Day 83: Pano Perfect
January 1, 2020
Kilometers: 1981.9-2004.9
West Sabine Hut to Waiau Hut
Happy New Year! We had a sip of wine, offered to us by a French couple, and proceeded to fall asleep at 8pm. Basically I celebrated NYE like a ninety year old. However, my New Year’s Day was quite productive, especially compared to my usual activities. Today we climbed Waiau Pass and crossed the 2,000 kilometer mark, huge day!
We woke up at 6:30 and were off at 7. We said goodbye to Megan, who is completing the circuit and headed back to St Arnaud. It was back to the three of us, which is nice because Megan didn’t quite walk the same pace as us.
We had 7kms walking upstream next to the river to Blue Lake Hut. We wanted to start fast but the stream crossings at the beginning prevented this. Not wanting to get our shoes wet, especially so early in the day, we tried our hardest to find ways over the streams. At our point we spent 5-10 minutes throwing huge rocks into the stream to try and create a bridge. We eventually gave up and crossed the log instead.
After the stream crossings stopped and the trail made its way a bit inland we were able to get moving. As we walked up the river it got increasing powerful and the trail got steeper. We passed a number of people coming down from Blue Lake Hut.
The sky was hazy all day, making the sun look reddish at times. We think this is because of the huge bush fires happening in Australia and that the smoke has made its way over.
At 9:15 I arrived at Blue Lake Hut and signed into the book. I ate a snack and by the time I was finished Charlie and Peter arrived. We kept walking towards Blue Lake. There are probably thousands of lakes named “Blue Lake” in the world but this one is special. In 2010 and 2011 it was found to be the clearest fresh water body in the world. Visibility is between 75-80 meters. For comparison tap waters visibility is 83 meters. Unfortunately, the lake had some glare on it so we didn’t get a great picture of it as we climbed above it.
Our climb took us up to Lake Constance. This is a very famous lake on the TA, with everyone getting a picture with it in the background as they climb Waiau Pass. The hike around the lake was awesome. We started by climbing up a huge rock scramble and then went up and down huge chutes before eventually making our way down to the shore of the lake.
I quickly realized that regular photos really weren’t capturing nearly any of the view. Most of the day from here on I was taking panoramic pictures in an effort to capture the amazing scenery.
When we got to the far end of the lake we had a grassy valley filled with streams in front of us. The mountains created a bowl around us and it was hard to see exactly where this pass would be.
As we walked further into the valley we crossed a stream and saw the trail lead straight up the rock scramble on the left side of the above picture. It was 11 so we stopped for a lunch before the final push to the top of the pass.
After eating we prepared for a 450 meter climb over 1.5kms, aka straight up. We stuck close to each other as the climb over gravel and loose rock was quite dangerous.
As we climbed we got that iconic view of Lake Constance in the background. We took our time and took some pictures.
After a last scree scramble to the top we were at the saddle. We took a nice long break as we had amazing views in both direction.
We made our way down the other side of the pass, officially leaving Nelson Lakes National Park and the Nelson region altogether. We are now in Canterbury. The way down started very slowly. There were huge drops that required us to take our time getting off the top.
At one point we arrived at a huge snow patch. We took turns sliding down the snow on our butts as it was the fastest way down.
We got down to the river. The river had some nice waterfalls until it flattened out and met up with another river.
With 8kms to go in the day along the river we made good time. The track got easier as we went. We stopped and took a 2,000 kilometer selfie as well.
As we got closer to the hut we saw three other hikers ahead of us. At this point we didn’t care about wet feet and ran through rivers to get ahead of them, hoping it would result in a bunk at the hut. We got to the hut only to find one available bunk. The Belgians told me to take it since I had the one person tent and they have a two person. I got the top middle bunk but it’s definitely better than tenting.
We bathed and all hung out in the hut. It was a nice group of people staying at the hut. For dinner I had pesto pasta. It was great but I had no problem finishing it. At this point in the hike i’m like a black hole when it comes to food. I’ve never been able to eat anywhere near this much food nonstop before.
Tomorrow we have a huge day through the river valley. A marathon awaits us!