We met bright and early on Boxing Day morning and boarded the ferry. Thankfully it was a very calm crossing over to the South Island so the Christmas over indulgences were forgiven. The weather forecast for the next 10 days was beginning to look a little foreboding but, keeping our fingers crossed that it wouldn’t turn into anything, we started out on the long drive south to Glenorchy, via Queenstown.
Two days, many miles and hundreds of photos of stunning scenery later, we arrived at our campsite in Glenorchy. Surrounded by awesome mountain and lake scenery, and arriving in beautiful sunny weather, it was hard to imagine the weather that was still being forecast to come our way over the next few days. After consulting numerous maps and closely analysing the weather forecasts, we decided that we would have to scrap our original tramp route of the Rees Dart as if the weather did come through, we’d be stuck by swollen rivers by day two. Instead, we decided that we’d play it safe for another two days and allow the weather to show itself before we made our next move so we headed off in the direction of the non-river crossing Sugar Loaf overnighter.
The Sugar Loaf proved to be quite a steep learning curve for me. Suffice to say that by the end of the two days, I had learnt a huge amount about tramping nutrition and how to pack a pack correctly! After a long day of tramping, and being rewarded for our efforts with some incredible valley views, we spent the evening battling it out with hundreds of demon sand flies! I can definitely vouch for the fact that they prefer the taste of fresh foreigners and in this instance; I definitely took one for the team!
After arriving back in Glenorchy from the tramp, we realised that the weather forecast had indeed been accurate so we started to re-think our tramping plans for the rest of the trip. We decided that the following day we would do the first day of the Routeburn Track before heading off in the direction of Wanaka.
Having tramped the first day of the track, I’d love to go back and do the whole of the Routeburn. Again we saw some incredible views, even if we did get more than a little bit soggy on the way back out in the afternoon as the weather front had finally hit the area.
After a fairly lengthy but beautiful drive, we arrived at our campsite in Wanaka and over the coming days headed off for a few tramps around the lake and up Mount Roy.
After celebrating New Years in the minibus parked in the Wanaka campsite, sipping Baileys and eating chocolate, on the 1st January, we started the drive back up north towards Kaikoura in the hope that the weather would hold out long enough for us to be able to do a day walk up to Saw Cut Gorge before getting our ferry back to Wellington on the 4th January.
Having driven over the top of a number of heavily swollen rivers on the way back up, it seemed unlikely that we’d be able to do the final walk but as luck would have it, we turned the corner into the Gorge’s catchment to find very low flowing rivers. Enjoying the first bit of sunshine we’d seen in a few days, we walked up to the Gorge and ate lunch just on the other side of the Saw Cut before then heading back to the minibus and eventually on to the ferry for our return crossing.
After not having the weather we had all hoped for, the trip turned out to be quite a bit different to that which we had originally planned but it still proved to be a good break away spending time with some great people and getting to see some incredible places. Thanks to all who came along, did the many many miles of driving, dehydrated the food and poured over maps and weather forecasts!