Susan and Carrie's summer tramping adventures -- part 2: February 2023
After a lovely family visit to Lyttelton, we spent 3+ weeks in the far south, and were able to get in three tramping trips.
Irthing Stream/Ridge, Southern Eyre Mountains, February 2-4
While we waited for the mountain weather to clear, we ventured into northern Southland (well away from the Main Divide) and did a 3-day tramp in the Irthing Stream area, at the southern end of the Eyre Mountains.
The middle (long) day of ridge travel turned out to be considerably more of a challenge than we expected, and we (again!) didn’t quite make it to the hut we'd intended to reach. Another unplanned campsite, this one much less comfortable than the one on our January trip from Lewis Pass to Nelson Lakes! All was remedied though, when we got a 4WD ride from a hunter the next day, which saved us 4 hours of hot walking down a gravel track.
The middle (long) day of ridge travel turned out to be considerably more of a challenge than we expected, and we (again!) didn’t quite make it to the hut we'd intended to reach. Another unplanned campsite, this one much less comfortable than the one on our January trip from Lewis Pass to Nelson Lakes! All was remedied though, when we got a 4WD ride from a hunter the next day, which saved us 4 hours of hot walking down a gravel track.
The Five Passes, Mt Aspiring National Park, February 9-14
The Irthing ridge adventure took us a few days to recover from, which we spent at a campground in Glenorchy, again waiting on the weather for our second Big Trip of the summer. Finally the weather came right, and (with the aid of a jet boat drop-off to the start point) we headed out to do the Five Passes route in Mt Aspiring National Park. This is an amazing journey through some of the park's most spectacular terrain, with no huts, and mostly with no marked tracks. We had done the route previously in 2009, and I swear the hills have got higher and the valleys longer since then!
We made some strategic decisions along the way about how to portion out the distance over the days we had, and were really pleased that despite our much-slower-than-2009 pace, we were still able to savour the experience. We ended late in the afternoon of Day 6 footsore but very satisfied — especially when we managed to hitch a ride back to Glenorchy in less than 10 minutes!
We made some strategic decisions along the way about how to portion out the distance over the days we had, and were really pleased that despite our much-slower-than-2009 pace, we were still able to savour the experience. We ended late in the afternoon of Day 6 footsore but very satisfied — especially when we managed to hitch a ride back to Glenorchy in less than 10 minutes!
Mataketake Range, South Westland, February 17-19
Our third southern trip (on our way home) was deliberately gentler. We walked part of the historic “Haast to Paringa Cattle Track” (the original road into South Westland), and then went up to and along the Mataketake Range to visit a very special new hut that was built with a bequest from long-time conservationist Andy Dennis. Our plans to explore the area further the following day were foiled by clouds and rain, so instead we enjoyed a comfortable rest day in an incredible location.