An epic weekend spent picking off a few huts in the Travers valley in Nelson Lakes National Park.
The trip began with us all meeting at Wellington Train Station to catch a 3.45pm sailing to the South Island. With Daniel and Mon in the group, we spent a lot of time talking about club policies! After arriving in Picton, we drove to Blenheim for some dinner. After dinner (Burger King for most of us) we drove to St Arnaud, where we stayed at the Top House Cabins, a few kilometres outside St Arnaud. This was super cosy and we all enjoyed having a bed and hot shower before heading off on our tramp. We would definitely recommend staying there if any other trips are visiting the area.
The next morning we set off at 7am to catch our 7.30am ferry from Kerr Bay, at Lake Rotoiti. It was noted that we were all disappointed that the club treasurer (Daniel) did not wake up at 6am to set up all the WTMC bill payments that needed to be paid, as promised. Hamish was an awesome skipper and sped us across the Lake to our first hut – Lakehead Hut. We set off from the jetty at 8am and the hut was only about 10 minutes away, so we went there quickly before setting off up the valley.
After just over an hour, we crossed Travers River via a swing bridge that connects to the main track up the valley. On our way to the Hopeless Hut turn off, we came across a couple of small detours (due to rock slips), but these are easily navigable, and the track is very well maintained.
After crossing another bridge, which was both a 2-person and a 1-person swing bridge (some conflicting signs on either side) we were at the Hopeless Hut turn off. Most of us dropped our packs here and then we headed up the valley. This was a fairly easy 4km long section with 5 stream crossings. We got to Hopeless Hut around midday and enjoyed lunch in a nicely warmed hut, with lovely views out to the valley and, looking up, to Sunset Saddle. We were also pleased to see that the last group in the logbook was another WTMC group from the previous weekend who had come through from Angelus Hut.
We got back to the main track fairly quickly and the entire detour with our 30 minute lunch stop, ended up being 3 hours. With this side trip to bag Hopeless Hut behind us, we continued up the valley for a further 4.5km before reaching John Tait Hut. We had a quick 15 minute break here and chatted to a guy named Stephen – a photographer from Great Barrier Island and the only other person we’d seen the whole day.
We stayed on the main track for a further 15 minutes (1km) before reaching the Cupola Hut turn off. We then followed this track for 3.5km, which took us just over 2 hours, and reached Cupola Hut around 5.30pm. This track was slightly more rooty than the main track, but was still in really good condition. It was mostly flat for the first hour, before we started sidling up the hill. For those using GPS, the topo map track isn’t super accurate. You sidle more up the hill instead of switchbacking (as the map suggests). Either way, this climb was actually easier than we had expected, but we were still pretty happy to get to the hut. Once we got to Cupola Hut, we dropped our packs and headed about 100m behind the hut to a flat clearing and checked out the views. This is definitely recommended as you get a full 360-degree view from this spot.
After many photos we headed back to the hut and started making dinner. Following dinner, we all settled in for an early night. With the fire going the hut was really warm and it was relaxing to listen to the wind and rain on the roof. We knew the weather forecast for Sunday was worse, so we were not surprised to have the hut all to ourselves.
The next morning, after a quick breakfast and a tidy of the hut, we set off into the rain. We definitely did not muck around and we fairly quickly descended into Travers Valley, passing John Tait Hut and the Hopeless Hut turnoff.
It was really windy and we could see quite a bit of damage on the track and occasionally heard a large branch crashing through the canopy nearby. I was quite grateful we had done our Hopeless Hut detour the day before, as there were quite a few stream crossings which could have been a bit more interesting today due to the heavy rain. The rain made the terrain underfoot far more interesting – it didn’t necessarily feel like we were traversing the same track that we had the previous day.
Around 1pm we arrived at Coldwater Hut, where we all dried off and had a belated lunch while we waited for Hamish (the skipper) to come and pick us up. We had arranged to be picked up at 3.30pm, so we all checked to see if we had any signal so we could call him and ask if he could come and get us earlier. But no such luck. So we spent the time getting warm and having plenty of hot tea.
Just after 3pm, Hamish arrived, and we all piled into his boat and sped off up Lake Rotoiti. It was a bit choppy in sections, but smoothed out by the time we got to Kerr Bay. We all loaded into the van and began the drive north to Picton.
In Picton we all parted to find some dinner. We then got into line to board the Bluebridge ferry with what seemed to be the North Island division of the Hells Angels. We were all expecting fairly horrendous weather for the sailing, as a few of the other sailings had been cancelled and our friends and family were contacting us about how bad the weather was in Wellington. We really should have had more faith in the Bluebridge ticket lady who told us that as it was a northerly there would basically be no swell. She was completely right! We had a very smooth sailing and arrived in Wellington at around 11pm, just as the wind in Wellington was dying down. Perfect timing! We had definitely had a great weekend with awesome company and were grateful for the good weather on the Saturday.
Saturday: Lakehead Hut – Hopeless Hut – Cupola Hut (via John Tait Hut)
27.5km, total time 9.5 hours, walking time 8 hours, 1,250m ascent, 500m descent.
Sunday: Cupola Hut – Coldwater Hut
20km, total time 6 hours, walking time 5.5 hours, 275m ascent, 1,050m descent
For a snowcrafter’s ascent of Mt Cupola go to Holy Cupola!