Nelson Lakes
Here's the full story...!
The overview...
We just had an extremely long yet fantastic weekend hiking at Nelson Lakes. Starting with three (Julian, Jana & I) from Mt. Robert car park, we climbed up to Robert Ridge and over to Lake Angelus.
We “collected” Claudia there who had gone up earlier with another couple of people. The four of us continued up and over the ridge to Mt. Cedric through patches of snow, then down to Sabine Hut. Three hours of unintentional night hiking was undertaken when we lost the track about 45 minutes away from the hut, with plenty of bum sliding in the mud, tree-hugging and branch-breaking – it would have made for a very amusing video. We eventually reached the hut at midnight, and probably annoyed a number of people by starting to cook dinner, but we were starving.
On day 2 we headed along the West Sabine Track to West Sabine Hut, then up and over Travers Saddle. Jana’s knees weren’t happy, especially after the steep downhill climb the night before, and it wasn’t long before it was obvious she could only continue walking if she didn’t carry anything. So Julian and I split her gear between us (although he probably took more than his fair share!) and he strapped her pack onto the back of his own. It was going to be a long day...!
The hike to Travers Saddle was a tougher and steeper climb than we had anticipated – it just keeps going up...and up...and up. Much of the climb was over avalanche debris, with plenty of fallen trees and rocks to contend with. Over the saddle there was still a fair amount of snow, but it was thick and soft, making it much less dangerous to go down through. We reached Upper Travers Hut about 8:15pm and were pretty shattered, but had a well-deserved hot meal, plus a bottle of wine, and (Claudia’s favourite) Canterbury Cream.
The final day was the longest, and definitely the slowest! By this time two walking sticks were employed by Jana, in addition to her porters from the day before. We actually walked for 12 hours and 45 minutes on Sunday, following the Travers Track back along to Lake Rotoiti and Coldwater Hut, and then the Lakeside Track back to Mt. Robert car park. To save a bit of time, I split up from the group towards the end to follow a separate track up to the car, and bring it down to where the track joins the road at the bottom.
The last 4 or 5 hours were in the pouring rain and after Coldwater Hut we were using head torches (we like to make full use of the days). Julian had jury duty on Monday morning which was why making it out by Sunday night was kind of important - we finally reached the car at 11pm and drove back to Christchurch arriving at 4:15am - it was certainly an adventure!
The overview...
We just had an extremely long yet fantastic weekend hiking at Nelson Lakes. Starting with three (Julian, Jana & I) from Mt. Robert car park, we climbed up to Robert Ridge and over to Lake Angelus.
We “collected” Claudia there who had gone up earlier with another couple of people. The four of us continued up and over the ridge to Mt. Cedric through patches of snow, then down to Sabine Hut. Three hours of unintentional night hiking was undertaken when we lost the track about 45 minutes away from the hut, with plenty of bum sliding in the mud, tree-hugging and branch-breaking – it would have made for a very amusing video. We eventually reached the hut at midnight, and probably annoyed a number of people by starting to cook dinner, but we were starving.
On day 2 we headed along the West Sabine Track to West Sabine Hut, then up and over Travers Saddle. Jana’s knees weren’t happy, especially after the steep downhill climb the night before, and it wasn’t long before it was obvious she could only continue walking if she didn’t carry anything. So Julian and I split her gear between us (although he probably took more than his fair share!) and he strapped her pack onto the back of his own. It was going to be a long day...!
The hike to Travers Saddle was a tougher and steeper climb than we had anticipated – it just keeps going up...and up...and up. Much of the climb was over avalanche debris, with plenty of fallen trees and rocks to contend with. Over the saddle there was still a fair amount of snow, but it was thick and soft, making it much less dangerous to go down through. We reached Upper Travers Hut about 8:15pm and were pretty shattered, but had a well-deserved hot meal, plus a bottle of wine, and (Claudia’s favourite) Canterbury Cream.
The final day was the longest, and definitely the slowest! By this time two walking sticks were employed by Jana, in addition to her porters from the day before. We actually walked for 12 hours and 45 minutes on Sunday, following the Travers Track back along to Lake Rotoiti and Coldwater Hut, and then the Lakeside Track back to Mt. Robert car park. To save a bit of time, I split up from the group towards the end to follow a separate track up to the car, and bring it down to where the track joins the road at the bottom.
The last 4 or 5 hours were in the pouring rain and after Coldwater Hut we were using head torches (we like to make full use of the days). Julian had jury duty on Monday morning which was why making it out by Sunday night was kind of important - we finally reached the car at 11pm and drove back to Christchurch arriving at 4:15am - it was certainly an adventure!
posted by Mhairi
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