffee before we sailed to Kapiti Island. (Only because we chased the bus across the Coastlands car park until we worked out where the bus stop was!).

For those that don’t know Kapiti Island is a predator-free nature reserve and as a result has a large population of bird life.

I don’t think the water could have been flatter for our trip across and so we arrived ahead of schedule. We got an interesting talk from the ranger and then we were free to explore until our boat left that afternoon.

The boat launching machinery!

Tom & I decided to walk up the Trig Track (ascent-only use), only I got about a third of the way up and realised I’d left my camera in the toilet so I got some extra ascent/descent for my day. And Tom got some slow track walking time to try and get bird photos.

Tūteremoana, the highest point on Kapiti Island, is 521m, so it was another big hill for the trip. We enjoyed the views from the elevated platform at the top before nabbing some shade for lunch.

Absolutely stunning day on Kapiti Island (South Island visible in distance)

The Weka was clearly used to people lunching and was out and about hoping for anything he could find. A young lad at the summit said he “wished that the weka would come that close to me” as the Weka was making a nuisance of itself under my feet. I assured him it probably would as soon as he started eating lunch. That was the only bird I bothered photographing – you’ll have to wait for Tom’s photos for all the good bird shots.

My token bird photo (weka)

Tom descending the well-graded Wilkinson Track

Our trip back a bit choppier and we got to watch some tractor rescues at the beach on our return. The rising tide playing havoc with a smaller tractor that was too far out. There’s no jetty and so all launches seem to be done with the aid of tractors.

We stayed the night in Paraparaumu Beach. With a deteriorating weather forecast we got away early the next day to do the Escarpment Track (but not before the best coffee I had in NZ – shout out to The Common Room). We had a much more successful bus/train connection getting to Paekākāriki and it wasn’t long before we walking.

Ooooh we were also doing part of the Te Araroa. Apparently some people get a kick out of that!? Frankly if I was doing the Te Araroa I think this section would just annoy me as it has so many stairs and you’re walking alongside a train line…

Near the start of the Escarpment Track

Looking out to Kapiti Island

The views are pretty good – but they are much the same for the whole walk. And the whole thing is very exposed so we were glad to have got two-thirds of the way along (and past some of the more dodgy sections) when the rain/wind came in.

Clouds starting to look ominous

Some slips along the way made some sections a bit dodgy

We encountered a number of groups coming from the other direction looking like drowned rats in a variety of jackets – not many of them what I would consider raincoats.

Swing bridge as the weather closes in

The kilometre at either end of track which takes you to/from the stations is particularly uninspiring, but on a nice day you would forgive that for the rest of the outing. While the highpoint was only 220m, I think we went up and down enough to say we got another pretty good hill workout.

A great mini-break on the Kapiti Coast.

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