So I arrived on a freezing cold frosty morning, perfectly clear and open sky.
I basically ran the first leg to the first hut, because when I’m down in the forest and can tell its sunny up top I get hell FOMO for the views.
The first part of forest is very calm and pretty, on the banks of lake Te Anau. There are some pretty cool caves on the way up to the tussock plains that are worth the stop (Its a pretty hectic climb up though). I read somewhere that originally the mountain was owned by some farmer who would walk his sheep all the way up through the bush just to graze up top, camp for a few nights then come back down, which really seems rather impossible seeing how dense some of the bush is. When you get up the views are amazing up Lake Te Anau to the southern alps and across the Kepler mountains. Walking across some tussok (type of grass) plains for a bit until you get to the first hut.
Waking up in the morning with no wind overnight and very cold meant there was a thick layer of cloud that just hung all day at about 1000M and never rose so the views were incredible. Your second day is spent following a sharp ridge line all with a couple of emergency shelters and funny toilets hanging off cliffs, there is a side summit that is worth the extra hike and there is normally plenty of snow if your in the shoulder season, also watch out for deer as there are still a lot roaming about.
After traversing the high ridge right into the mountains for a while you can see right up into the south branch of Lake Te Anau and the glaciers of Fiordland. then there is a very steep descent into a dark valley with old stunted forest. The next hut although picturesque is exceptionally cold and trapped in a little valley which while I was there was blanketed with frozen frosty fog. It’s a well maintained hut with a river and waterfall included.
The next two days are a slogg through bush, forest, fern groves, mudslides, tussock plains and eventually the banks of Lake Manapouri. When you come out you find yourself in a gravel carpark in the middle of nowhere, I just hitchhiked back to Te Anau town with some bogan nutter pulling bongs and drinking beers while driving.
by Nicholas Ashby
