2009 Expedition: Gillespie Pass

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December 25, 2009

It was our intent today to hitchhike from Mount Cook Village to Wanaka, three hours away, and I thought with it being Christmas that people would have some goodwill in their hearts and hitchhiking would be easy. WRONG! We waited outside the village for three hours as many people just drove past us.
A surreal thing happened about an hour in to our waiting. A car drove by going into the village and I thought the driver looked strangely familiar. The car pulled over about 100 feet past us and two people came out running towards us. I immediately recognized them as Lidy and Jacob, who we met two years ago while in the country. They live in Dunedin, about a six hours drive from here, but were visiting the area with Jacob’s daughter for Christmas. So we got unexpected hugs from old friends on Christmas on the side of the road. And after a short conversation, they went their way and we resumed hitchhiking.
It took two more hours, but finally a German couple picked us up and took us nearly all the way to Wanaka. It turned out they had stayed at the Mueller Hut last night and had met our friend Rotem there. Small world, but it would continue to get smaller. These people dropped us at an intersection of two highways out in the middle of nowhere. While we waited here, another car pulled over and dropped off Martin, a Czech guy we met on Ball Pass. This was followed shortly by a van pulling over and letting our friend Kristina out. So we had another short reunion with those two friends on this deserted highway intersection. Both of them got quick rides going towards Queenstown, but Eric and I waited awhile for our next ride. It came in the form of two Israeli guys, who took us the rest of the way to Wanaka. It turned out that they also had been at Mueller Hut last night and had met our friend Rotem as well as the German couple who had given us our first ride. The interconnectedness of today was just plain weird.
Then at the hostel in Wanaka, we stumbled into a Christmas party where there was a large spread of food and dessert. It was the perfect way to finish my most interesting Christmas day ever.

December 26 & 27, 2009

We spent Boxing Day in Wanaka not really doing a whole lot. It was really good to just take an entire day to rest and do nothing, not even hitchhike, which can be quite draining.
The next day, the 27th, we lounged around the hostel until checkout time and then wandered across town to the DoC office. We were waiting for our friends Nigel and Tamara to arrive, so we had nothing to do except pass time. They arrived around noon, and we went together to get our food for the track we’ll be doing with them over the New Year’s holiday.
We cruised up the road towards the west coast and camped near the town of Makarora. Tomorrow we’ll start the Young-Wilkins track, a nice three-day track we’re turning into a five-day one to enjoy a side trip and a day off to celebrate New Years. We met Nigel and Tamara on a tramp over New Year’s two years ago, so it’s really cool that we get to share another one with them during this trip.

December 28, 2009

The trailhead starts a few kilometers outside of Makarora, so I volunteered to drop Eric, Nigel, and Tamara off there and then hitchhike back to join them after parking the car at a secure place in town. I caught up with them 20 minutes down the trail at the Makarora River where we had to cross to get into the Young Valley.
The river crossing wasn’t too deep, but it was pretty close to the threshold where any more depth or speed would have been a bad thing. But we all made it, only wet up to our waists, and no one fell in.
From there, the hiking was pretty easy. Following the true left of the Young River upwards, we only crossed it a couple times higher up where there were bridges over the narrowing flow.
After six hours, we arrived at the Young Hut and waited for more people to arrive. There are 23 people here tonight, three more than the hut has bunks for. Since it’s getting further into the summer season, the huts are becoming fuller and the days of us having large huts pretty much to ourselves are probably over. It is really nice though to be sharing this track with our friends.

December 29, 2009

With a severe shortage of bunks being a certainty at the next hut, the race was on this morning. The people who had slept on the floor last night were keen not to again tonight, and the ones that had beds last night were motivated to have them again. Eric and I left around 8am, confident that we would pass everyone that had left ahead of us.
The track led up the Young Valley to its highest reaches, where huge chunks of the mountains were strewn about the valley floor. The valley walls were steep, similar to the fiordland area, and waterfalls were streaming down many of the rock faces. The track turned steeply uphill and led up to Gillespie Pass. From here, we could see down both the Young and the Siberia Valleys. It was one of the more impressive saddles I’ve been on.
From there we descended, passing a person coming from the other direction who told us that there were people staying multiple nights at the next hut and that we might not find open bunks even if we hurried.
We carried on for a couple more hours until the Siberia Hut was in view. The last person who we’d passed coming from the direction of the hut said that there were about four bunks available as of 20 minutes ago… but I saw five people coming towards the hut from the other direction. They got there first, but when we arrived there were two open bunks still, so Eric and I snagged them. Over the next four hours many people showed up, and luckily many had tents to sleep in as a backup, but many slept on the hut floor. Several married couples slept on a single person bunk mattress to clear up more space, but the hut was still extremely crowded and the surrounding grassy area was covered in tents. This hut, with a capacity of 20, had closer to 50 people calling it home tonight… Fun times.

December 30, 2009

Our plan was to stay at the Siberia Hut again tonight and take a day trip up to Lake Crucible, enjoying a day of hiking without backpacks. So around 10am and after much of the crowds had cleared out, Nigel, Eric, and I set off while Tamara enjoyed a peaceful rest day at the hut.
The walk was steep in parts, but very enjoyable without a backpack on. It took about two and a half hours until we reached Lake Crucible high up in one of the hanging valleys. It was formed by a landslide, which created an Earth-dam that trapped a substantial amount of water. This high up, the water that is fed by a glacier higher up still, is still mostly frozen even now in summer. About 20 percent of the lake was open water and a brilliant turquoise blue color. Icebergs floated in it and one was close enough for me to get onto. I successfully got on, but after about ten seconds, it began to sink from beneath me. As I was going down into the icy water and was already wet to the knees, I lunged for the shore and was able to grab on to a boulder on the edge. I climbed out as I watched the iceberg float off towards the middle of the lake. I was happy to not be on it anymore.
Coming back down, we passed a beautiful series of waterfalls. Despite being very cold, jumping into the water again was invigorating and provided Nigel and Eric with some afternoon entertainment. Then, since I was soaked anyway, we made a video of how not to cross a river, which I’m sure will make it’s way to YouTube in the near future.

December 31, 2009

It was a leisurely two-hour walk to the next hut at Kerin Forks where the four of us will spend New Years Eve tonight. We ended up having the hut to ourselves, which was great since we wouldn’t want our “celebrating” to keep anyone else up.
We arrived at the hut at noon, which afforded us most of the day to sit around playing cards and just enjoying the afternoon. We had carried in all the goodies for the party: chocolate, cookies, instant pudding, cigars, and a little liquid refreshment.
Soon it was midnight and we said goodbye to 2009. It’s been a good year, but I’m also looking forward to 2010. And I realized that being out here in the New Zealand mountains with good friends is a great way to ring in the New Year.

January 1, 2010

The Wilkin valley, which we’re in, is easily accessible by jet boats. So a company runs jet boat tours up the river to the flats area where the Kerin Forks Hut is situated. They also pick up trampers from this point, which cuts off the last six hours of walking out. Nigel and Tamara wanted to take the jet boat out, so we all did, and it turned out to be a pretty cool way to end the tramp.
The boat picked us up mid-morning from the river, about a ten-minute walk from the hut. From there, we zipped down the river at very high speeds, skimming over both the flat water and the rapids. These jet boats only need about five inches of water depth when they‘re at high speeds, so we glided over the rocky rapid bits with ease.
We did get to see what happens when things go wrong, though, when we passed another boat that tried a spot that was too shallow. It was hung up on a patch of rocks and would be there until the river rose to dislodge it. The people on it had to get out and be taken out on another boat. Our ride ended with no such disaster, and we were back in the town of Makarora by lunchtime.
We said goodbye to Nigel and Tamara and began attempting to hitchhike towards the west coast. We failed miserably and were still in the same spot nearly four hours later (worst ever), so we checked into the local motor park and consumed the remainder of our food supplies. Tomorrow, we must successfully hitch out of here because there’s no grocery store in Makarora and we don’t want to starve.

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