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Published: February 27th 2009
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Speargrass Hut
Night 1 on trail. Hey Hey,
I hope this finds everyone well 😊 Sean and I have ventured up to the North Island now. We're currently in the Whakapapa Village near Mt Doom, for you Lord of the Rings fans. We're hoping to do a week long hike here (around Mt Tangariro and Mt Ruapehu) starting in the next day or two, but we'll see how the weather holds out.
As for our last adventure, Sean and I were on the South Island in Nelson Lakes National Park doing the Travers-Sabine Circuit. We left Dunedin, stopping in Christchuch for dinner, and spent the night in the car in gorgeous Kaikoura. From there we drove through to St Arnaud and barely beat the sunset onto the track. The circuit consists of two valley walks with an alpine crossing in between. We did the circuit backwards (starting in the Sabine Valley) to align with better weather at higher elevation, as recommended by the Department of Conservation (DOC). We spent 5 days in the Sabine valley walking along the beatiful Sabine River. Two of our days were on a side trip to Blue Lake (1100m) and Lake Constance (1400m), two of the most scenic parts of
Clay & Aimee
Our handy US Park Ranger friends! the park. Blue Lake was indeed the bluest lake I have ever seen. The only down side to our time in the Sabine Valley is that it rained every single day! We even had some hail! The upside, of course, was more dramatic rivers and waterfalls 😊
When the weather finally cleared enough, we made our way over the Travers Pass (1700 m). It wasn't a perfectly clear day, but clear enough to have some views! The track's posted time was 6-9 hours. Sean and I made it in 4.5 hrs! We spent one night in the Travers Valley recovering from our long day, and then spent the next day climbing up to Lake Angelus (1800m). This was an interesting day as I accidentally took a wrong turn adding an extra 2.5 hours to the day's hike. Thankfully it was mostly flat, created a circuit, and we had plenty of daylight. Sean pointed out the fact that it also allowed us to see more of the park. True! The best part for Sean, though, was that in this detour we had to cross the Travers river. We managed okay, although we were both surprised by the strength of the
Lake Rotoroa
Night 2 near West Sabine Hut. flow. The river depth was just below Sean's waist in the middle. He carried my bag and walked me through it, for which I was very grateful 😊
Lake Angelus was a packed hut (must have been 30 people - usually 4-10 is normal at other huts). We were happy to leave there in the morning. From Lake Angelus we followed Mt Robert's Ridge back to the carpark. The was a 4 hour journey along the top of the ridge that provided some excellent views the first hour... And the the clouds rolled in. The trek was still fun, but quite a bit cooler and visibility was limited in 30m or so. Despite the rain, and the ease of the track through the valleys, the last couple days of climbing made it worth it. Our favorite part is that we could drink out of the streams anywhere in the park and ohhhh did that water taste SO good! We've been spoiled and have had a hard time adjusting back to tap water in the cities.
The other neat part of the track was that we travelled the whole time with a couple who work as Park Rangers in the
Sabine Valley
Day three walk. Grand Tetons National Park in the States. Once off trail we drove them to their next destination in Nelson and hung out with them for awhile before heading our own way. It turns out we'll see them again in Fiji as we're booked on the same flight back to LA!
So from Nelson we drove to Picton and caught the 10:25pm ferry to the North Island arriving around 1:35 in the morning. Sean drove for a couple of hours before pulling off into a residential area to sleep in the car. Although not as comfortable as a bed, sleeping in the car is always a nice option to have! This morning we got up and drove the rest of the way up to the Tangariro National Park, where we are now. Along the way, of course, we had to stop anywhere and everywhere we could to find discount wool. We even ventured into a Icebreaker Outlet store! For the merino wool lovers out there, you would have loved it! For those of you who aren't lovers yet, I STRONGLY urge you to look into it :P Between the accessibility of wool and the awesome exchange rate (1NZD= 2USD) my
Impossible To Stay Dry
The trail frequently meandered through ponds, streams and rivers. wool wardrobe is likely to double here. Ha!
Ok, I think that is it for now. Apologies again for no pictures. I was excited because we put them on CD so I could bypass the whole downloading software issue and it turns out these computers wont allow me to insert a CD. Oi ve. If you're curious for pictures, though, I'm passing along my parents' solution of using travelblog.org to search for landmarks and I'm sure someone else will have pictures. 😊
Hey Sean here! Some additional info about Nelson Lakes. As with any great forest there is devastation everywhere. We walked three large scale avalanches along blue lake. Along the track you would run into signs that said "Avalanche Area - No Stopping". There was one area where the tree's where down 15 feet from our hut! There had been a hut in that spot since 1948 so the area was safe, it was just amazing at how common and widespread they were.
This also supplied ready amounts of fire wood which I enjoyed chopping. It very therapeutic!
We're off to through the ring into the fire...
Emily
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