Blue Lake Hut, Nelson Lakes NP

Though our trip didn’t quite turn out as planned, we still had a good week away in Nelson Lakes National Park.

We began up Robert Ridge in wonderful conditions; occasional light breezes, with clouds only low in the valley. When out of the wind, the sun was lovely and warm. As we progressed further to Angelus Hut, more and more snow lay on the route, but crampons were not needed in the sunny, soft conditions.

From Angelus, we traversed icy slopes under overcast skies and freshening breezes to Mt Cedric. Lake Rotoroa lay before us, enticing us 1000m down to Sabine Hut and a (very) short swim.

By day 3, the weather was still holding, allowing us a long day of valley travel up to Blue Lake at the head of the Sabine River. 8hrs felt like a long day, but the Lake and views were worth it.

During the night, the heavens opened with a Bibilical downpour. Next morning, it took fast, careful progress down valley to avoid getting stuck between flooding side creeks. Safely at West Sabine Hut, we spent a rainy afternoon reading books and enjoying being dry.

The rain still hadn't abaited next morning, but not long after leaving, the raincoats came off. They stayed off almost all of the trip back down to the lake. We were amazed to see the lake had risen about 70 cm, putting the Sabine Jetty calf deep under water! After another (shorter) swim and getting ourselves snug and dry in the hut, the skies opened again.

All that remained was a two day trudge through the bush, via Speargrass hut. Thankfully the worst of the precipitation was during the night, so we didn't get too wet during the day.

After 4 days of enforced cold, wet, bush travel, we were quite ready for a change of scenery, good food and hot showers.

Discovering the cached can of Export Gold up at 'Relax' Shelter

Carefully traversing steep, snowy slopes


Robert Ridge

Descending to the hut, beneath Mt Angelus

Angelus Hut

Perfectly clear night skies

Another great day

Traversing to Mt Cedric

Dropping to Sabine Hut, Lake Rotoroa

Lake Rotoroa

'Holey Tree, Batman!'

Sabine Valley

Sabine Gorge

Upper Sabine Valley, beneath Moss Pass

Blue Lake

Escaping the flooded Sabine Valley

Sun's out again (but not for long)

Just to prove how much rain we had...

Settling in for a rainy afternoon at Sabine Hut

Last night at Speargrass Hut

Back at St Arnaud, just in time for the weather to clear

Feeding the local's off the (non submerged) Lake Rotoiti jetty

Richardson Stream

Plan A was a climb of Mt Rolleston, but as the weather forecast developed, it was clearly not going to be suitable anywhere on the main divide. Something in the foothills was the ticket, though Toine was rather surprised when I suggested Canyoning in mid May!

We agreed to go check out Richardson Stream, on the other side of the ridge to Tui Canyon, hoping for similar geology and therefore a good canyon. After a late night and early start, we made a car shuttle into the Ashley Gorge. In the chill of the morning, we wondered if this really was a good idea and nearly bailed.

Back at Glentui Rd end, the sun peeked into the valley. With a bit of movement and hill climbing, things actually got nice and warm :) The start of the stream wasn't very exciting, with just a few sections of 'half canyon' and lots of boulder scrambles, though about half way down, some drops and pools had us putting on wetsuits.

Richardson had a number of nice canyon sections and features, but unfortunately they are all very spaced out, with lots of stream walking and boulder hopping in between. Just when we thought we were about to arrive at the Ashley river, Richardson stream cut through a nice section of canyon and even over a 15m waterfall!

Once at the Ashley, we proceeded upstream, with fords up to belly level. According to the eCan website, the Ashley was flowing at 13 cumecs and I wouldn't really want to try fording it much higher than this. Indeed, you'd need to be swimming from (large) eddy to eddy above this flow. The end of the trip was a shock, with 1.5hrs of rough bush bashing through native and introduced rough foliage. 9hrs car to car.

A reasonable amount of ok canyon, but too much walking to make it worth repeating. Though the Ashley Gorge itself looks like it would be excellent fun to tube in low flows.

Toine's in a hurry....

Lots of stream walking.

Finally, wetsuits on and small sections of 'canyon'

Nick on R2

Last little canyon bit near the end

Last drop

Finally at the Ashley River

Only 1.5hrs of slog/bushbashing to go