Week 31- part 2 Nelson Lakes

I checked out by about 10:00 on Thursday and hitched to Cape Foulwind, to see the seal colony, with a mechanic first and then a lady owned the local pub. I walked about 40min along the headland before seeing the seals. They weren’t jumping through hoops but it was still fun to see. From there an English couple on their honeymoon gave me a lift back to Westport. I then was brought to the Greymouth/Nelson junction with two local girls and their kid, Noah. After 40min (probably my longest wait) I was picked up by an Italian, Davide, and a French woman, Manon. They are both travelling, Manon short term as she is a tour guide in France and Davide more permanently though he hopes to return to Italy to set up a guesthouse in Sicily. They were going to Abel Tasman so a kiwi man and woman who live in Australia dropped me to the trail head. He was a miner in Western Australia and they were going to visit her two children and their fathers in Wellington. She explained about her dark past but she is on the right path now.

I walked into the Nelson Lakes National Park (with a 2min lift from a German who wants to teach P.E. and Chemistry). From there I walked an hour and 15min uphill to Bushline hut (it was supposed to be 2.5hours). There were three kiwis from Auckland there, Emma, Martin and Courtney, an Austrian traveller, Stefan, and an Aussie from Adelaide called Pass. We played some cards (stop the bus, hearts and monopoly) and generally had a good time. Pass and I discussed hitchhiking for a while too.

We were up around 06:30, which was good as we saw some sunlight before rain set in. We all parted ways after breakfast. I doubled back on myself and then walked along lake Rotoiti for a couple of hours, stopping at Whiskey falls along the way. It was pretty wet out and I reached the first hut by 11:00, but after a short break I decided to keep going. I had to take my boots off and cross a cold river to get to the next hut. The rain was now very heavy so I decided to stay here for the night. I met a couple who lived in Bray for seven years at the hut. They still own the property but live in Nelson. I spent about an hour chopping wood for the fire before company started to arrive. From the fog, three wet Germans appeared, Florian, Selina and Celine. I lit the fire so they could dry off and chatted with them for a while. Soon a mother, brother and daughter arrived from Wellington. The daughter, Charlotte, could easily have passed for my age but was only 14. While I was cooking dinner a Welsh trio joined us, speaking Welsh! I played hearts again with the Germans (Though I was given out to for being too attentive and scanning for other things in the room) before slipping to bed, the hut very warm thanks to the fire.

I woke at 03:30 to pee and saw some amazing stars. It was much cooler so I had to put on some layers. I was second up at 07:00 and lit the fire again to warm the hut. I was finishing breakfast at about 08:00 and my spoon made some noise against the pot. Despite the late hour and general lack of noise, a guy who had slept in his snapback had the audacity to sit up and tell me to shh. I waited for the Germans as we were going to the same place. We left shortly after 09:00, crossed the same river, had everything from the waist down soaked by the long grass and then reached the forest. We followed the creek for 2.5/3 hours, through the woods, passing some clearings with Manuka, until we reached a bridge where we stopped for lunch. I mostly walked with Celine, we got on extremely well, and talked about home, sport and what we think about when walking. I had a couscous wrap for lunch and read a book while we rested. Soon, we started to steeply climb up the scree for the next 1/1.5 hours with amazing views, waterfalls and mountain goats. I had a lot of fun. There were many false peaks so I kept saying to Celine ‘Just one more pole’ (talking about getting to the next track marking pole).

The campsite was simply stunning, sat in a glacial crater with two lakes. After pitching the tents, we swam in the lake. What an experience! It was cold but not too cold considering we were at 1750m. We then quickly walked up to a peak to see the site from above. If only there were fewer people. We sat outside the hut, in the sun but out of the wind and just let the conversation flow. We talked a lot about music and what the trip meant to each of us. Soon it was time for dinner. Florian and I decided to cook outside as it was so nice and very busy inside. It was at this point that Celine and Selina produced their precooked couscous meals that they had been lugging around for the past two days. Not only were they extremely heavy, they actually tasted sour! It gave us something to laugh about at least. We spent the rest of the evening drinking tea, nibbling on some chocolate and playing hearts. It ended up being one of the longest, most entertaining games and we were the last ones to bed.

I woke during the night, at about 03:30, to the wind blowing a gale. My tent suddenly felt quite cold and noisy. I curled up at the bottom of my sleeping bag and did my best to sleep. Thankfully, my low-lying tent wasn’t being blown over by the wind, unlike the girl’s tent which had high sides and wasn’t very sturdy. I was surprised that they weren’t covered in bruises in the morning! When I stuck my head out of the tent I could barely see three meters in front of me as we were sitting in a cloud. I brought all my stuff inside but left the tent up in the hope that the fog would clear and the sun would dry it. We ate breakfast together and took our time getting ready as it was still very windy and foggy. We were pretty much the last ones to leave at about 09:10 (after I took my tent down) and we were advised to take the low track instead of the ridge.

We set off, headed up over the crater edge and down to the fork in the paths. There was some debate as to which way we would go and eventually we decided to do the ridge path as we originally planned. I made sure everyone had a whistle and the plan was to go slowly and stick together. To our amazement, after about 20min the clouds lifted and we got the panoramic views we were looking for. Conversation turned to movies and mind games. We were joined by an English woman part way down. It was quite easy walking as the majority was gradual down-hill and we stopped for a break just before midday. From here it was a very steep descent to the carpark for about an hour. Soon it was all over. Celine and Florian hitchhiked back to St. Arnaud so they could get the girl’s car and come collect us. I made some lunch while we waited. Not long later we all piled into the back of the car and dropped the English woman before going to the lake front. We wrote in each other’s journals, Florian played some music and we enjoyed the last of each other’s company. The girls dropped me to the café so I could hitchhike out and we said our farewells but I very much hope I will be able to see them again.

You can see all the photos from the Nelson Lakes here.