D'Urville Valley Track
Trip Start
Jan 11, 2008
1
14
16
Trip End
Feb 22, 2008
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Blue Lake Hut,
New Zealand
Sunday, February 10, 2008
valley soon opened up with mountain views of Moss Pass to the right and Mt. Cupola back down the valley, and tall waterfalls visible along the mountain cliffs. The trail then crossed multiple scree slopes and
avalanche trails. Then a 1km climb through an enchanting mossy bog, along cascades of the Sabine, with a last little bit of boardwalk protected bog before reaching the hut in a field of tall grass.
Blue Lake was vivid with turquoise and green colours. There was one couple at the hut, Sarah Moore and Anthony (Ant) from Brisbane, and they were on a great hike that started in St. Arnaud and stayed high on the ridgelines as much as possible, and were to head south over Waiau Pass- Lake Thompson - Thompson Pass - D'Urville Pass - East Matakitaki Hut - Bob's Hut - Three Tarn Pass and out via the St. James walkway. More people arrived, including the 6 Aussies we had seen on the bus; they had come over Moss Pass today.
We found a nice but rooty tenting spot near the lake and set up the tent. The lake does not properly outflow, instead, it has a choke of giant boulders, and about 20 meters later the river resurges out from under thick mossy vegetation. We found that we could wash up in private after climbing through the boulders, and had an invigorating bath of sorts.
07) Heading to Blue Lake, looking at Moss Pass
We came back into the hut to fix dinner and chat more with the Brisbane couple. The hike they were doing sounded very challenging and remote, and we were wondering whether we had enough food to go that route. After chatting more and taking photographs of route descriptions and Sarah's notes about the route, we had decided that if the weather held up we might try to head south via Waiau Pass, or swing back north to the D'Urville Valley via Thompson Pass/David Saddle. The forecast Theo had photographed 3 days earlier back at St. Arnaud was not the most promising, and thus far the weather system had been doing as predicted (which is very unlike New Zealand, so it meant no matter what ... we did not need to decide until the morning).That night, it rained a fair bit, and was sticking to the weather forecast we kind of knew. We had to decide whether to go over routes that required navigational skills in poor visability, or follow a more well known route over Moss pass. In the morning, we decided to abandon the plan via Thompson Pass, and go over Moss Pass. Even so, visibility from the hut upwards was fairly limited. In the lower parts of the trail from the hut it rained, but as we climbed into the clouds that kind of diminished (not that it made a huge difference). We said goodbye to Sarah and Ant; they were going to hang out at Blue Lake Hut for the day having a Scrabble tournament, hoping for better weather tomorrow to challenge Waiau Pass etc.
The first hour of the trail climbs steeply through the speargrass and goes straight up a creek! Occasionally the clouds would part and then fill back in, and once we were able to see all the way back to the hut and Blue Lake...
08) At Blue Lake, layers of turquoise blue
and saw that Sarah and Ant had started the fire in the hut. Sometimes we could see north down the Sabine for a bit, but then the clouds would come back. As we gained elevation, the clouds socked in more and more. Some wild animal (deer or other) watched us from the top of a ridgeline, and it did not like us being there and ran away, making some excited sounds. The last bit up to Moss pass is a fairly steep rocky gully which had to be climbed carefully to avoid rock fall. Then we were up on top, and the ridge had lots of vegetable sheep (we loved this vegetation that looked like circles of spun wool). We were surrounded by clouds, and had been so for an hour already, but it was fantastic!We took a few pictures, with looks of glee on our faces, loving the fact that we were here in the mountains physically and mentally challenging ourselves. We were solidly socked in, and could not see very far at all -- it was nice to have the trail markers, because nothing about the trail seemed to be a straight line, as it climbed down over large boulders and bypassed bluffs. It also soon started raining, which meant that our visibility improved (when one is in the rain, it means one isn't in the clouds as much, so sometimes it is better), but as we got slightly lower the rain turned into sheets.
Eventually it started getting steeper, and we could see trees down below us. We entered into the trees and found ourself in the nicest "fairy" rain forest section ever, with lots of mushrooms, beads of water on the moss beards hanging from the trees, little waterfalls, steep and muddy sections through large trees with tons of roots, all still in the rain.
08a) Leaving Blue Lake Hut in the rain
Slightly lower down the rain let up a bit as we entered much taller forest. On one of our small rest breaks we stopped to adjust boots and all around us there were birds freaking out. Normally we hear a few birds who are not so excited, and then some little one comes over and peeps at us insistently.. "disturb some soil for me! i am hungry! disrupt some beetles and worms!".. but this was different. Suddenly there was a stoat running down the path towards us! Then he stopped abruptly, as if he figured out what we were, turned and ran right back the way he had come. Stouts are a major predator of birds and their young.
We continued on down a trail that was starting to level more, crossed the bridge over the D'Urville river and then a soon were at the George Lyon hut. Outside, there were massive amounts of sandflies! We went inside and had a little bit of hummus (some sandflies inside the hut too) and decided to continue on to Morgan hut which was listed as 3-4 hours. Although it was already fairly late in the day, we felt that it was better to extend this day a bit more, than add the distance onto the next day.
Nadine put on her zoom boots and we made it there in 2 hours! Just before we got to the hut, it started to rain really hard. We met Lucy from Canberra inside, and she told us that her partner Paul was somewhere out along the river trying to catch a trout. He had caught one a few days earlier on the Sabine River and maybe he would get another one here. (He didn't.
09) View of Blue Lake as we climb in the clouds
We ate a huge pasta dinner instead!)All night it rained hard, and the next morning it was raining even harder. But we had a schedule to keep, so we started hiking anyways along the fairly flat trail towards D'Urville hut (10 min past the trail junction), where we made a soupy couscous for a lunchtime snack, happy that the sun had come out. There was a nice dock at the D'Urville hut, and people could get dropped off here/picked up via a water taxi (even a radio in the hut to call for a taxi).
Then we backtracked about 10 minutes up the trail, waded knee-high through the somewhat large D'Urville river (after two days of rain), and hiked around the edge of the lake for nearly two hours to Sabine Hut, with some purple mushrooms along the trail. The sandflies were brutal when we arrived, and washing up outside meant 20+ bites to Nadine's legs and back! There was an older Kiwi couple (Jeff and Pam from Taupo) in the hut who had wanted to climb Mt. Cedric tomorrow, but didn't seem to feel confident doing it in anything less than perfect weather. The sun was out for a bit, but then the clouds rolled in and we could hear thunder claps above the hut. Quite late in the day, Sarah and Ant arrived; the weather had stopped their attempt at crossing over to Thompson Pass (they got up past Lake Constance and turned around), and instead they had retreated down the Sabine valley towards this same hut. As we were all chatting after dinner (Sarah and Ant having another Scrabble game!) two Californian guys (starting university classes at Massey University in Palmerston North on Monday) showed up even later with plans to leave at 4am to hitchhike to a reggae concert in Wellington.
The next cloudy morning we decided to take a shot at hiking up Mount Cedric, and over it to Angeles Hut (bit exposed and weren't sure how bad the weather was going to be).
10) Cloudy but beautiful up to Moss Pass
The route starts right beside the hut...well actually right at the toilets beside the hut. It takes about 4 flat steps, and then goes up the hillside as steeply as it can! It climbs rapidly through a forested slope, about 1330 meters elevation total. We got to treeline in 1:50min, marvelling at the cloud layer below up with great mountain views all around us. We crossed onto the grassy slopes of Cedric, and soon after that were once again on the rocks, with vegetable sheep around us, following a ridgeline in a weaving pattern to avoid drainage bowls on the left and right. Just before reaching Angelus Hut we passed a DOC warden coming our way. Angelus Hut (nice red hut) is situated in a beautiful basin with peaks all around it. The large hut appeared empty, but there was a sole Japanese guy sleeping in the hut, oblivious to us for a while as we made lunch with our stove. As it was still early (around 11:30am) we decided to keep hiking to Bushline Hut. Just before leaving Sarah and Ant arrived, and they shared lovely little Mars bars with us as they made a lunch. They weren't sure if they would be walking off the trail today or seeing us later at Bushline Hut.We continued along the ridge route, climbing a saddle on the rim of Angelus Basin. The trail dropped down a scree slope, then climbs again to a second saddle passing over a high point knob along Robert Ridge at 1813m. The trail scrambles or sidles steep rocky outcrops along the ridgeline, passing an old ski field. Mt. Robert was one of the first ski fields in NZ, now decommissioned. Along the ridgeline the trail forks, and we took the trail to Bushline Hut, deciding that spending another night on the trail would be fantastic!
At Bushline Hut (fantastic little hut with great views) we met some new people and met up again with some of the Aussies (Bruce and Jill from Melbourne were really cool, liked long distance hiking and preferred winter hiking). They had been doing the low Speargrass route after heading down to Sabine Hut (they were there the night before us). The tenting spots were a bit tight in the trees but we made do. The rolling clouds made for fantastic sunset photos, and we settled in for our last night in Nelson Lakes.
The next morning we ran (almost!) down the trail to St. Arnaud, with trail twisting and turning down the mountain side with views of Lake Rotoiti ahead of us. We arrived at the DOC office with plenty of time to catch the 11:15am bus to Blenheim (where we would catch the train to Christchurch) but we found that this bus company had stopped this service (despite DOC still posting this service on their bulletin board!). After a few frantic phone calls (we did not want to spend a night in sleepy St. Arnaud) we were able to book the K-bus and arrange a Nelson Lakes Shuttle to the Kawatiri junction. After buying new clean t-shirts (we got great shirts!) and having a quick sponge bath in the washrooms, we were on the road and soon on the bus (celebratory ice cream at one of the stops), back in Christchurch by early afternoon!
What a great adventure!
Comments
Woah.
Hey, well I'd just like to say, that this blog is absolutely amazing and inspirational and that the pictures are fantastic. New Zealand is beautiful.
Happy Travels,
Ally.