Short and sweet

March 10
Blue Lake Hut to West Sabine Hut
KM 2002.5
Distance: 7km 
Elevation: ascent 28m, descent 543m
Steps: 13,600
Time: 9:30am - 1:00pm

We had a very relaxed morning, with Vaughan getting some birding done and Eliza doing some morning stretches that she is hoping to make routine. Both of us were feeling our quads today, and all of Eliza's muscles around her ankles were very sore, and not wanting to work first thing this morning - she looked like a drunk just trying to get to the toilets!

All of today was walking alongside the Sabine River, which pumps quite a bit more water than the rivers we've been walking up and down for a while now. It made for some spectacular scenery as we walked beside it. This is still a very active landscape though, so the trail was broken at times by rockfalls and places where the track had been washed away by rains, rockfalls, or avalanche; so while I say it was "relatively" easy, I definitely would not recommend this track as anyone's first foray into overnight tramping.
In addition to being alongside a beautiful river, we were also walking through some more of our beloved beech forest. Here, the entire undergrowth is dominated by some spongy and verdant plants, that give the whole understory a beautiful green glow.
Even with the ridiculously short day (3 hours on the trail notes; 3.5 hours on the signs), we still made time to stop for lunch. This robin (toutouwai) immediately landed near us, and enthralled us for the entirety of our lunch break. It had no fear of us, just a deep sense of disappointment that we had not brought sufficient offerings (food) for it.
Just a little bit later on this track, we were followed for several hundred meters by this black coloured fantail, swooping in between the two of us on the trail to gather up the small insects that were disturbed by our passing. 

This is a very steep-sided valley, and the waterfalls down the slopes are absolutely spectacular. I was tempted to stop and get photos of all of them, but then that would turn this blog into a waterfall-appreciation-only blog, and we do have other things to tell you about :)

A short day today, planned as active recovery between doing the Waiau Pass yesterday and the Travers Saddle tomorrow. Both have incredibly steep elevation profiles (see below, we're moving from right to left and this covers three days of travel for us), so today it was very nice to have the relatively easy, short, downhill section in between the two scary peaks.
Something about our mentality when we have a short day planned means that even though it's only been a few hours, and easy ones at that, we are still very glad to see the hut! You can't get the scale of it in this photo from across the swingbridge.
So maybe this photo of the inside can give you a feel for this spacious 30-bunk hut. So very different from some of the 3-bunk basic huts and bivvies we've stayed in!
 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Happy Thought for 14 February 2025

Happy Thought for 25 July 2025

Happy Thought for 27 June 2025