South Island Part 3 - March 6th to March 18th


We are back from our adventures in Wanaka and the West Coast, a good trip catching up with family and friends and walking in some beautiful country

On Tuesday 6th we headed down towards the canals for a spot of fishing and camped at Lake Poaka, Aaron caught three fish - annoying some other fisherman in the process as they couldnt seem to manage to catch anything, as we always seem to do we forgot the net which made landing them a bit of an effort but was good fun!

Camping at Lake Poaka

The next morning we did a little bit more fishing before heading to Wanaka,

While in Wanaka we stayed with Aaron's brother Wayne and his wife Donna. We did some fishing on the way down to Wanaka but it wasn't great fun due to the amount of Didymo in some of the rivers, it is a bit sad to see the beautiful South Island rivers filling up with the stuff....

Wednesday 8th saw us heading into Mt Aspiring National Park to do a day walk up to the Rob Roy Glacier. The gravel road up to the start of the track runs through farmland, requiring us to navigate around some rather large Bulls and a stubborn Ram who decided the middle of the road was a great place to sit, and he wasn't keen to move along when cars came past!

It was a lovely walk up the valley, but very popular - I think we may have annoyed a few people walking up the hill as we were running back down in tramping boots :), its amazing how much energy you have when you don't have a big pack on your back!!

Friday 9th we packed up our gear and headed away for an overnight trip. We walked up the East Matukituki and up Kitchener Stream, there was a rock bivy up there were we planned to stay the night.

It was a beautiful valley with a massive waterfall and glacial basin, the rock bivy wasn't what we expected - more a big slab of rock which DOC had decided was their creation (see the picture of the sign below).

Walking up the East Matukituki

Apparently DOC built the Rock Bivy for us...

Not what I expected but still a comfortable night

We spent the night there with the Mice and Possums, before walking out and heading back to Wanaka

Sunday 11th we caught up with Byron, our old flatmate from Wellington and hatched a plan for our West Coast Adventure. After lunch Aaron and I headed towards the coast to camp, it was bucketing down with rain - and we hoped the clearing forecast was correct! We stayed at Pleasant Flat campsite 40km east of Haast, and spent the evening killing sandflies.

The view looking down Lake Hawea to the West Coast

West Coast

I left an empty Tuna Can on the bonnet of the car, which a wee friend found

Monday 12th we meet Byron and his friend Kirsten at Haast, we headed to the road end of our tramp into Cassel Flat Hut. The rain had disappeared and the sun was starting to show as we walked into the hut. After 5hrs we reached the Hut.

The next day Byron and Kirsten walked up to the tops to spend a night camping, Aaron and I went for a day walk up a creek near the hut to look for some Chamois. As we were heading up a creek towards the tussock tops a helicopter came in and circled the tops looking for animals to shoot, this was a little frustrating to say the least. It seems to me a bit unfair they are targeting areas that are accessible by people walking in - we made the effort to get in there under our own steam and that is all destroyed by a quick helicopter ride.....

We carried on up the creek a bit and then dropped into the bush to look for a deer. We saw a bit of sign but no luck this time. We headed back to the hut mid-afternoon a wee bit dejected, but it was still a beautiful place to be wandering around.

That evening we headed out for a hunt again, we sat and watched a river flat while getting eaten alive by sandflies, just as the light started to fade I noticed an animal move out of the bush on to the river flat - I got into position and shot at it across the river, I had my 1st Chamois! We dropped down into the river bed and tried to find a safe place to cross, the river had a glacial stream coming into it so was milky and fast flowing. We thought about crossing/swimming to get it but decided against it - Rivers (especially ones feed by glaciers) are to be respected and not under-estimated - thanks Dad for teaching me about rivers in my early days of tramping!

We decided to use the cableway the next day and bush bash along the river edge to retrieve the Chamois.

The next morning we walked upstream to the cableway and then bush bashed round the river edge to the Chamois - it was a bit of a mission but better than risking a river crossing

The Cableway, awesome fun!

The milky river

That afternoon we lazed around reading books in the sun, and talking to another hunter about adventures in the hills. Byron and Kirsten returned late in the afternoon from there trip up the tops which sounded exciting with ladders and ropes to get up the steep country!

The next day we walked out in the rain getting soaked through by the time we got back to the car, we drove down to Haast and the pub to warm up and dry out! A great end to an awesome trip. That evening we stayed with Kirsten and had a hot shower! the best part of getting out of the hills I reckon!!

Friday 16th we headed towards Cromwell to visit Aaron's Nana and then headed back towards Temuka with a car load of wet gear and some Chamois meat. It was a great trip on the coast and certainly a place to return to. As we were heading back the Corolla clocked over 250,000km! A picture worthy event

On Saturday 17th we meet up with some Canadians (Marley and Ruby) currently living in Fairlie for a spot of fishing, Aaron took them around some of his old fishing places - a fun day but a bit sad to see how much smaller the rivers are since more and more water is being taken out for irrigation, I wonder what they will be like when our children want to go fishing in them.......

It was great to meet Marley and Ruby, and we now have some people to visit when we head to Canada.

Well that is about it for this instalment, I will try and get another post done just before we head overseas on April 12th! Not long to go now :)

South Island Part 2 - Feb 29th to March 5th

Thought I would write a short blog of the last few days before we head away from internet for a couple of weeks,

Wednesday the 29th we stayed with that gorgeous niece of mine, who has discovered she can make some interesting squeaky noises, very cute!! :) On Thursday we had another nieces 5th Birthday party out in Mayfield and were instructed to buy a present which was either a pony, a fairy princess or a combination of the two :)

Friday morning saw us back up some gear and food, and head into the hills for the weekend in search of some meat for the freezer. The weather wasn't looking good for Saturday but we decided on a wander into the North Opuha hut anyway, a short walk to the hut meant the weather shouldn't be too much of an issue....

Home for the Weekend

We arrived at the hut, dropped our packs and went for a walk to see if we could see any animals, after about half and hour we spotted some Tahr high up the ridge above us, it was 4:30pm, but we decided if we walked quickly we might have a chance to catch them out at the top of the ridge.

We stomped up the tussock ridge for an hour or so, when I spied a nanny tahr casually walking through the tussock about 150m above me. We crawled forward to get a better shot, but must have spooked her as she disappeared into a nearby basin.

We moved further up to the top ridge where we had seen the 1st Tahr but there was nothing there, disappointed and a bit knackered after our 400m climb we stopped for a bite to eat and some picture taking.

View down towards Lake Opuha

Lake Opuha

It was getting cold and late in the day so we started the decent back to the hut, watching as the clouds of the Southerly front were getting closer, as we were descending the ridge Aaron whistled, I turned around to him pointing towards a Bull Tahr across a steep creek - I moved down towards Aaron and he gestured to me to take the shot. The first shot was a bit wayward and went over the Tahr's head, I tried again and this time my aim was on! I had my 2nd ever Tahr, just a little happy!

The other side of this creek is where the Tahr was standing

One tired but happy hunter

We took the back legs and back steaks of the Tahr and re-started our decent to the hut, it was getting pretty dark by this stage and starting to rain, so we headed off at a quick pace.

5-10minutes further down Aaron let out a yell and I looked across to him loading the gun, there were two young Tahr across the creek at the top of a scree slope, he managed to get both and again they landed in the creek making life a bit easier

Aaron's young bull Tahr

We took the back legs of the Tahr and continued our walk to the hut, this time in the dark with the rain setting in. Half an hour later at round 9:30pm we were back at the hut, tired, cold and hungry but with smiles on our faces.

We went to sleep listening to the storm outside, Saturday morning the weather hadn't improved so we lazed around the hut till the afternoon when the sun finally made a re-appearance. We went for a short walk that afternoon and got some glimpses of the fresh snow that was dumped the night before!

Sunday saw us tidying up the meat and packing our significantly heavier packs for the walk out, although our packs were heavy it was a lovely walk out with the sun shining and fresh snow on the hills. I think it is going to be a snowy winter in NZ this year - although we wont be here to enjoy it as we will be chasing summer across the globe :)

Monday the 5th has been spent sorting out the Tahr Meat, including making some Jerky for future adventures, as well as re-stocking and re-packing our gear. The plan is to head off to Wanaka tomorrow-ish and then on to the West Coast next week - I will update the blog when we come back to civilisation from the coast! Cheers.