Map
Here is the map for this section:
https://onthegomap.com/s/halc724s

Summary
Tuesday 24th January
First things first, Happy Birthday to my sister! Hope you have/had a good day Flora. Stay inspired. (May be a bit late now but hey ho, the thought is there).
OK civilisation is nice and all, but it’s also expensive and we were itching to head on out. To quote the overused John Muir quotation, “The Mountains are calling and I must go”. Too corny? Sorry.
We packed up our room and checked out, handing the key back to the Alpine Lodge. Solid place. 10/10 recommend. Reid and I sat in the café across the street (attached to the general store and run by the same guys. Industrious) whilst Rob sorted some life admin. Specifically, he had finally managed to wrangle a replacement for his bust mat and so had to send his broken away, with his new one being sent with an overnight courier to Hanmer Springs, where our next resupply was at the end of the Nelson Lakes. It also meant he had to do the Nelson Lakes though without his air mattress, so he bought a cheap foam one. Read on to find out what he thought of that!
So Rob was sorting that all out and told us to head on ahead of him so we downed our drinks (carefully, they were hot) and started to shift. Our plan was not to follow the TA for this bit out of St Arnaud but actually do a detour. Exciting! One of the supposedly most beautiful huts in New Zealand was Angelus Hut, so we were headed there. No chance of getting a spot in the hut, but there was a small tarn (for those Scots reading, “lochan”) beside it that we could camp up at. The next day we would then go up and over Sunset Saddle and rejoin the TA that way. Plan sussed and sorted.
Therefore, we turned right and followed the road around the top of Lake Rotoiti and up to the car park beneath Robert Ridge. Hot, dusty and heavy packs. My new shoes were doing their job though, providing me with a lot more grip than my old ones. That’s what new shoes do I suppose. At the car park we had our lunch and watched a French girl try and get a lift back down the hill in a car (she’d obviously hitched up). Then Reid and I looked at each other, nodded, hoisted our packs onto our backs and pushed ourselves up the hill. Lessgo
Well the worst of the elevation was straight away and we just followed the family friendly switchbacks all the way up, weaving in and out of the forest and open hillside like we were a thread being sewn. At the top of these switchbacks (that we beasted up, by the by) was Relax Shelter, a well named and placed hut. Strange thing about it though, there was a lock only on the outside, meaning you could just lock someone in very easily, as I found out, didn’t I Reid?

We weren’t wanting to cool down too much so we kept going really. No relaxation for us. The easy walking turned into a rocky ridge walk and before long we were boulder hopping along craggy tops and sending scree slithering down steep slopes. There was a cool wind and we both had big moments where we nearly ended our TA experience by either nearly falling or rock-surfing a couple metres down the slope. Sketchy. Probably going too fast. Eek


Anyways, a full afternoon of walking along this ridge led us finally to the lookout overlooking Angelus Hut. We both had music in and when Lake Angelus appeared below us we grinned at each other and did a little silly dance. I can only imagine what people in the hut thought, seeing two silhouetted figures on the skyline doing funny things with their poles and whatnot.

We got down to the hut and signed the book. We also met Linde, Maxime and Chaz there. Seems like some other people had the same idea as us of going up to Angelus Hut! As a big group, plus Justin who appeared from nowhere, we moved on from the hut and to Hinapouri Tarn where we started scouting for places to camp.

Reid and I found a mint spot right next to the tarn with space for three tents. Sweet. We pitched up and then lay in our tents, agreeing to meet at 18:30 for dinner. Funnily enough, when we emerged from our tents and looked back, we saw Rob coming towards us! Yes man! He got to us and he looked absolutely cooked. He must have stormed up that ridge on some serious coffee energy since he’d left well after us!
Well we had dinner and this, I will happily say, is easily one of the highlights of the TA. It was just us three, no one else in sight (since everyone else had camped out of view) watching the scenic clouds interact with the mountain tops and sending our laughter echoing around the valley walls. Honestly, some of the funniest things were said here, right Reid? Stupid, not worth repeating, but funny in the moment. Good times. I think we all went to sleep with grins plastered across our faces, giggling with the aftermath of a good evening.

Wednesday 25th January
Rob had a good sleep on his new, thin, cheap foam sleeping pad! The soft, mossy grass may have helped. I packed up in the sunrise whilst Rob and Reid stood on the rocks overlooking the Cascade Valley and the sunrise, drinking coffee in (I romantically imagine) silence. What a morning.

Once we were all ready, we shouldered our packs and headed on up our own valley towards Sunset Saddle situated beside Mt. Angelus. The climb was beautiful, along a narrow meandering goat path that wasn’t on the Topo maps. It was also rather cold, still being in the shadow of the morning.
Precariously built cairns motioned the way and we climbed until we got to right beneath the saddle. Here, there was another smaller tarn where we found Elise and Sevi, Emily and Marius! Hey! Awesome people! They were in the process of packing up and Marius had only just woken up so we continued on and up the steep, rocky slope leading to the cloudy saddle.
Straining muscles, panting and sweating. These were the sensations running through my body as we got to the top. But as ever, climbing mountains is always worth it. Bwoah, what a unique view! The clouds were burning away but hadn’t quite all gone yet, and we could squint and see our way down Hopeless Valley (yeah that really is it’s name). Rob put it very succinctly, it was like a wormhole of weather we were peering into. It was cold so we didn’t hang around for long and started the climb down.

This was where the magic started to happen. We descended down the rocky, scrabbly valley until we reached a steep cliff where we could stand on a piece of rock jutting out. The day had been warming up and clouds were raising up out of their sleep in the valley below us, casting shadows across the scree slopes and forests. Timeless mountains surrounded us on all sides, watching us in their silence and uncaring way. The wind whispered around us. It was… Simply stunning. My heart beat slow as I surveyed the land and I’m sure there was a hint of a grin on my face – I don’t remember. The simple splendour.


In awe, we continued on and had to switch back on pronto and focus, we were about to embark on a new sport. Scree skiing. The way down was soooo steep and rather treacherous. With each step we glided down several metres, pebbles and rocks clattering down with us.
At the bottom, I sat on a boulder and emptied all the stuff from my shoes. Above me on the scree slope was Emily. Elise and Sevi were on the cliff where the bit of morning magic happened, and there was a yellow dot of Marius also moving rapidly.
A short jaunt through a forest and we got to Hopeless Hut. No idea why it was called that, by the way. Emily met us there. Nice hut that, wooden and friendly feeling. But we had plenty of distance left, so we left after a short snack. We were expecting Elise and Sevi, but instead we saw Marius as we were leaving. The guy is a mountain goat I swear.
The path down Hopeless Hut was through a nice enough forest and we rejoined the TA route before proceeding along to John Tait Hut. Here, we ate lunch with Gregan. The next bit up to Upper Travers Hut will be a breeze, right?

Well, as it turns out, no. I was proper battling after lunch. Adrenaline run dry I suppose. Sweated myself to a stop. Big wall that I hit for sure. We all kinda felt like that I think. We came across Travers Fall and I sat and watched as Rob went and swam right up to the falls in all his clothes. A “fresh” dip. It was probably close to zero, freezing!


We continued our battle up to Upper Travers before we finally got there. This was a serviced hut so I couldn’t stay in it without paying. My backcountry hut pass didn’t cover it. As a result, we found the very few camp spots around the place and pitched up. Gregan showed up and camped too, as did Elise and Sevi.
We ate in the hut, meeting Dutch pair, Hannah and Sarah who were cool. What a great bubble to be in for sure. Emily Emily (her new name henceforth), Elise and Sevi, Hannah and Sarah, Gregan, Kevin… Yeah, cool people. I went to sleep that night to the tip tap of rain.
Thursday 26th January
Well it rained all night and I woke in the morning to find my tent rather wet. The outside, that is. My tent is one hundred percent waterproof, love it so much. Still, I packed up in the drizzle. I felt a wee bit mad, sponging down my tent in the light rain, but any weight off will help me throughout the day, I promise! Rob had had another good night on his foam sleeping mat, so that was some good news.
Well by the time Rob, Reid and I had packed up and eaten our breakfasts, we were very much the last people to leave (you know, since everyone else stayed in the hut!). The start of the day was an immediate climb. As mentioned, I much prefer climbing in the morning when we’re fresh and ready for it! As a result, we powered up Travers Saddle and to the top. Here though, the wind suddenly picked up (we weren’t sheltered from the other side anymore) and it was baltic!



We stopped and posed for a photo at the top though since it was the 2000km marker, before hustling down and out of the biting cold wind. Cheers to Greg for taking the photo of us! The path was steep and rocky but, as per usual, descended into a forest where we started just cruising on towards West Sabine Hut on dirt paths, slippery roots sticking up disturbing us.
Now, this is where a tragedy happened. The tragedy of Darth Plagueis my pole. Remember how I had bent it in the Richmonds, and then re-straightened it but left a small kink in the metal? Well, there I was walking along when all of a sudden, I felt the pole in my left hand suddenly… Get very light. Sure enough, my pole had snapped. Given up the ghost. Oh man oh man. There was the end of it stuck in some random mud and the handle left in my hand. Sad times. I actually felt really quite attached to my poles, they had literally just helped me walk 2000km after all! Therefore, I took the two parts of my snapped pole and strapped them to the side of my bag. Maybe I could get a fix in Hanmer Springs?
Trudging into West Sabine Hut, my left hand feeling very empty now, we sat down out of the cold wind for a spot of lunch. I cheered up very quickly upon eating my lunch. Peanut butter never lets me down! I even sang some Scottish tunes (well, Skipinnish) as a belated celebration of Burns Night, something that very much amused Hannah, Sarah and Gregan.
Up to Blue Lake Hut next with the weather having cleared up slightly over lunch. It’s a miracle what food can do! This was just a good old bish bash of a route, nothing too special. Through little forests, across boulders and slips, always keeping the river to our left. There was the occasional red sign letting us know that we were in an avalanche zone, but since there was no snow about, it was kinda irrelevant.

At one point, we saw a guy running towards us that got us slightly worried. Like, when you see someone running, usually they’re in a rush to get somewhere, and usually emergency related when out in the mountains. However, as it turns out, this was just the warden of West Sabine Hut who had been visiting the warden of Blue Lake Hut and he was hustling to get back to his hut and get baking. This was his first week on the job and he was celebrating by making Devonshire scones with cream and jam for everyone who was going to be staying at his hut! This fact very nearly made me turn around and go with him!
However, no, that would be going backwards, and so we continued on until we got to Blue Lake Hut. It was uphill all the way and surrounded by stunning valleys and clouds. Studio Ghibli music would have fitted perfectly as a soundtrack to this place. Blue Lake Hut was stuffed full of people, all sixteen bunks taken by the time we got there, as well as most of the camp spots filled up. We found some space for our tents though, no worries. It was so full for a number of reasons. Firstly, this was a popular tourist hiking destination since Blue Lake (or Rotomairewhenua in Maori) was here, the clearest lake in the southern hemisphere, if not the world. And secondly, lots of TA people had been stuck here since Waiau Pass was impassable this morning due to the cold, wind and rain.

We went and checked out the lake. There were lots of signs asking us not to touch the lake whatsoever. It is sacred to the local iwi, called “tapu” in Maori. But here is some science for you. Distilled water has a visibility of about 80m. Blue Lake has a measured visibility 70-80m. So yeah, very very pure. Since it is so pure, there are no contaminants meaning that it shows water’s natural blue colour very clearly. Just an amazing piece of nature really! Crazy! We spent that evening playing a bit of frisbee and hanging out with Elise, Sevi and Emily Emily. (For those who were wanting references for that piece of science, I just googled it when I had phone service again. Please don’t sue me)


Friday 27th January
The day before, we had left last but this time we were determined to be out at some reasonable time. Rob had not had a good sleep though due to his horrible sleeping mat. Sad times. Anyways, sure enough, we were gone by 07:30 and climbing our way past Blue Lake and towards Lake Constance. That was a fun walk around Lake Constance. It was nestled in a steep sided valley and as a result, we had to climb steep rocky slopes and rock-hop our way along the top of (small) cliffs beside Lake Constance until we reached the boggy ground at the other end.



From here, we walked through the scrub until we reached the beginning of the climb over Waiau Pass. Imagine, like, a wall. Yeah, that’s approximately how steep it was (“approximately” being the key word). One pole, man, what a time to have snapped my pole the previous day! Haha oh well.
We sat and looked at the climb whilst we ate some chocolate bars. Notably, Rob ate a KitKat chunky for the first time. Keep this in mind. We started our climb and Rob just… disappeared. Man oh man. We pulled ourselves up this steep steep rocky slope, climbing and having our leg muscles complain at us. We passed plenty of people though so we must have been shifting, even with me and my one pole! Within half an hour or so, we got ourselves up to the top of Waiau Pass where we got the most… disappointing view. It was cloudy. The views behind us as we were climbing were impressive (an iconic TA photo), and the views whilst descending from the pass were also impressive, but at the top we were in cloud. Ah well. We did get a little bit of signal though and Reid found out he had a new apartment. Exciting!



Rob was disappearing ahead of us again. His reasoning was that he was running to get a bed in the hut so he wouldn’t have to sleep on his bad roll mat, but Reid and I both knew that it was really the KitKat at work. The way down was crazy though. Proper rock climbing. All hands and all feet on the rock. I can see why Waiau Pass becomes impassable in bad weather. It would be properly treacherous, just like the route between Mt. Little Rintoul and Mt. (big) Rintoul!
Reid and I caught up with Elise, Sevi and Emily Emily after the rock climbing bit, and as a group we made our way down the valley following the small trickle that was the Waiau Uwha River. Fallen trees and boulder fields were regular obstacles and the day was scorching down on us. Dinnae fret, I had my suncream on. From this path through small forests and woods and boulder fields we eventually emerged onto the valley floor where we were suddenly walking through fields of golden grass. It was very serene. Grass fronds were up as high as my waist at points and I could hold my hands out on both sides as I walked, my hands running through the fields. Yeah, dreamy. A cruisy path as well, in no time at all we had made it to Waiau Hut.



Well, it turns out that Rob had not got to the hut first despite his effort since Johanna was doing the exact same thing and racing to the hut to get a bed. Still, Reid and I turned up and there were beds left over for us. Winning.
We spent that afternoon chatting with everyone in our little bubble. Emily Emily had decided to push on and wild camp somewhere up ahead. Elise and Sevi came limping in since Elise had hurt her knee. Fingers crossed that turns out OK. Kevin was there too. Hannah and Sarah as well… Yeah, lots of interesting and cool people!
But the coolest thing happened as well. There we were, lying in our beds in the hut when the door banged open and Niv showed up! Legend! When he had heard that we were only a couple days ahead of us, he and Tomer had set off from St Arnaud to try and catch up with us and they’d succeeded! We sat around having a good old natter until Tomer showed up. They left again to go find some quiet wild camp spot further on. We’d see them again no doubt. What a beautiful day.

Saturday 28th January
Well we were in a hut so naturally it is quicker in the morning. I was kinda in a mood for having a bit of time to myself so I left ahead of Rob and Reid. However, when I picked up my one working pole, I was sad. A rat had eaten part of the handle. Can you imagine! Grrrr
Well I got going anyways and found myself brushing through fields of grass on easy paths before too long. There were buckets of really beautiful wild camp spots along the path. Small clearings near the river and under small thickets of trees. Yeah, whilst huts are nice and convenient, to have wild camped out here would have been awesome.

I came across Niv and Tomer at some point. They couldn’t have known I was there though for they were bickering in Hebrew as Tomer gave Niv(+pack!) a piggy back ride across a river. They truly are like an old married couple. Grinning, we all laughed as I passed them and continued on my way, my wet feet making squelching sounds (unlike Niv’s dry feet!).
Man this was such a great walk. I had Tomer’s hat on and the sun trying to make itself known through the dense layer of clouds, making the lighting over the valley really incredible at points. The wind was rising as well and there were wild horses galloping off to my right. It was like I was some Robert Redford character wandering through Rohan. In reality, it was just little old me walking through the Nelson Lakes, but it felt serene and epic.
I caught up with Emily Emily and we had a snack break before we both continued on. I had agreed to meet Rob and Reid at our secret meeting spot up ahead. Whilst we thought that everyone around was really cool, it was very crowded walking the exact same hut-to-hut route that everyone was walking and we wanted to jump off trail for a bit. Therefore, we had done a bit of research and found that we could walk directly to Hanmer Springs, our resupply destination, instead of to Boyle Village and then hitch a ride to Hanmer Springs. There was a junction off of the main TA route that we would be taking.


Therefore, I got to that junction and then lay down in the soft grass and pulled my hat over my face to have a cheeky wee snooze, just like a depression era farmer in the midwest United States. Or so I imagine. Emily Emily passed me, and then Niv and Tomer too before Rob, Reid and Hannah all arrived. They had told Hannah our plan and so she promised to keep our secret as she continued on her way as we went the other way. On our own, woo!
Well, straight away, the path that we were taken was not at all nearly as well trodden. It was actually a cycleway that was closed, the St. James cycleway. This is because there was a bridge across the Waiau Uwha River that had fallen down. We were planning to just do a plain old river crossing there since we had read that it was perfectly possible.

Arriving at Pool hut, we signed the intentions book and then continued on our way to the river crossing. It was flowing fast for sure. This was the biggest river crossing we had done yet. We analysed the river, looking all over for the best point to cross. Sure enough, there seemed to be a good spot which was slightly wider and as a result the flow wasn’t quite as hectic and rushing. Why not give it a go? We headed out, one after another, poking and prodding our way forward with our pole(s), careful steps. We took precautions as well, unclipping our bags so that if we did fall down, we could get out of them quickly and stop them dragging us down. We were quite safe though, the water ever only came up to mid thigh.

Sure enough, several minutes later we were across on the other side giving each other high fives! High elation. It’s funny that doing river crossings or other vaguely treacherous things can bring people together and that we can celebrate it altogether once we were finished. Yeah, it was fun doing that with those two goons.
Well, we weren’t done yet. Continuing on our way, we walked along a nice 4WD track, up and over Charlies Saddle and then down towards Scotties Hut. We spied a car parked beside Scotties Hut so our hunt for solitude was not looking all too promising, but that’s OK. When we did get there, sure enough the hut was filled with other people’s stuff and so we pitched up outside the hut and then dived into them since the sandflies were swarming for sure. Like, there were so many of them that it sounded like rain outside of my tent from the amount of them hitting the outer!



Close to dinner time, the four guys returned who were sleeping in the hut. They were all elderly guys who had spent the day fishing. They were well friendly, inviting us down to the hut and feeding us some of their food. Really good of them since I didn’t have to eat the concentrated wasabi Rob and Reid and jokingly bought for me. We went to bed that night stuffed!
Sunday 29th January
The day dawned and we were up with the sun and hitting the dusty road before too long. Red dust puffed up with each foot fall and it was just very… dry. Reid headed off to Cow Stream Hot Springs but Rob and I weren’t in the mood since it was so darn hot already!
Therefore, Rob and I made our way down the Edwards River towards the closest road where we would then walk along and into Hanmer Springs. We had some good chats along the way, both deep and absolute nonsense. Before long though we put some music in and got going to our own beat and thoughts. This area, St James conservation park kinda looked like what I imagine Nevada or another hot US state to look like.


Well, when we hit the road, we turned right and walked on. However, my headphones had decided to give up the ghost. They had completely stopped working strangely, or at least they were intermittently working with the left earbud being super quiet or crackly. Not so fun. Therefore, since there was no one else around bar Rob (who was out of earshot), I just put some music on out loud and ended up singing as I made my way down these dusty roads towards Hanmer Springs.
Trudging, step following step, Rob and I finally made it to the main, sealed road that led to Hanmer Springs and we settled down here at the junction under the searing sun for a spot of lunch. Reid joined us before long (because he is rapid) and then we started limping along towards town. Not far now. I literally had no food having eaten the last of it for lunch and I only had a small bit of water.
A car pulled up within a couple minutes of walking along this quiet road and we were offered a ride. We all looked at each other. I had no food and barely any water, Rob was tired from not sleeping the best and Reid had a minor issue with his hamstrings. We gratefully took up this offer of a ride. It was, like, only 7km or something so it only saved us a couple hours of walking.
Our ride was a lady called Margie who was an absolute legend. She seems to have worked everywhere epic doing conservation work. Very cool person and she gave us some good suggestions of what to do in town. She dropped us outside of a bakery and we ended up eating some food there. Well, I ate several food things.
We then made our way to the Top10 where we booked ourselves a cabin and crashed. I think I spent the early afternoon asleep as our laundry tumbled round and around. We also picked up some post that had been sent to the Top10 for us. I got my box from Havelock that hadn’t arrived. Reid got new shoes since his Hokas were literally in tatters, and Rob got a new air mattress. Winning all around.
After our laundry was done, we headed out for the evening. We were meeting some TAers at the local Irish Pub. We thought that it would only be a handful of people, but it turned out to be, like, literal tonnes of people. Kevin, Hannah and Sarah, Pierre (woo), Sarah, Linde and Maxime… some other people I had not met before. Yeah, and we just picked up more and more people as the evening went on. We had booked a place at an Indian restaurant as well but honestly, I was kinda embarrassed to be part of a group of, like, 20-30 people eating and making so much noise at a quiet, cosy restaurant. I very much scarpered after I had finished my food. Not my scene. Still, my mango lassi was the envy of the table and they were all ordering it as I was leaving.

Monday 30th January
A zero day once again and I woke up having not slept well at all. This is not going to make sense, but my bed was honestly too soft! I actually was sleeping much better on my firm, broken sleeping pad than on a mattress. How ridiculous is that!?
I spent the day as anyone spends a zero day. I posted some postcards, did some shopping, ate a lot of food, drank some tea at coffee shops and chilled a lot in the afternoon, especially as a thunderstorm was ongoing.
I made myself a nice risotto that evening as Rob and Reid ate some sushi. Hannah and Sarah et co. had made pancakes that morning and had some leftover pancake mix, so they gave it to us which we ended up eating for dinner. We then all watched a film on Reid’s phone. This was a film he had been going on about for a while, The Castle. It was a Aussie classic comedy apparently. I loved it, it is very quotable. Yeah that was a nice end of the day.
(I have literally zero photos from today sorry)
New People
- Hannah and Sarah: Dutch friends who are doing the South Island. Hannah is a fitness junkie and walks much faster than Sarah. Both real cool people.
- Maxime: Belgian guy who hangs out with Linde a lot.
- Zoe: Aussie lady with the smallest pack I’ve seen yet. She’s shooting through, probably will never see her again. Her accent sounds English though.
- Julian: French guy going NoBo
- Scott: Kiwi from Port Waikato going NoBo. Incidentally, he also gave Hannah and Sarah a hitch on the North Island. Random coincidence!
Status
- Physical: 10/10 – no issues, no qualms, no nothing.
- Mental: 9/10 – I feel the end is coming. I don’t want it to.
- Distance covered: 2090km. Maybe I should start introducing an error. (2090 ± 50)km.
- Most memorable moment: Angelus Hut and Sunset Saddle. Running my hands through the strands of waist high grass down from Waiau Pass. And the teamwork crossing the Waiau Uwha River at the McArthur Bridge.
- Toughest moment: Going up Waiau Pass with one pole. Don’t do that kids.
- Burnt-o-meter: 5/10 – definitely red
- Peanut butter jars finished: 13
- Oatly: 79
- Falls: 18
- Song suggestion: Rise; Eddie Vedder
What’s Next?
Next, we head towards Arthur’s Pass. This has always felt like miles and miles away in the future (both, like, time wise and also distance wise) but here it is already! Ah, where is the time going?
From Hanmer Springs, we will catch a shuttle and jump back on the trail at Windy Point before we bump on down, past Lake Sumner (Summer, Sunner, Sunmer… All interchangeable in my writing, sorry), down down down and over Goats Pass and on towards Arthur’s Pass Village where we have a resupply box waiting for us. There are some gnarly river crossings coming up which may be impassable if the weather is unkind to us. And the forecast isn’t looking too good. So fingers crossed we manage to get through this section in a vaguely dry fashion and in time!
Reidso