Waiau Pass

Waiau Pass

St Arnaud - John Tait Hut (24.5km)

First things first, we went to the isite to check the current norovirus situation. Thankfully, we were reassured there had been no cases for a week and they'd confirmed it wasn't in the water - woohoo! 

The water started at Lake Rotoiti which is a gorgeous lake set infront of the Traverse valley so there are mountains all in the background. The walk takes you beside the river on Lakehead track for about 10km on a really well tramped track up to the first hut where we stopped for lunch. Aside for the ten of thousands of sandflies and the bubbling mud, it was quite a nice day with the sun shining! 

From that hut to the next was just as easy following the river through long grassy plains. The river was like glass - I'm not sure how many times I've mentioned the water but it is still so unbelievable that water could be so clear! It may have something to do with how quickly it flows down from the snowy mountains all around us. Yes- snowy! The snow level is above 1500m but so are most of the mountains either side of us so they all have little chunks of snow left on them. 

On the way to John Tait Hut where we stayed for the night, we walked through several 'Avalanche Zones' - there's no where near enough snow on them at the moment and the Avalanche risk only applies from May to November but it's still scary to see the huge slides and debris left from past Avalanches and John Tait hut is IN an Avalanche path- why!? 

Because John Tait hut is on a popular route, wardens often visit to check up on things and tonight it just so happened we were staying with one of them. He gave us a five day weather forecast that predicted winds of 100km for the Traverse Saddle where we were walking the day after - we contemplated the bad news over a huge bowl of couscous with our very own home-dried bacon and then resorted to a game of cards. We have started a championship whereby we record every win and at the end of the walk the wins will be counted to determine the almighty card game champion - I don't know what the prize will be yet, probably a whole tub of butter and a loaf of bread for toast or something. Toast 💔

John Tait - West Sabine 

A rainy start to the day. 

We packed up bags and ate breakfast but hung around for the DOC warden to radio out for his updated weather report - rain for today, torrential rain for tomorrow, snow as low as 1200m the day after. Oh dear - so we have rain for our climb over the saddle at 1700m and SNOW for our climb over the pass at 1800m and if what they say is right, we will not be climbing the pass in snow. 

Since the weather had cleared though, we decided we'd better get over the saddle today at least. 

We made it to the next hut in good time and the weather had mostly cleared for the climb up to the saddle so when we reached the top we had some wicked views of the mountains in front of us. We climbed the whole way up pretty much in one go which neither of us would have been able to do two months ago - it's really nice to notice we've actually got fitter from walking every day! 

The descent from the saddle was on rock to start with but turned to mud once we dropped into forest. 

It was fairly new track here so nothing was properly tramped and we slid most of the way down. Luke fell 6 times - of course I counted! He'd look up at me each time as though he might have got away without me seeing it. 

As we dropped down slightly and the mud gradually became a little less slippery, we came to a bridge over this huge crack between the mountains maybe 20m deep with water just crashing down through it. We tried to get a picture but it was too dark and the camera hut wouldn't do it justice. 

We carried on to the hut and arrived just as it started raining so decided to stay put for the night. 

We spent the evening with an American called JD who told us about outside play at school only being cancelled in -28C!!, an Australian called Tarli, a guy from the UK, and a kiwi called Colin - we call him Rope because he carries 30m of rope with him and uses it at every opportunity. It was a good night in the hut chatting away but I did spend an awful lot of time scrubbing my hands since there were notes in the book about the dreaded noro.

Upper Traverse - Blue Lakes 

Amongst all the mountain ranges, the volcanoes, and other incredible places I've mentioned, today has been probably my favourite day of all. 

It had rained all night. We mooched around in he morning hoping the rain that still hadn't stopped would eventually ease but it just kept coming and the mountains around us were no more visible than when we first woke up. 

By 9.30am we had seen two five minute gaps in rain fall so we decided now or never since our rations were already stretched. We suited up in coats and rain covers and set off across the swig bridge for Blue Lake Hut - the original plan for the day was to go over the Waiau Pass but weather, obviously, was not permitting. 

The track on a sunny day would have been fairly easy but since Luke and I keep complaining about 'easy,' the rain threw in a few extra challenges for us. 

First of all, the river we were due to follow alongside for the next three hours was completely swollen - it was deeper, faster, and flooding over the banks in places so we knew we had our work cut out for us from the word go. We crossed the swing bridge over it and took the path left to follow the river upstream. 

We'd asked Tarli and Mike from West-Sabine Hut if the path involved any river crossings and they explained there were just a few side streams to ford but when we reached said 'side streams' we realised just how much rain must have fallen over night. There were a few to rock-hop over, and one or two that Luke carried both bags over and then piggy backed me across so I didn't get my boots wet, but we came to one that just seemed to be a never ending cascade of water falling a meter at a time. I looked at Luke, he looked at me and for a second I thought we were turning back. 

Luke being Luke, however, told me to change into my sandals, took his bag across, took my bag across, came back for my boots and then linked my arm to help me across too! The water was up to our thighs  and freezing! But we made it across safely and I dried my feet on the other side. Luke, on the other hand, went back AGAIN to help Colin cross over - his shoes are currently upside down steaming on top of the fire. 

There weren't any more crossings quite like that one but there were a few more for us to balance or jump our way over.

Not long after the big crossing, we came across these huge boulders, some even as big as vans, that had just torn through the trees around them. We'd been told by someone a few days before that they had come down in the Kaikora earthquake and we hadn't quite believed hen until now. There was one huge one sitting in amongst a bundle of broken up trees and you could see where it had fallen from the mountain on the opposite side of the river, torn through the river bed and rolled back up the bank on this side. Very scary actually- glad we missed that one! 

From there we followed a completely flooded footpath. We were constantly stopping to look around because there were so many streams and waterfalls coming down from the mountains that it was too amazing to miss. 

We stopped for a moment to look around at the river but instead we spotted the huge waterfall shooting down behind the trees. We dropped our packs and walked as closely as we could to it - we were probably still 10m from it but we were soaked through from the spray - I can't imagine it is normally as impressive without the rainfall we had had. 

We were soaked through and decided it was probably about time to stop dillydallying around and so picked up pace a bit to get to the hut for lunch. Thankfully, some other people who had planned to walk over the Pass had too decided today wasn't the best day and so had already started a fire! We quickly detoured to the Blue lakes to catch a glimpse of the clearest water in New Zealand (which we decided probably look way better in sunshine) before returning to the hut. We took all of our wet stuff off and dried it above the fire while we drank tea and worked out a way to continue moving tomorrow should there be snow!  

While I think snow is great, I am really hoping we don't wake up to white mountains tomorrow. 

For now though, it is absolutely torrential and there are 9 of us all in one hut staring out of the window at it.

**have just been woken up by three hikers who left here this morning to go over the Waiau. They climbed the whole way over and then the streams and rivers had filled so much they couldn't go any further and had to climb the whole thing back the other way in torrential rain and have just got here in dark. Will not be hiking the Waiau tomorrow as a further 100mm of rain expected over night. So heading back through all the flooded track to St Arnaud.**

Blue Lakes Hut (Rained In)

We hadn't really realised the severity of the rain until those guys turned up soaked through last night. They'd walked for almost 10hours straight with no food and nothing but solid rain. Luke jumped out of bed and boosted the fire for them and they sat in the dark huddled in front of it eating their tea and feeling quite relieved they'd actually managed it back to the hut. 

I couldn't sleep after they arrived- I was either listening out for any of them shivering in their sleep or half dreaming of flash floods and terrible river crossings. It didn't help that the rain was STILL pounding against the roof and continued to do so throughout the night and all through the morning.

It was a weird feeling once everyone was awake- we started the fire back up and everyone just kind of looked around wandering whether or not we were really stuck here. The rain didn't give until about midday when two of the guys tried to hike out back towards St Arnaud but within an hour they were back again because the track had been swallowed up by the river and the crossing we had made the day before was not even an option today. And of course, the Waiau pass was not a possible route either! So instead we drank tea, warmed by the fire, and played 'code names' (a board game of sorts) all day long. 

It is now 9pm and still raining and everyone's stuff is hanging from rope because there are mice everywhere!! - wondering how long it takes for mum to notice my 'Spot' hasn't moved...