Hadfields Te Araroa Blog - HADFIELDS HIKING TE ARAROA 2015-16, 16-17 & 17-18

Pt6 Day 16. Upper Travers Hut to Blue Lake Hut - 30/03/17

30/3/2017

We left the hut about 0755 this morning - always a bit later than we plan, but still not long after the light is good enough for us (generally around 0730)! We got to Blue Lake Hut at 1700 covering 14.5km, so a 9 hour day in total, involving around 7h50 walking. The GPS data for the day is here.

Lots of photos again today as the day was very varied with lots of great scenery from our viewpoint! The day started with a climb up to Travers Saddle which, at 1787m, is almost 400m higher than the hut. Markus and Nana had left a little before us. You are pretty soon above the bushline, into mainly tussock and rock :-), with some lovely views back down towards the hut and the Travers River. We did notice that the mist was rolling into the valley behind us, so a good time to be heading up! We passed Markus on the way up - he is an avid photographer and was setting up a shot back down the valley. We arrived at the Travers Saddle after 1hr20 and 2km, enjoying a 15 minute break with Markus and Nana there as well, before heading off down the other side on a long descent.

A clean and tidy Upper Travers Hut upon departure :-)

Starting off towards Travers Saddle.

Slightly flatter at this point, but more climbing to come!

30 minutes after starting and hints of mist rolling in behind us.

Stream pouring off a little plateau - we topped up water from this soon after. Still half an hour to the saddle.

We still just love this rugged landscape.

Nearer the top and some pockets of snow still hanging around in the shady spots.

Still upward!

From the same spot as the previous shot but looking back down into the Travers valley - mist thickening back there.

Markus and Nana at the saddle - Markus has a tripod and remote control so selfies are not a problem for them!!

B, on the other hand, is adept at getting rocks to act as "tripod"!

Pano from the saddle - the centre looks directly back where we have come from (note well worn path!).

From here, we knew we had a >1000m descent before climbing back up again to Blue Lake Hut!! We headed off first, initially down a fairly steep rocky descent. Not long after, the descent continued down a steep ridge through beech - this part was pretty treacherous because of the mud generated by the overnight rain. Suffice to say we took it rather slowly!! The initial ~900m descent was over about 2.5 km. This took us down to the Sabine River East Branch which we more or less followed (but with some ups and downs) - this was a bit muddy in places, with some small steep pinches thrown in for good measure. This took us over to the Sabine River West Branch (~160m lower than where we hit the East Branch), which we followed up for a short distance to West Sabine Hut, reaching there at 1310. This was about 5.25 hours in total (about 5hr walking) - we were pretty happy with that especially given the slow nature of parts of the descent from Travers Saddle.

More reminders of winter avalanches! At this stage the mist was quite thick where we were heading.

Heading down from the saddle initially through tussock and rock.

Another shot of the misty valley :-)

B found an interesting white rock for a bit of variety!

Looking back up to the saddle as B descends. Nearing the treeline at this stage.

B took this from about the same place looking down to the forested ridge we were about to hit.

Heading down into the bush.

As we were on a fairly distinct ridge, we got some good views out from the bush as we descended.

Some bigger trees as we got lower of course.

Another rocky section as we neared the West Sabine River East Branch.

The West Sabine finally appears.

Going was variable - this was logs dropped into a bog (we started referring to them as a "bushman's boardwalk"!!).

A "real" bridge .........

..... and the chasm below that necessitated it - I estimate the water was a good 20m below in this very narrow, deep channel!

Some of the going as we tracked around above the river.

Not many smooth bits to be had here (pretty normal)!

A little bit of riverbed walking.

And finally at West Sabine Hut for a lunch break.

Left this hut at 1400 and it took us the full 3hrs to get to Blue Lake Hut, including a couple of brief rests along the way. This was a climb of about 520m over 7km. There were more stunning mountains to view, but this part of the track was mostly in bush. There were some steeper bits along the way, including the last bit to Blue Lake Hut. Some parts were a little muddy, but not too bad overall. We arrived feeling a little tired about 1700 and, after dropping off our packs, shot straight down to Blue Lake for a look at the beautiful clear water. Belinda could hear and see some activity up the slope from the lake, so we assumed we were due some nobo company! Not long after we got back to the hut, three nobos turned up - Josephine from Germany, Nic (Wanaka) and Hayden (US). Markus and Nana followed half an hour later. This is a nice serviced 16 bunk hut but we were a little more restricted than usual due to the fact that the nobo hikers had got a little wet and spread tents etc around the hut to dry! As usual, everybody retired pretty soon after dark!

The luxury of a swingbridge with a wooden base instead of netting!!

And a "not so" swingbridge with an alternative type of wooden base!!

More lovely clear mountain streams abound.

Negotiating yet another rockslide that has come down into the river.

A slightly more open section gives views of what is ahead of us.

We were on the true left bank and started coming across all these relatively fresh boulders and tree damage.

Initially confusing as we couldn't see how they had come down from the hills on our side of the river.

B shooting the gap! Same spot as last photo, from the other side.

Eventually looking across to the true right we saw the source of all the rocks on our side. Must have been a huge slide that would have initially blocked the river and carried large boulders right across!!