Day 80 - Waiau Hut

 

I slept in again today, the weather outside was still low lying clouds. The good news is it didn’t not rain at all last night. I packed up to get ready to go, and waited for the Warden to give the daily radio weather updates to us. While the weather forecast didn’t change, it’s still awful, the weather through the window was a starting to look pretty good. So after a quick discussion we decided to go for it. 

All smiles when we were preparing leave and rays of sunshine started to burst through clouds. About now a lady came up to us from trail NOBO. She camped nearby not being able to reach our hut yesterday. Apparently the rivers were so high coming from the hut behind us that the trail was impassable. Explains why no one came to our hut all day yesterday. 

Lake Constance lies right above the hut and leads 

 to Waiau pass in the background. The views today were the best so far on trail. An absolutely stunning alpine lake. 

I ran into a group of NOBO’s who camped the last two nights on an island and ending up being stranded with the rising waters. 

11am photo beginning my ascent of Waiau pass. In classic NZ fashion the trail went straight up a steep scree slope. 

Gorgeous. Part of what makes this place so beautiful is how remote and inaccessible it is. If it was more accessible this place would be flooded with tourists, and would make this place much less appealing. 

I made it the top of Waiau pass without difficulty and began my descent down into the following valley. The descent was pretty gnarly for a marked trail. I find NZ trails hilarious, just throw some marker poles up and thats good enough to be a trail. Here’s my hiking buddies scrambling down the ‘trail’.  

Some river crossings at the valley bottom. 

I reached camp, Waiau Hut, and pitched my tent. We’re back in the busyness of huts. NOBOs SOBOs and trampers all colliding to make a busy trail. My most scenic day on trail yet.