Yesterday it felt like I have been travelling for nearly a month just to see some snow capped mountains. In fact, I have. And yesterday I got what I have come for. Having left Lake Mahinapua and headed for Franz Josef the Southern Alps finally came into view. They aren't the highest range in the world with the vast majority under 12000 feet, but they are saw toothed like Alaskan Peaks and the vertical rise is impressive, just like the Swiss alps.
Franz Josef is a small town at the base of the glacier by that name and a short drive from the Fox glacier. Most of the activities in town revolve around these two glaciers and some of the nearby mirror lakes. I opted not to do any of the glacier hikes having already been on a glacier a few times and Jason was kind enough to take me ice climbing last summer in Alaska. But there was some great day hiking to be done. I took a shuttle out of town and was dropped off at the start of a trail called Alex's Knob. It is a ridge line that tops out at about 3500 feet with great views of the glacier and the surrounding Alps. The climb up took about two and half hours, not bad considering I gained about 2000 feet. The top of the ridge was above the clouds which would come and go below and the views were great. Facing east you could see the glacier and the mountains, facing west you could see the Tasman sea breaking on the beach not far away. I ate lunch on top and had a quick cup of tea then headed back to the bottom. From there I headed off to see how close I could get to the terminal face of the glacier. I got within about a quarter mile when the river turned sharply around a granite spire and cut me off. Oh well, close enough I guess.
The forests that my morning trail climbed through had this prehistoric quality to it. It was full of fern trees, climbing vines, and podocarps. I expected to see some dinosaur lift its head above the vegetation any minute wondering whether or not I was food. It was really amazing, the rock was striated in numerous small layers and moss was thick everywhere. It was unlike the beech forests around Nelson Lakes, and different from the jungle like forests of the north island. The conifer plantations are strangely absent in this area, and the jungle is aptly described as a rain forest. I saw two New Zealand Kea's in flight over me at one point, a native alpine parrot known to eat the weather stripping around car windows. I was also pestered by a bird of some sorts who kept dropping bark on me when I stopped for a quick snack under "his" tree.
Tomorrow it is on to Wanaka with more good scenery and a few stops at mirror lakes to take those postcard photos that will make you all wish you had come with me. Cheers.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Nelson Lakes National Park
Post Tongariro I continued to travel south through to Wellington, across the straight and on to Nelson. I really liked Nelson it suits me very well. By south island standards it is a city, but it still retains that small town feel to it. The largest building in the area is still the church on the hill. It also has a great arts scene with numerous potters. Unfortunately, many of these artists have their studios outside of town, and I wasn't able to get to many of them. The few i saw in town were fairly uninteresting. In fact, it made me feel better about the stuff that I make.
For the most part Nelson was just a staging point for me. Not far from the city were two awesome national parks. The most famous being, of course, the Abel Tasman National Park. However, I really wanted to beat the crowds and get away from the mob into the back country. Second, Abel Tasman is known mainly for its coastal scenery and I really wanted to get back up into the Alpine. So I grabbed six days of food and had the bus drop me off at the DOC office on the shores of Lake Rotoiti in Nelson Lakes National Park. I was set to do the Travers-Sabine Circuit. This track follows the Travers river up the valley from Lake Rotoiti and crosses Travers Saddle over the range and down to the Sabine river valley. From there I climbed back into the Alpine and headed along a ridge to Lake Angeles. From there down Mt. Roberts Ridge back to Lake Rotoiti. Sounds easy right? In fact, it took me all six days, and the climbs up Travers Saddle and Mt. Cedric were actually pretty tough. And don't mistake "river valley" for wide open plane. They were more like ravines.
For the most part the track was through beech forests crossed by numerous small streams. The surrounding forests were really beautiful and a pleasant change from the conifer forests of the North West. The lakes were also equally stunning, although they did mean more sand flies. A word about Sand flies: they are much better than mosquitoes. DEET actually works in keeping them away. They tend not to hang out around your ears, and go mainly for the arms and legs. However, they are the size of a small fly and if you have any body hair at all it pretty much keeps them away. Some people hate them some people don't. Personally I would take them over mosquitoes any day.
The only day that was really eventful was my climb up Mt Cedric and along the ridge from Sabine hut to Lake Angeles Hut. The day started wonderfully. Sunny skies and scattered clouds after the rain the day before. It was a hard climb of steep switchbacks up to the tree line, and once you broke treeline it was pretty much straight up to the top of the ridge. Once I gained the top of the ridge the wind picked up a little and I could see more clouds on their way. At this point though I was at about 5000 feet with another 1000 feet in elevation gain still to go. The rest of the track that day was marked only by snow poles, although there wasn't any snow. The track climbed along the top of the ridge which was broken and jagged with numerous small peaks and scree fields. That's when it got interesting. The clouds came in about twenty minutes after I gained the top of the ridge and the wind picked up steadily. The clouds were full of moisture and the wind blew it steadily like a fine driving rain. I put on my gear and kept walking. At times I could barely see the next pole marking the trail, sometimes I would wait at one pole for the clouds to clear a bit and then spotting the next pole I would move on, still other times I would have to head in the general direction of the next pole and be halfway to it before I could spot it. Really it was great fun.
I found out later when I arrived at the hut that the wind was gusting around 55mph and steady at around 50mph. It sure made my day more interesting. All that aside I arrived at the hut perfectly dry and warm. All my gear worked exactly as it was supposed to and I was never worried that it would fail. In fact, I had more fun on that day than the previous four combined. Even the climb over Travers saddle was relatively tame.
Anyway, the next day I walked down Roberts Ridge and had more alpine fun. There was winds at about 35mph and the clouds were still swirling around a bit, but they weren't moisture bearing so it was more fun. They would fly past every fifteen minutes of so and offer some great views of the St. Arnaud range and the lakes below. The alpine meadows and tarns were numerous and the trail was well worn, so you could walk uninterrupted even in the mists.
Nelson Lakes has definitely been a highlight for me so far, I met some great people, stayed at some wonderful huts, and tramped some awesome spots. Unfortunately, uploading pictures to this site takes an extremely long time, so if you want photos, and I took plenty, check out facebook.
For the most part Nelson was just a staging point for me. Not far from the city were two awesome national parks. The most famous being, of course, the Abel Tasman National Park. However, I really wanted to beat the crowds and get away from the mob into the back country. Second, Abel Tasman is known mainly for its coastal scenery and I really wanted to get back up into the Alpine. So I grabbed six days of food and had the bus drop me off at the DOC office on the shores of Lake Rotoiti in Nelson Lakes National Park. I was set to do the Travers-Sabine Circuit. This track follows the Travers river up the valley from Lake Rotoiti and crosses Travers Saddle over the range and down to the Sabine river valley. From there I climbed back into the Alpine and headed along a ridge to Lake Angeles. From there down Mt. Roberts Ridge back to Lake Rotoiti. Sounds easy right? In fact, it took me all six days, and the climbs up Travers Saddle and Mt. Cedric were actually pretty tough. And don't mistake "river valley" for wide open plane. They were more like ravines.
For the most part the track was through beech forests crossed by numerous small streams. The surrounding forests were really beautiful and a pleasant change from the conifer forests of the North West. The lakes were also equally stunning, although they did mean more sand flies. A word about Sand flies: they are much better than mosquitoes. DEET actually works in keeping them away. They tend not to hang out around your ears, and go mainly for the arms and legs. However, they are the size of a small fly and if you have any body hair at all it pretty much keeps them away. Some people hate them some people don't. Personally I would take them over mosquitoes any day.
The only day that was really eventful was my climb up Mt Cedric and along the ridge from Sabine hut to Lake Angeles Hut. The day started wonderfully. Sunny skies and scattered clouds after the rain the day before. It was a hard climb of steep switchbacks up to the tree line, and once you broke treeline it was pretty much straight up to the top of the ridge. Once I gained the top of the ridge the wind picked up a little and I could see more clouds on their way. At this point though I was at about 5000 feet with another 1000 feet in elevation gain still to go. The rest of the track that day was marked only by snow poles, although there wasn't any snow. The track climbed along the top of the ridge which was broken and jagged with numerous small peaks and scree fields. That's when it got interesting. The clouds came in about twenty minutes after I gained the top of the ridge and the wind picked up steadily. The clouds were full of moisture and the wind blew it steadily like a fine driving rain. I put on my gear and kept walking. At times I could barely see the next pole marking the trail, sometimes I would wait at one pole for the clouds to clear a bit and then spotting the next pole I would move on, still other times I would have to head in the general direction of the next pole and be halfway to it before I could spot it. Really it was great fun.
I found out later when I arrived at the hut that the wind was gusting around 55mph and steady at around 50mph. It sure made my day more interesting. All that aside I arrived at the hut perfectly dry and warm. All my gear worked exactly as it was supposed to and I was never worried that it would fail. In fact, I had more fun on that day than the previous four combined. Even the climb over Travers saddle was relatively tame.
Anyway, the next day I walked down Roberts Ridge and had more alpine fun. There was winds at about 35mph and the clouds were still swirling around a bit, but they weren't moisture bearing so it was more fun. They would fly past every fifteen minutes of so and offer some great views of the St. Arnaud range and the lakes below. The alpine meadows and tarns were numerous and the trail was well worn, so you could walk uninterrupted even in the mists.
Nelson Lakes has definitely been a highlight for me so far, I met some great people, stayed at some wonderful huts, and tramped some awesome spots. Unfortunately, uploading pictures to this site takes an extremely long time, so if you want photos, and I took plenty, check out facebook.
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