Hiking in New Zealand - Nelson Lakes

Just under 2 weeks into our grand world tour we geared ourselves up for the first of 3 multiday hikes in New Zealand. The first being in the Nelson Lakes national park. Our fitness and preparation was not as advanced as we would have liked and so it was with some trepidation that we rationed our backpacks to the bare essentials, stocked up on 6 days of food and broke out the walking poles.

Somewhat unwisely this first trek would be the hardest of all - 6 days on less manicured tracks, with few people around and not many exit options - although this is also part of the charm of the Nelson Lakes area. In total we would be climbing and descending over XXX feet and cover over XXX kilometers. The Route would take us in a loop from Lake Rotoiti at St Arnaud, up over the Travers Saddle, along the Sabine valley, with a side trip up to Blue Lake and back to Rotoiti via Mt Cedric and the alpine lake Angelus. Our plan was to camp, meaning we also had to carry a tent and warmer sleeping gear.

At this point we introduce our patent awaiting "Buffometer" with a scale to measure our mental and physical state. This would be the scale we assessed ourselves on each day:

Broken --- Beaten up --- Bruised --- Bring it on --- Buff


The Big question was how would we fair afetr 6 days of hard tramping ???

Day 1: Upper Travis - "Breaking us in"
XXX km, noted as 8 hours of walking plus time for rest and lunch, with over XXX ft of elevation.
This was on paper going to be one of the hardest days of the trek. Some kind soul on the bus had assured us that however very few deaths actually occur from falls on the track - most people in fact die from drowing crosiing the rivers and tributaries - how comforting !
One thing in our favour was that the weather had at last taken a turn for the better with mostly sunshine and a few clouds to help keep things cooler - perfect hiking conditions. The first thing we noted was how uneven and hard going the track was - lots of rocks, roots, slippery footings, and stream crossings to constantly keep us off balance and test pour concentration. This was going to be a long 8 hours.
However the views soon opened up into some wonderful alpine vistas and the track wound alongside the gushing acquamarine Travers river. Once we were in the wilderness and away from the towns and people it was easy to imagine ourselves in a Lord of Rings epic alongside Legless, Aramis and Dodo (or whatever their names were) - the grand scale of the landscape is stunning and very untamed. We met a grand total of 4 people that day on the track - so you can easily get the feel of how isolated and remote this area of the world quickly gets.
We crossed a rather wobbly swing bridge and many avalanche paths that day, with large landslide bolders, debris and scree. As day turned to late afternoon and we were starting to fall behind the posted hours expected for the trip we considered our physical state and options for camping on the trail. The clouds had started to look ominous and the first drops of rain started to fall as we ascended up the valley for the final 2 hours and many tributary crossings. This must have given our weary limbs the stimulus desired as we stepped up our pace and made to the Upper Travers hut "in time for Tea". The hut was situated approximately 20ft the other side of the 'avalanche path' - we choose to believe that the Kiwis must be extremely good at predicting where the avalanches are allowed to plough through the wildnerness.
To our not so great disappointment, no camping sites appeared obvious so we happily bundled into the hut in a bunk room all to ourselves with "ensuite" (ie a door to the outside)
Dinner was a simple pasta affair which would be mirrored on many nights, with a ration of chocolate that tasted like heaven.

Buffometer reading: - Definitely tending towards Bruised and slightly Beaten Up

Day 2: The Saddle - "Thigh buster and Ankle twister"
XXX km, noted as 6 to 9 hours of walking time.
We felt somewhat better than expected the following morning as we stretched our legs. There was certainly some bruising from the previous days exertions, but as we climbed the 1500 ft to the saddle we felt surprisingly chipper and enjoyed the fabulous views of Mt Travers. The saddle itself provided fabulous views of both the Travers and Sabine valleys.
What we had not prepared ourselves for was the 3,300ft descent on treacherous terrain, scree and bolders without an even footing in sight. Knees, thighs and ankles trembled as the km's passed and minor slips ocurred more frequently as we weakened. Fortunately the weather held out for us, as we would not have wanted to even attempt this walk in the rain.
With our heads down constantly watching our footing it would have been all to easy to miss the spectacular scenery passing us by - however we took frequent stops to rest our limbs and take in the surroundings. We descended down tussock plains and a scree fall an into the Sabine valley through wooded tracks until we passed over a vertiginously deep gorge before the final descent to the West Sabine Hut.
In total with many stops, this walk took us over 10 hours and we staggered in exhausted to the hut heading straight for the river to dunk our throbbing feet in the icy waters.

Our thanks go out to Jessie amd Tristan who tracked with us for much of the day.


Buffometer reading: - Thoroughly Beaten Up, hoping that our aching limbs would have a chance to recover on the next easier day.

Day 3: Blue Lake side trip - " Rivers and Waterfalls"

This was to be a relatively easier day as we could keep our tent at West Sabine and head off with just 1 lightweight pack. However initial omens were not good. As we breakfasted a Search & Rescue helicopter landed outside the hut, people ran in gathering stretchers and various equipment and sped off without a word leaving us
feeling somewhat disconcerted. We have to say that although we feel for whomever the poor souls were that were in trouble, the only small comfort we could gain was that at least the helicopter headed off in the opposite direction to our walk.
The trail to Blue lake was blessedly much more forgiving and even than the previous 2 days - although our legs were already feeling fatigued and quads very tight.
The walk tracks up alongside the Sabine River through wooded areas crossing many streams and tributaries, apssing waterfalls and emerging into an open area just below Blue Lake with the river rapids providing a crescending accompianment to a spectacular hanging valley and mountainous backdrop.
A further 1 hour climb led up to Blue Lake for a lunch stop and a chance to relax at the wonderfully serene setting. The lake itself is a colourful mixture of bright greens and blues.
The return journey was mostly downhill, testing our aching limbs and by the time we made it back to camp we certainly felt increasingly fatigued and Caroline had some ankle twinges that were to be a portent of things to come.

Buffometer reading: - Wavering around Bruised and Beaten Up

TO BE CONTINUED ....

Day 4 - Sabine Hut - "Sandfly Central"
The walk from West Sabine, along the Sabine river to Sabine Hut is on paper a much easier walk that those preceeding - 5 hours walking time and no major ascents or descents. Most of the track parallels the river, climbing up and down by necessity where avalanche and loose ground force a detour. We were hoping therefore that this day would provide some rest while we considered the option for the finale of either the challenging ascent of Mt Cedric over to Lake Angelus or the easier route around the mountain via the Speargrass hut. However it soon became apparent that our reserves of energy were already tapped and Lake Angelus would have to be a pipe dream.
The track was extremely pleasant as it meandered alongside the river, but continued to be uneven and slippery with many stream and river crossings. with tired limbs and dwindling concentration we both had slips and tumbles, until almost inevitably caroline slipped at a stream crossing and started to feel familiar and ominous pangs in her ankle. The New Zealand parks provides "what to do in a survival situation" defining key indicators as either a lack of food, water, shelter or will to survive. This seemed somehwat dramatic, but certainly with our confidence taking a beating we started to mull over whether perhaps it would have been a wise idea to bring a locator beacon as had only seen a handful of people in the park and any major accidenct could well result in it being many hours or even the next day before someone else would comg along to rescue us. Such disaster banter kept our minds focused as we carefully forged our way on until we arrived at a speactatular gorge crossing and the 30 min left to go marker for Sabine Hut.
For seasoned hikers we took an embarrsingly long time for this day , but did not care as the hut came into view. Gradually as we drew closer a persistent background hum had been getting louder and louder and we realized that this was from the cumulative effect of many thousand tiny wings of sandflies and wasps. We later learned that this area was used to test various repellants due to the multitude of willing little biters.
As we offloaded packs Carline was suffering from sharp pains in her ankle (giving us concerna about a repeat tendonitis injury), and so fearing for our plans over the next 50 weeks we admitted defeat and looked for escape options. As luck would have it, this hut was on a lake that could be reached by a water taxi. It also turned out that we were not the only victims and we joined 3 ohter people also similarly taking an early exit. Given that we had seen so few people, its fair to say that Nelson Lakes exacts a punishment rate.

All in all, Nelson Lakes is a stunning and challenging park that we would very much like to return to one day - but hopefully when we are fitter and less injury prone !

Buffometer - Broken for now, but with hope that we will be fit for the Milford Track in 3 weeks time