Chucky's Adventures: 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