Nelson Lakes National Park with Family

This is a family trip, wife daughter and I. Want to drive to St Arnaud on Saturday and get the water taxi up to Lakehead hut side. Wander to Lakehead hut and then for a walk up to Travers swing bridge and back. And Sunday water taxi back out. (and rid the hut of any density).

And the whisky is one of our favourites, Laphroaig 10yo.

Saturday 26/06/2010
Drove to St Arnaud and met up with Callum and his boat the water taxi. Not going to plan as the Lake is looking more like an ocean with a good swell coming in.

No water taxi today so we decided to walk up the lake to the hut. Normally a 1.5 hour wander for me, 2 hours for Tariga; and as a family with Duang it was a mere 3 hours fifteen minutes.

The fungi are up:

We got here!

The mountains have a bit of snow on them.

Cranked up the fire cooked the evening meal and finished off with Laphroaig.

Sunday 27/06/2010
Spent a few hours getting dead tree branches back to the wood shed.  Then a good clean up of the hut, some lunch and wander off to the jetty for a boat ride back.

Density removal
There was a chunk of density at Lakeside, not anymore!

and our fish is happy...

Holdsworth Road end and Aitiwhakatu

Just a tramp to the same old same old of Aitiwhakatu and no real aim to go any where.

Aims

• A usual is "Remove religious matter from hut"; but a newer better more awesome aim is "religious matter free Tararua's". None of that dogma to poison minds.
• Friday - Fail to drive to road end.
• Saturday - Drive to Holdsworth and walk to Aitwhakatu and walk some loop.
• Sunday - Walk out and drive back to Wellington.

The Single Malt Whisky
For this trip: Adelphi Caol Ila 8 YO 61.3% cask number 303801, 318 bottles. Sourced from Regional Wines and Spirits Wellington. What a most excellent whisky; it is no comparison to the normal bottlings offered by the distillary. If you are a fan of strong smokey peaty Islay whisky's this is one for you.

Friday 18/06/2010
Fail to leave Wellington and drive anywhere... Getting Paul's disease.

Saturday 19/06/2010
Got up late and drove to Holdsworth.

1233 Left car and headed off to Aitiwhakatu.
1311 Mountain House shelter turnoff.
1315 East Holdsworth turnoff.

1348 At an empty Aitiwhakatu hut, dropped my gear and had a snack. Two more arrived.
1406 Off to Jumbo via the old track up river, then uphill. Was thinking of heading on to Mid King Biv; but Ill leave that for another trip.
1433 Jumbo hut turnoff.
1536 At Jumbo after a nice wander uphill into a blast of cold wind for the last few minutes to the empty hut. Small amount of snow about as looking at the Broken Axe with a nice grey sky. This is the view that deserves a dram.

1547 Heading back down rain gauge track to Aitwhakatu.
1626 Back at Aitiwhakatu and now theres now four people at the hut.

Food, more of that smoking lounge, music and the fourth book in the Twilight series. Why dont vampires live in the Taurarua's? Does "because they dont exist" answer that one?

Sunday 20/06/2010
What an excellent pile of rain, so relaxing sitting on the veranda having a lamp post before wandering out and driving back to Wellington.

A map of the area wandered.

and there was no density to remove from huts... Its so clean here.

Blue Range Hut

No real aims just a weekend in the hills and if it lines up go over Bannister.

03/06/2010 Thursday
Drove to Kiriwhakapapa road end, a bit later than I wanted to. Headed off in the dark and as my torch was dimming stopped to change batteries and discovered no spares. Blue Range it is now, was heading to Cow Creek.

And the whisky is that one we would never give away as its the worlds tastiest single malt Scotch whisky. Lagavulin 16yo.

04/06/2010 FridayLeft Blue Range hut sometime before lunch heading to Saddle over track not maintained. Not a bad track, still well worn and real obvious. No compass needed. Headed up Waingawa and stopped in the windless sun for a lunch before some more track not maintained.

Lost in the scrub for a while, looking for the access to the spur down to Cow Creek, gave up bush bashing after smoking lounge discovered.

Cow creek was a full hut via chopper, heading to Blue Range as I decided earlier to not biv.

05/06/2010 Saturday
Not much walking today, hanging out at Blue Range.

The rock has views, the rock is 5 minutes from the hut.

06/06/2010 Sunday
Woke up to gentle rain and left the hut in heavy rain. Wet. A fifty minute wander back to the car and a Tui.

Map of Wandering

and there was no density to remove from huts...