Dear Diary: The D'Urville and Sabine for Xmas

Machine-read text (unproofread)

Read from the scans by software, so it contains mistakes. Typing it up properly would help blind readers: use Suggest an edit.

Dear Diary: The D'Urville and Sabine for Xmas DAY ONE We settle it. Up the scree slope opposite, nice and easy. Well, Dear Diary, reading your earlier it was. Harriet now hanging pages tells me that it is 17 on for dear life and Frank making years since I last saw a Nelson helpful clucky noises. Andrew Lakes Valley quite a time. is halfway up and David and Matthew But here I am on the Lake Rotoroa go for the Top. Midday, and Jetty watching Andrew on the we are all on the top standing launch balancing himself and in a good thickness of snow in the packs we hand to him. All the sunshine. Lake Thompson aboard and up the lake in 20 over there to the right sitting minutes. Beats walking any day. in a hanging valley and surrounded At the Sabine Valley Jetty Matthew by snow. Waiau Valley down there and Frank depart with our food but we had better take this rocky drop to place it "somewhere" = spur down first to avoid the up the valley. Now over to the snow sliding off that scree with D'Urville Valley where Harriet, merry abandon. In the middle Andrew and David head for Bull afternoon we are finished with Creek to pitch camp while I wait the scree slopes and spur, and in the mist and drizzle for Matthew pitch the fly at the foot of and Frank and repair a broken the Waiau Pass. The highest pack strap. vegetation around here is 30 cm high snow grass; hope it DAY TWO don't rain. Crawled out of the pit to find DAY FIVE cloud, mist and snow down to the bushline. David is a keen Well, Diary, could not miss the and energetic fire maker he route with a sign that size at was up one and a half hours earlier the bottom. Up we go, around to have the fire ready for breakthe bluffs and up a spur. Near fast. So, Diary, we walked up the top we find frozen snow in the D'Urville Valley to Ella the gullies so it's out onto Hut in off-and-on rain. Glimpsed the rock. Yes, Harriet, just put a foot in that small crack snow on the tops now and again and reach carefully shut through the cloud. The offer Frank! Andrew, up of a warm hut for the night we up, you are at could not refuse. the top? From the top of the range we cross in the snow to the Waiau Pass. Beautiful day, DAY THREE can see Lake Thompson sitting in its valley in the distance, Dear Diary, a beautiful day! and we admire Lake Constance Plenty of snow on the tops though. held in by a huge terminal moraine. Onwards past the Moss Pass turnoff Down the scree to the valley through bush and gorge. We lunch floor, the scree is just the in the sun near the Biv. and right size for running in this camp in the last patch of bush time. Lunch at Lake Constance. in the early afternoon. No sand- Now around the lake shore and flies! up the steep gut to arrive above the bluffs. That was the easy DAY FOUR part, the next hour is across a trackless slope of snow grass Blast it, Diary! The mist is and Horrid Spaniard. Eventually doing a down again, up again six pincushion trampers reach act today. But not to be deterred the moraine and cross it to see we go up river to boulders, scree, Blue Lake nestled behind another and snow grass, scattered between but smaller bush-covered terminal layers of garnet schist and moraine. We make a nice campsite daisies. Well, here we are in in the bush at the end of the the head of the valley, but where lake. is Thompson Pass? The mist lifts and dips could be there DAY SEVEN lifts again, but could also be there mist drops again. Yesterday was a rest day, Diary, Trouble is we have three maps sunshine and no sandflies. Blue and two different places marked Lake was beautiful to look at for Thompson Pass. Argue, chew but too cold to swim in, as some MacIntoshs, and photograph daisies. of us found out by a midwinter What about the snow up there? swim in midsummer! This morning we left for Sabine Forks, photoand that leaves David and me graphing reflections in a large plodding at the rear. A patch tarn on the way. Funny thing of snow some time later is an finding that huge block of ice excuse for all to stop and make sitting out at the bottom of a drink. Angelus Hut is reached a steep side gully. Just like shortly afterwards at 5.30 pm, a very small glacier. We have which makes this the longest a brief rest at the Forks, but day of the trip. no lunch until the food drop is reached. Two hours later DAY ELEVEN Frank and Matthew find the food and we tuck in. A campsite is Woke yesterday to find mist peeping found not too far away, and that's in the windows of the hut after it for the day. a night of heavy rain and wind. So we stayed put. Today the DAY EIGHT mist and wind are left on the tops as we travel down Hukere A rest day, Diary? Why not. Stream to the Travers Valley. We wash off some of the accumu- Lay in the sun after lunch brushing lated dirt from ourselves and off sandflies. We plod on. our clothes. Frank gets a personal Take in more sunshine at Lake Head massage from Harriet, and David Hut and eventually pitch camp tries photographing trout. near Lake Rotoiti. DAY NINE DAY TWELVE Diary, this is the day we tackle Mt Cedric. Frank and Harriet Well, Diary, nearly there. Two leave at 6.30 am, the rest of and a half hours' walk around us follow an hour later. Sabine the lake to St Arnaud where we Hut and Lake Rotoroa are reached eat the last Tararua biscuit with relative ease, but the sandand meet the bus for Picton. flies drive us on. Up, up, and We find that our minibus has still up towards Mt Cedric. grown into a 39 seater bus! Three hours of up to the bush Not to worry, it gets us to Picton line and lunch. Great views and it's on the ferry for home. of the lake and valleys, but very hot. Harriet takes off Those on the trip were Frank at this point with Frank in Williams, Harriet Kleinjan, Andrew pursuit. Matthew decides that Trembath, David Ryrie, Matthew a fast trot is the way to go, Stevens, and Kerry Stevens. Kerry Stevens Lake Constance, Nelson Lakes Kerry Stevens Prag