Daleys Flat to Chinamans Bluff
Trip Start
Jan 19, 2006
1
20
Trip End
Feb 23, 2006
Mt. Aspiring National Park,
New Zealand
Wednesday, February 8, 2006
See some great maps of the Rees-Dart Track (including elevations changes). Maps are part of "Photodiary of a Nomad" at http://www.gang-gang.net/nomad.
Daleys Flat to Chinamans Bluff - 15.6km
We woke up on a very rainy morning, with the rain pelting at our tent. When you are staying in a tent, that means that you can either wait for a break in the deluge, or you can pack up very carefully, to avoid making your backpack heavier with "excess water". The tent is going to be wet in the bag, but the other things don't need to get wet. Thus, we carefully packed up all the bags from inside the tent as much as we could. Then we made breakfast very carefully inside the vestibule. Carefully to avoid a tent fire, but also most parts of the tent breathe very poorly (especially when wet) and a stove also sucks in oxygen.. and the fumes... it is important to pay attention and not make mistakes. Soon we had our water boiling and could eat our yummy maple nut oatmeal in our tents without getting wet.
Then we quickly got out, and packed the sopping wet tent behind us, and quickly had it into Theo's bag. Once fully goretex'd up with gaiters on, we were on our merry (Theo says no merry) way.
Originally we had booked the bus for the next day, but we were hiking out a day early.
01)Another bird searching for grubs in the morning
We assumed there was a bus, because the hut had been full of people we recognized from earlier huts, and so they must be catching a bus today. We just hoped there was room, or we would be camping near the trail head for a day.So, in the rain, we started hiking, almost immediately hitting swampy sections of Daleys Flat, thankful we had our gaiters on. But soon we realized that we would be putting up with damp boots this entire day, and just tramped through the swampy sections as best we could. The trail went through scattered forest with Sandy Bluff looming in the distance. Theo was grumpier than usual, his stumpy feet not doing the best, and he wasn't too motivated to take any pictures. The day was to be mostly flat (we realized that statement doesn't mean much in NZ) but we still had almost 16km to cover today. As we continued hiking near the Dart River we got occasional views of the jet boats taking tourists swirling down the gorges along the river. Thankfully we only had to put up with that for 10min and then they were not to be seen for the rest of the hike.
The track began to climb steeply with a narrow rocky ledge, sidling around Sandy Bluff with dramatic views of the river below. The track flattened out a bit and rejoined the riverbank, and continued along grassy flats and forested terraces for another 2hrs or so. Theo's stumps were getting stumpier, but he kept smiling as this hike had been amazing! Nadine took over again as official photographer!
We had a few rivers crossings, and over the last few days had gotten more skilled at them (or rather Nadine had gotten more skilled, Theo was already quite skilled).
02) Rainy start as we crossed Sandy Flats...
We approached one river crossing where 3 hikers were hiking up the river to find a good spot to cross, when Theo directed Nadine right to the mouth, and with a few good jumps and well placed poles they were over the river without barely a drop of water on their wet boots! We started ascending as we hit the by-pass forChinaman's Bluff, which of course went up, then down, then up and down, over and over, hugging some cliffs above the river edge, until finally we reached the start of Chinaman's Flats and the bus pickup point.We were there about 1.5 hours before the pickup time. Two other couples had already reached the site, and even had their stoves out (everyone likes to have tea here on the trail it seems!). Soon after us, more and more people arrived. There is an info stop there, where the bus comes in. Some people taking the Dart River jet boat rides get onto the boat here, we think, as well. The info stop talked more about the stoat and rat control programs, and about how the beech trees do a massive seed drop every four years, in effect trying to de-regulate the populations of the species that eat their seeds, and then how man's interference by (accidentally) introducing the rats, but then intentionally introducing the stoat (to control the rat problem) has backfired, resulting in even more damage against the bird population, in particular birds which lay their eggs late.
The bus soon arrived. The driver let us on even though we were a day early, as there were a few extra seats. Packs got thrown into the trailer, and the bus quickly took us back to Glenorchy! We managed to get showers (we smelled really bad!!) at the campground by our vehicle, and then quickly entered the store to buy ice cream, chocolate and ginger beer (3 essential food groups for post-hike recovery!).
We then drove back to Queenstown and found a nice apartment to rent. Originally we had decided on one day, but because it was so nice and near downtown, we extended it for 2 more nights. It is nice to relax after a good hike in a nice town :-) After a walk around town and some real food for dinner, we sort of stumbled back to our apartment to enjoy the views from our balcony. We fell asleep too quickly, hoping our stumpy feet would start their recovery for our next hike!
