Day 79 - Blue Lake Hut

I slept in this morning. No point get up early today. The weather forecast updated by the park warden that stays in these huts forecast a day of heavy rain and high winds. Unpleasant weather to walk in, but I would have to go over Waiau Pass. This can be gnarly in bad weather. Only one TA walker has ever died on the trail, and it was going over this pass. Beside the danger aspect, it’s an extremely beautiful area that id like some nice views for. So I’m taking a forced zero at Blue Lake Hut. 

It was a day full of rain. The forecast said 18mm, but we had a pan outside that got 3 inches of water in it. If that’s any indication we had closer to 75mm of rain in 18hrs. It was good to be in a cozy hut and not in the claustrophobic tent for this weather. We’re not the only ones having bad weather. Auckland got a storm a week ago dumping some 400mm of rain in two days, as much as Edmonton gets in an entire year. 

To pass the time we chopped wood to feed our wood fire stove, played card games, and wandered around the hut aimlessly for hours. There was one National Geographic magazine on dolphins, so now we’re all experts on dolphins. There was 7 of us in the hut, luckily it won a pretty big one. 

An older kiwi showed me a Rock Wren. A energetic alpine bird that’s looks like a ball of feathers. Apparently a very rare sight to see. Good birds in this country. 

Around 2:30 the rain let up for a bit allowing all of us to get out for some fresh air and see the lake. Dry stream beds before the storm were now a raging torrent of water. The mountains sides were sliced with hundreds of water falls. Incredible the amount of water flowing in the valleys. 

Blue Lake is one of, if not the clearest lake in the world. It has a visibility of 60-80 meters. The lake is sacred to the Local Māori people. No one is allowed to swim in it, collect water, wash, or touch it really. Alpine Lakes in Canada are blue because of suspended sediments, this lake is blue while also being perfectly clear. 

The weather is also forecasted to be nasty tomorrow, but I’ll prepare to set out a moments notice should a weather window open up.