After kayaking in Abel Tasman, Didier and Annie dropped us off for the weekend in Nelson (they were attending a friends wedding in the area, so we were on our own for the next two days). We spent Friday afternoon in the city, which gave us a chance to unwind a bit, have a flat white (or two), sample the local venison meat pie, and plan what to actually do for the next two days. After consulting our stack of guidebooks (which seems to be growing by the day), we settled on a loop track starting from St. Arnaud in Nelson Lakes national park. The round trip hike is about 35km - starting in St. Arnaud, it first ascends about 500m to Mt. Roberts Ridge, and then follows an alpine track to eventually reach Lake Angelus and another amazing DOC hut. From there the route descends back down to the Traverse river valley which eventually heads back to the top of Lake Rotoiti, and eventually to St. Arnaud after a nice (flat) walk along the shoreline. The plan was to catch a morning shuttle from the city which would take us the 2hr drive up to the Mt. Roberts car park in Nelson Lakes, and then Didier would meet us the next day at the track end in St. Arnaud.
The night before the hike we stayed at a hostel/motel called "Club Paradiso" - a hostel described by lonely planet as "club Med for the impoverished". Having a pool we thought it would be a great place to stay, however, apparently so did every other Con Tiki tour passing through the area. It felt more like South beach Miami meets a university frat house - quite entertaining, however one night was more than enough.
The hike up the ridge the next day was spectacular. After a few hours of climbing through beach tree forest we reached open ridge top and were greeted with expansive views of the surrounding river valleys. We couldn't help but hum a bit of the Lord of the Rings soundtrack as we went, with a few Frodo quotes thrown in for good measure.
After hiking for an hour or two we reached the Mt Roberts ski "resort". After later talking with Didier's mom, we learned that this was a popular place for people in Nelson to ski during the 60's/70's. She told us stories from her childhood where she would do the same hike we just did, BUT in the middle of winter, with skis and boots on her back, along with sleeping gear and food for the weekend. They would then spend the weekend up at the Mt. Roberts lodge where they would ski the surrounding bowl via rope tow. Pretty hard core - I don't think the gear back then was very lightweight...
After a few hours of up and down along the ridge, passing crystal clear alpine tarns, we reached the Lake Angelus hut. Another DOC wonder, this hut sits in an alpine basin surrounded by rugged peaks. One of the things I noticed about the mountains in the area is that they look like heaps of piled up rubble - mostly made of loose talus, but still spectacular. A lot different than the generally much more solid granite back home. From what I have seen, I can see why alpine rock climbing can be a bit dodgy here.
We woke the next day to a beautiful sunrise, and began the long hike back down to the Traverse river and eventually Lake Rotoriti. This hike was a knee knacker with a steady descent of 1000m down to the river, but once at the bottom it was an easy 10km walk back to St. Arnaud where we met Didier and Annie at the track end.
Another great NZ tramp!
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