3/28/18
We drove into Nelson Lakes NP and had breakfast by ourselves on the shore of Lake Rotoiti. Under the dock we saw lots of these huge black eels. After breakfast we hiked the Robert Ridge Track to Lake Angelus. It was an awesome hike; all in the alpine and with great mountain views as well as a cool ridge traverse. We had wanted to stay at the Lake Angelus hut, but it was booked up because of the Easter holiday. The lake and hut were very beautiful : in a cirque with Mt. Angelus looming behind. We decided to hike up to Sunset Pass. The route went past some reflective tarns. From the pass, we hiked a nearby peak, which offered expansive views. We made it back to the hut just before sunset. It was then a 3 hour descent to the hut we'd be staying at (Speargrass Hut). It was quite tricky! We had to do 1/2 of it in the dark, and it had multiple stream crossing without bridges (2 of them we could find no other way but to take our shoes off and ford them). The trail was not easily marked, and we lost it a couple of times before having to backtrack. It was difficult route finding because of wash outs from floods and the dark. We saw a possum as well as saw the moonrise. We finally made it, and we were happy that it was a cute little hut and more importantly, we had it all to ourselves!
3/29/18
We had a chill morning in the hut. We started a fire for cozyness and relaxed after the long day the yesterday. We hiked back to the carpark, then drove back to the lake to have lunch. It was funny b/c we were sitting on this dock with a nice view of the mtns. Enjoying our lunch, watching the eels below us and talking to the ducks next to us. All of a sudden one of the big backpacker busses stopped. It was full of mostly british sounding people of about 18. They did the classic peacocking. The boys all jumped into the water and acted like it wasn't cold and the girls all took their sexy selfies. At one point they rudely asked us to get off the dock, despite us being in the middle of lunch, so that they could take pictures on it. We were nice and did it, and were amused at how they were all acting with their phones and the guy-girl interactions. Later, via ads on social media, I learned that the dock we were having lunch on is one of those must take a photo from locations in NZ, thus, the reason why the bus stopped there.
After lunch, I hiked/ran the S. Arnaud Range trail up to a peak above Lake Rotoiti while Elisha chilled by the lake and had some icecream. There were amazing views from the top! Mountains all around including the Travers Range and Kahurangi mountains in the far distance. And of course the huge lake Roiti below as well as several sparkling tarns. Because Elisha was waiting, I hustled as quick as I could up. I made it to the top in 1hr and 18 minutes (supposed to take 3 hrs). When I got back down, I of course jumped into the lake to cool off! We spent the night along a river near Matueka.
Elisha was driving to get to Matueka. We went past the turn off for our campsite, so she tried to turn into a driveway to turn around, but ended up smashing into a rock wall. It was shocking, but all it did was create a big dent in the bumper. We had bought the extra insurance for the car, incase something like this happened, so it wasn't a huge deal.
We drove into Nelson Lakes NP and had breakfast by ourselves on the shore of Lake Rotoiti. Under the dock we saw lots of these huge black eels. After breakfast we hiked the Robert Ridge Track to Lake Angelus. It was an awesome hike; all in the alpine and with great mountain views as well as a cool ridge traverse. We had wanted to stay at the Lake Angelus hut, but it was booked up because of the Easter holiday. The lake and hut were very beautiful : in a cirque with Mt. Angelus looming behind. We decided to hike up to Sunset Pass. The route went past some reflective tarns. From the pass, we hiked a nearby peak, which offered expansive views. We made it back to the hut just before sunset. It was then a 3 hour descent to the hut we'd be staying at (Speargrass Hut). It was quite tricky! We had to do 1/2 of it in the dark, and it had multiple stream crossing without bridges (2 of them we could find no other way but to take our shoes off and ford them). The trail was not easily marked, and we lost it a couple of times before having to backtrack. It was difficult route finding because of wash outs from floods and the dark. We saw a possum as well as saw the moonrise. We finally made it, and we were happy that it was a cute little hut and more importantly, we had it all to ourselves!
3/29/18
We had a chill morning in the hut. We started a fire for cozyness and relaxed after the long day the yesterday. We hiked back to the carpark, then drove back to the lake to have lunch. It was funny b/c we were sitting on this dock with a nice view of the mtns. Enjoying our lunch, watching the eels below us and talking to the ducks next to us. All of a sudden one of the big backpacker busses stopped. It was full of mostly british sounding people of about 18. They did the classic peacocking. The boys all jumped into the water and acted like it wasn't cold and the girls all took their sexy selfies. At one point they rudely asked us to get off the dock, despite us being in the middle of lunch, so that they could take pictures on it. We were nice and did it, and were amused at how they were all acting with their phones and the guy-girl interactions. Later, via ads on social media, I learned that the dock we were having lunch on is one of those must take a photo from locations in NZ, thus, the reason why the bus stopped there.
After lunch, I hiked/ran the S. Arnaud Range trail up to a peak above Lake Rotoiti while Elisha chilled by the lake and had some icecream. There were amazing views from the top! Mountains all around including the Travers Range and Kahurangi mountains in the far distance. And of course the huge lake Roiti below as well as several sparkling tarns. Because Elisha was waiting, I hustled as quick as I could up. I made it to the top in 1hr and 18 minutes (supposed to take 3 hrs). When I got back down, I of course jumped into the lake to cool off! We spent the night along a river near Matueka.
Elisha was driving to get to Matueka. We went past the turn off for our campsite, so she tried to turn into a driveway to turn around, but ended up smashing into a rock wall. It was shocking, but all it did was create a big dent in the bumper. We had bought the extra insurance for the car, incase something like this happened, so it wasn't a huge deal.
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