A Walk in the Forest Alongside Lake Rotoiti

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Our host said to us when we arrived that the weather pattern had been the same each day for a few weeks recently, cloud at dawn which gradually broke to brilliant sunshine. And this morning was no different.

The thermometer showed 2C so not much above freezing but the cloud cover was definitely clearing as arose to start the day.

It wasn’t warm enough for breakfast on the terrace so we planned our day inside as we fed ourselves getting bolstered for a walk along the shores of Lake Rotoiti going as far as we thought we could manage with the knowledge that we also had to walk the same distance back to the car.

We wanted a bit more knowledge of the trails along and around the lake shore so the obvious place was the DOC station close to the lakes edge.

We got to the DOC centre at the wrong time as the information desk was closed although a notice did say it would be open again in 10 minutes, although that was 20 minutes ago by our watches. Perhaps the staff was having a long morning tea. So we were left to make up our own minds on whether to start from the left or right hand side of the elongated lake.

The right hand side, looking south, had an advantage that you could drive part way to a point where you could start the trail already well on the way to an ultimate goal of the trailhead hut at the far end of the lake. This would probably shorten the distance to walk to the hut and back although without a detailed map of the trail you couldn’t be certain this would be so.

Another idea would have been to start on the right hand side and then walk back on the other side,

There were two things that could prove difficult with this idea. One was the total distance and time taken to complete the walk according to ‘Mr Google’. At 7 hours we decided this was a bit too long for our current level of fitness and with Gretchen’s dodgy knee. The other thing was from Google Maps it showed that the end of the lake morphed into the Travers River with a dotted line across the water, from bank to bank. Just what this dotted line meant was open to interpretation. If it meant you swam or waded across that wasn’t going to be on for us and almost as unlikely was us taking to a swing bridge again after the end of the Heaphy track incident 18 months ago when we were delayed getting across a river by swing bridge when squalls kept arriving from the Tasman Sea making the bridge swing violently. Perhaps there was a water taxi!

So we decided to walk the left hand side of the lake as far as we felt our fitness would take us.

From the lake shore we could see what appeared to look like a beach before a point jutted out into the lake. What was beyond that was not visible and therefore didn’t tell us how much further it was to the hut.

The first part of the walk had a lot of information on labels under trees telling you all about the type the tree was etc etc.Eventually these information labels ran out and we decided that we were now onto the part of the trail that was for more serious walkers than nature strollers. Not that the trail was more difficult or narrower and it continued on with just low rises here and there to cross streams or where running the trail close to the edge of the lake would have meant removing more vegetation and trees to give a clear path.

After 20 minutes or so of walking we met a group of 4 people who had started out earlier than us and got to their zenith on the trail before turning around and were on the return to the car park.

It is apparent that there were few people on holiday in the area as there weren’t a lot of vehicles in the car park and anyway there were a number of other trails people may have taken.

A couple of times as we strode south along the trail we found a break in the bush of less density to edge our way through to get onto a small stony beach to look back and see how far we had walked from the car park.

At our second stop on a beach we looked ahead south to where a point jutted out into the lake and we decided that the beach at that point would be time to make a decision about carrying on.

Along the way there had been boardwalks where the ground underneath was a bit boggy and walking above would preserve it. And then every so often there were rocky stream beds to cross where heavy rain had bought down large stones and tree debris from further back towards the mountains rising up from the lake.

We got to the third beach we stopped at and checked ‘Mr Google’ to see how far we had actually walked so far.

Gone are the days of guessing how far you had travelled at a various point and now‘Mr Google ‘communicating with a satellite overhead tells your mobile it is from any given point. Makes decision making so much easier and keeps you within your stamina limits.

However, there is always the inquisitor in each of us and today was no different. We would walk on a short way to the point and see what the trail looked like and how many more bays there were to reach the trailhead hut.

Having got to where we could see further south and checking with ‘Mr Google’ to discover we had already gone nearly 4km and that therefore we had to double that figure to get back to the car park, we decided enough was enough and headed back north retracing our steps.

All the way along the sunlight coming through the gaps in the canopy above gave a dappled light to the forest floor which was pleasant on the eye as we took in what was around us.

On our return we passed the only other 2 people we saw on the trail, a young couple with packs on their backs who were taking 2 days to do the round trip of the lake staying at the Trailhead hut for the night. They were definitely much younger and fitter than we were!

Back in the village there was only 2 places to get coffee and a bite to eat for late lunch, either the NPD garage or the café in a resort accommodation. We chose the latter and refreshed ourselves.

We rested up for what was left of the afternoon enjoying the views towards the lake and Mount Robert from our unit and then readied ourselves for dinner.

Our host had suggested we might like to start with a beer or a wine in the ‘world’s small bar’ before dinner, so we did meeting another couple who were going to dine with us and a further couple who were going to presumably dine in their makeshift camper on the back of a ute in the park over space.

Dinner was delicious as we had experienced before with a thick and creamy mushroom soup, then lamb rump and julienned vegetables ending with a chocolate cake and ice cream desert.

Over a bottle of wine the conversation covered more topics than we can remember and time passed without even thinking about it.

We did have another couple who dined with us who were staying in an inside room adjacent to the dining room.However, they seemed rather aloof and didn’t really contribute to the conversation between us and the other couple and before desert arrived they cleared off to their bedroom.They, or at least he, was there for some gold fossicking and we deduced that perhaps they were being quiet in case we asked awkward questions about where the gold was to be had.

We retired for the night with the knowledge that we had probably the longest drive ahead of us tomorrow as we head for Collingwood and a 5 night stay in the Golden Bay area.

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