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Published: December 10th 2007
At the end of November, I had some time off work, so me, my friend Antoine, and his two friends Karen and Tim from Dunedin, took a little trip to the
Wilkin Valley. We drove about an hour away to
Makarora and then took a jet boat to the
Kirin Hut, pretty much in the middle of nowhere. The jet boat was awesome! The driver did 360s and spun us around.
Now, just to clarify something, tramping= trekking in NZ. So if you are going on a tramp, you are doing a trek, or hike. They don’t really say hiking, either. It’s walking or tramping. So we decided to do a 4 day tramp, going over
Rabbit Pass. But it was all weather dependent. More on that later.
Day 1: The first day was great. We had a cloudy day with a little humidity, but other than that it was great tramping weather. It was a pretty cruisy walk—we took our time, enjoyed the scenery, etc. There were a few stream crossings and of course I managed to fall in one, which was pretty funny—I then had wet feet for the majority of the walk up. Oh well!
After about 5 hours we were getting antsy and wondering how much farther we had to go when we ran into an Australian man who was staying at the hut we were going to (
Top Forks Hut). He said it was about an hour away (yay!), but there was a monstrous hill between us and the hut, although we could try and walk up the river and go around instead. We all pretty much had wet feet at that point, so we decided the river would be a good idea—cut some time out. The water, however, was ICE cold, considering it was literally coming off the glaciers in the mountains. We finally got to the hill and went to go check out the river. It was impossible to cross—the current was so fast and the river was pretty deep as well. So, it looked like the hill was the only way we could go. But it was only 110 meters up, how bad could it be?
Well, it was 110 meters straight up and then down again! Not that much fun, and it seemed a little unnecessary, but we all made it, and soon it was nicknamed the
“Knoll of Death” (thanks to a comment in the guest book at the hut). What turned out to be “about an hour walk” was more like a 3 hour walk. We did 15-17k in 8 hours, definitely taking our time.
That night was…
Thanksgiving! Me and Karen were the two Americans, but we didn’t do anything special. We had curry 😊 But, we were thankful for the great meal after a long day tramping, although I much rather would have eaten real Thanksgiving dinner! Second one I’ve missed…The hut was great- warm and cozy. We shared it with an Australian couple who had the fire going by the time we got there.
Day 2: We woke up early the next day so we could have as much time as possible for Rabbit Pass. It started with a long uphill, which will definitely wake you up in the morning! The walk out to
Waterfall Face only took about 3½ hours, but it was raining, cold, wet, and slippery with a decent amount of ups and downs. Waterfall Face is exactly what it sounds like—you have to walk up the face of a waterfall in order to get to the pass. DOC
(Department of Conservation) warns that you should not attempt to go over Waterfall Face/Rabbit Pass if it is raining, windy, wet, or of any dangerous weather conditions. We had them all. So we had lunch, pitched the tent, and Karen and I hung out while the boys went to check it out. After about an hour, they said they went about ¼ up the face and it was ok going up, but really dodgy going down. And it would be a lot harder with packs on, as well as it was a sheer drop-off so if anyone had a fear of heights, not really their cup of tea. So we had two options: 1) Pitch the tents, stay the night, and see how it is in the morning. If it’s dry, go over. If it’s still wet, head back to Kirin Hut, which was the distance we walked today and yesterday combined, meaning it would be a reaaaally long day tomorrow. Or 2) Head back to Top Forks Hut, get warm, stay the night, then see how the weather is the next day. If we don’t think we can pass, we head back to Kirin Hut and then walk out
the next day. If we can pass, we pass. We made a group decision, and the smart one at that, to go back to the hut. It was so wet and there was a slim chance that it would be dry by the next day. It was a great site to see the warm and cozy hut again! I woke up in the middle of the night feeling like I had poison ivy all over my legs, but it was the million sand fly bites I got the day before (really, I had over 20 on each leg, some on my feet, hands, back….they are VICIOUS!). When you are walking they are ok, but once you stop, they attack! Lesson learned.
Day 3: We woke up knowing that we were not heading to Rabbit’s Pass- we wouldn’t be able to tell how the valley was weather-wise, and there was no guarantee that it would be dry. So, we decided to do a short 2 hours return hike to a lake (I think Lucidius?). But, unfortunately for us, the river, although not that wide, was moving at too fast a pace. Karen and I immediately knew we wouldn’t be able
to cross. But boys must be boys, and for the next 45 minutes they tried to figure out a safe place and way to cross. Using a long stick, they held onto it as they both tried to walk through the water, without losing balance and being swept away by the freezing cold current. This did not work, but it was very amusing to watch. So, we ditched the plan and just decided to head straight for Kirin Hut, about 15-17k away (the walk we did on the first day). It was a hot and sunny day, which was nice compared to the previous day. The walk back was extremely tiring (we had to go over the Knoll of Death again, or better known as Mount Horrible), and my legs and especially feet were not happy with me. But, we managed to make it to the hut a lot faster than on the first day. What a glorious site that hut was! After a delicious dinner and a few games of Hearts where Karen shot the moon three times without planning it, we headed to bed for an early wake-up.
Day 4: We were up with the sun and
prepared to start our day with a very early and very cold wake-up call. We had to cross the river in order to start our walk. So the four of us, packs on and all, linked arms and started crossing the river. The boys had said it should be up to our waists, but for the first ¾, it was only up a little above our knees. We thought we were in the safe zone as it seemed it could only go up from there…and then we dropped. And with a huge gasp from all four of us, the water reached our waists! We reached the median and had to go through another river crossing, but at that point we were wet, cold, and indifferent. This one was a little shallower (up to our knees or so) and we all made it safely across. We put on warm, dry clothes (the wind was brutal that day!) and headed on our way when all of a sudden Karen started looking for her sunglasses. We all remembered they had been on the table in the hut, but we all assumed she had picked them up, and none of us remember seeing them
on the table when we left. Convinced she didn’t have them, her fiancé Tim, in the greatest act of love (seriously…at 7:30AM in freezing cold water and wind and after changing into dry socks), sucked it up and crossed the river, ran up the hill to the hut, grabbed the sunglasses (that were left outside on the bench), ran down the hill, and crossed the river AGAIN. Amazing. The walk out was pretty flat, with some sidling. It was extreeeemely windy—I felt like I was getting blown over half the time. After about 4 hours and many stream/mud crossings, we ended up at another river crossing. Knowing we were about 20 minutes from freedom at that point, we didn’t really care if we got wet again. So, linking arms, we crossed two rivers, both coming up about to our waists. The current was moving pretty fast, but our system worked well. 😊 We ended up at the Makarora café and hitched a ride with a tourist bus going to Wanaka. After showering and relaxing for a bit, we all met at
Red Star Burgers for some delicious and massive burgers, Cajun fries, and milkshakes!! A great end to a great
trip. I learned a lot about Kiwi tramping and can’t wait till my next trip!
In other news, work is getting busy! Everyone is doing their Christmas shopping. But it doesn’t feel like Christmas at all! It’s hot, sunny, and gorgeous out everyday! (hehe) We have a xmas tree in our flat which is exciting.
A week or so ago I went to
horse races at Cromwell, a nearby town. It was fun! I learned how to bet on horses and actually won! (ok…I won $2.20)
I started/organized
ultimate frisbee pick-up games in Wanaka, every Sunday night at 6:30pm. Last night (9th) was the first one! I only had four other people show up, but it was a great start! We threw around for an hour or so, and for the first 20 min Katie the dog came and chased around/stole the frisbees from us which was quite entertaining.
My flatmates bought a
speedboat the other week, so I can’t wait to go water skiing/wakeboarding with them!
Books read: Tales of a Female Nomad (a must-read!),
A Whole New Mind: Moving from the information age to the conceptual age
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Janice
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Sand Flies!
SAND FLIES SUCK! I remember getting chewed on every day working at Kinloch Lodge. They dont' bug you in Wanaka? I think this trek illustrates the concept that Kiwis take their treks VERY SERIOUSLY. I think it's awesome/absolutely frightening that you were supposed to climb over Waterfall Face. Bet you coulda done it with some rope for security? Next time? As for that pic of you with the guys in Day 2 ... babe, you look short:)