Goat Pass

February 26

Bealey Hut to Goat Pass Hut

KM 2183

Distance: 20km 

Elevation: ascent 649m, descent 309m

Steps: 33,400

Time: 7:50am - 4:00pm

This morning's walk consisted of 4km on a road and 5km along a grassy, scrubby, featureless river flat. Aside from crossing the mighty Waimakariri River, 

and this photo of me using a rope (add that to the list of types of conveyance we've encountered on the TA), there was nothing of interest so let's just move on.

The remainder of today's section was in Arthur's Pass, through the Mingha River valley up to the hut at Goat Pass. This is the same Goat Pass used for running section of the famous Coast to Coast adventure race and we saw more than 20 runners on the track doing in 1 day what we're doing in 2. To be fair, they're not lugging massive backpacks.

The scenery is just beautiful, and looking up and down these river valleys just takes your breath away. The other thing that takes your breath away are the "minor" diversions where the track has been washed away for about 10m... and the diversion takes about 15 minutes, directly up the hill, bushbashing across the top of the washout, and then directly back down... Let's just say that this adds a bit of timne to your mental estimate of how long it will take to get to the hut.

Coming across these boardwalks felt like absolute luxury compared to the the track we'd scrambled, climbed and tripped over earlier. We can think of several other sections of the TA which could benefit from boardwalks. Looking at you Longwood Forest!

This is the actual Goat Pass, the saddle at the top. The hut was only another 10 min on from here. The valley slopes had multiple waterfalls, and we can only imagine how much more amazing they would look after rain.

And here is Goat Pass Hut. Well maintained and spacious with 20 bunks. It's 5:30pm and there's 8 other people so far.