Easter and Eggs in the East Sabine

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Easter and Eggs in the East Sabine Don Goodhue Head of the Hamilton Valley Don Goodhue After the crowded Picton cross thet ford and up thel hill to For the first hour we followed the track ferry terminal, the drop-off point the gate, which was of course upt the true right of thel Hamilton before not locked. After a few grumbles we dropping down onto the riverbed. Now, up the Rainbow Valley road at Six continued, thet taxil byi this timel beating we all knewt thel Nelson Lakes areahad ahasty retreat to Blenheim. The moon a reputation for wasps and it wasn't Mile Creek seemed a world away. wast full andt the night clear SO the walk long before we found them (or they Despite subtle hints from the was actually quite pleasant, and the found us). After a brief skirmish in the only time torches were needed was to bushes, Jo appeared sporting battle nine trampers in the back, our taxi peer down into the depths of St Ronan's scars. Word must have spread quickly Well. The rest of the night was spent in the Nelson Lakes wasp community, driver was adamant that the ford camped under the trees at the as. Jo wast to become their prime target in front of US was the end of beginning of the Hamilton track. fort the next few days. At least that took the heat off the rest of US! the road - as far as he was Good Friday morning dawned fine and calm, just what we needed for what The valley continued to climb for concerned, anyhow. Add to that we had planned for the day The trip another hour in a series of scrambles the fact that the gate just up was to start at SixMile Creek and finish over large rocks before we eventually at St Arnaud four days later on Easter made our way clear of the bush. the road would probably be Monday. To achieve this, we needed Ahead was the last part of the climb, to get across the St. Arnaud Range and and quite clearly the worst was still to locked, and we had no option. into Nelson Lakes National Park by the come. We had two options. The Besides, it was only 11:00pm, end of Saturday at the latest. So the saddle on the left was a few metres route fort the first day was to be up the lower, but the approach was steeper the moon was up, and what Hamilton, down the Begley and then than the right hand option. Being a upthe Rainbow as far as we could get. mathematically-minded type, Harry was the problem with a 7km This looked reasonably straightforward was keen on the left saddle - why stroll up the road to the on ther map, with only oner major climb should we climb any higher than over the saddle at the head of the necessary. Needless to: say, Harry was Hamilton River. Hamilton into the Begley. out-voted. TRAMPING & MOUNTAINEERING

Obviously with the climb ahead of US, an hour down from the saddle, featuring eggs, and it later transpired ar rest was in order, so we stopped for heading straight uphill away from the that we had in our possession a snack and soaked up some sun, river on the true left. Why climb hills, somewhere around two dozen harddiscussed a few off the problems off the we thought, and continued down the boiled leggs, a greater number ofEaster world today, and flew a kite. Jo had river. Wrong - ten minutes later we eggs, and a large quantity of rice! chosen this opportunity to unveil her werebush-bashing up to find the track, Never mind - the curried eggs went secret weapon, and the inaugural our progress interrupted by a gorge. down a treat and were still fresh in our Hamilton River kite day was held. minds well into the next day! Photos were taken of the momentous The track had been cleared recently event and then it was time to go. The andfrom here we made goodprogress Mist filled the valley on Saturday saddle beckoned and so did lunch. to Begley Hut, which is situated on a morning as we made our way up the large, grassy terrace above the river. Rainbow. An hour upstream we Andrew led the way with the rest of US Thel logbook dated back to 1984. It did stopped and checked the map before scrambling along behind through the not take long to read through the few starting the climb out of the Rainbow sprawling hebes and over rocks. The entries, and upon finding no Tongue & towards the East Sabine. The first part effort ofthe climb was made even more Meatst had been this way, we soon had of the climb was steep, through worthwhile when we finally crestedt the our names recorded for posterity. patches of swampy ground and saddle and stood above the Begley Although the hut obviously had very scatteredscrub. To our right the stream Valley. In the distance we could see few visitors, it had recently been descended from the valley through a where the Begley met the Rainbow, our refurbished and was in excellent deep gorge. Before long it became objective for the day, and according to condition. The last few hours of the obvious that someone else had been the map, somewhere below was a day were spent making our way down this way recently. As we broke clear of track, and Begley Hut about halfway the Begley to the confluence with the the scrub and stopped for a rest, Harry down the valley. Rainbow. From there we headed spotted lanother party spread out up the upstream for a short distance, found a valley a few hundred metres ahead of After a brief lunch stop, we picked our campsite for the night, and settled in. US. From here, the valley climbed in a way down a scree gut and eventually series of rocky steps to a small patch into Begley Creek. Looking back up to In a novel approach to organising the of snow in the distance that marked the saddle, the spot where we had menu for the trip, three punters had one of the passes into the East Sabine. stood earlier was on top ofsome large been given the job of sorting out an bluffs, and the scree gut we had come evening meal each. Sounded good in As we moved out onto the rocky valley down was the only route off the saddle. practise, but we soon found it had its floor, the stream disappeared At first, there was no sign of the track pitfalls. The first evening meal was underfoot. We decided that we should as we headed down the valley; courtesy of Alastair curried eggs and be able to get water higher up So we however, we eventually found it about rice. This was not to be the only meal continued on. One of the preceding Lunch at Begley Hut Don Goodhue TRAMPING & MOUNTAINEERING