After a lovely sailing on the Interislander on Friday, we arrived at Spring Creek Holiday Park in the early evening and were able to get organised ahead of our tramp.
The following day, after a quick coffee and bakery stop in Kaikoura, we ventured to the Mount Fyffe Rd road end, and began our tramp at around 10 am.
We started on the the track leading to the Mt Fyffe summit, hauling ourselves up the 4WD track, reaching Mount Fyffe Hut after a sweaty and grunty climb to 1100 metres elevation. The views out over Kaikoura were stunning. Rain and cloud were forecast, but we had great weather for the whole trip!
We continued on towards the Mount Fyffe summit (it is easy, non-technical terrain) and looked out towards Gables End ahead of us – a peak on the range at 1592m elevation. (Note: “gable” is an architectural term which relates to the slope/pitch of a roof). On the left, looking out towards Snowflake (a peak on the Range at 1870 m) and the lower Kowhai River, there were stunning scrubby mountain views. On our right, the cloud and clag hung to the side of the mountain, so we were not able to see the views out to the East.
Once on the tops, the track passes through scree and rock, but is easy going, winding up and down over the hills. During summer, this route would be super-hot, and we were glad there was some cloud cover. We occasionally had views of Manakau (a peak at 2608 m), but it was mostly shrouded in mist.
Gables End is an interesting feature – you traverse some exposed terrain (but its nothing at all tricky), however it’s mostly a nice wide ridge.
Looking down towards Kowhai Saddle, the track starts to get a bit rougher and there is more scree to descend. There are three scree slopes. The first is the more adrenaline-inducing descent, as you need to descend down loose rock and scree in a near vertical position (with occasional bottom scooting). This requires great care and time/patience. The second and third scree slopes were much more forgiving, and at some points you could dig your heels in and “run down”.
As we descended to Kowhai Saddle, we saw some of the impressive and rugged lower spurs that had been carved out by erosion.
As we had a snack at Kowhai Saddle before descending down to the Hapuku River, we looked up at some impressive mountains, including Uwerau (a peak at 2213 m) on the right.
There was yet another “scree run” down to a river, and a further hour of walking before we reached Hapuku Hut. It had been a 9.5 -hour day.
Hapuku Hut is a small hut (6 beds) and it was fully occupied by the time we got there at around 7pm. A few minutes beyond the Hut there is a great flat area for camping – a large enough space to pitch multiple tents- so we pitched our tents there in the mist and drizzle.
It had been a perfect day.
We needed to have an early night so we could rise early and be out at the road end by 10 am, in order to make it to Picton in time for our 2pm ferry sailing.
The walk from Hapuku Hut to the Grange Rd road end via the Hapuku River was stunning. We estimated it would take about 3-4 hours to reach the road end, as we needed to traverse a steep diversion (above a slip), which adds a good 40 minutes to the trip time.
The first hour after leaving Hapuku Hut is a mix of bush and rock hopping over the stunning Hapuku River. You then go around a bend and see a DOC sign stating it’s a further 2 hour walk to the road end (however, due to the required slip diversion, it’s more like a further 2.5 hours to the road end).
Once in the river, it is a beautiful walk on the wide riverbed, criss-crossing through streams, with some minor rock hopping.
Day 1 (Saturday) – total time 8.40 hrs (incl breaks)
16.9 km distance
1744 m elevation
1453 m descent
Day 2 (Sunday) – total time 3.25 hrs
7.71 km distance
200 metres elevation
623 metres descent