Hawdon Valley Mini-Trek

So this weekend was the Queens birthday and as such is a national holiday for Kiwi’s. So we decided that the weather looked good so we embarked on a 2 day mini trek up the Hawdon Valley in the Southern Alps nears Arthur’s pass. Arthur’s pass is the highest pass that takes you from one side of the south island to the other.

Danny was very happy to be out in the wilderness again and we really we in the middle of nowhere. We were heading for a trekking hut about 9k up the Hawdon Valley. To get there we followed the river which snaked across the valley bottom from one side to the other, it was inevitable that we going to have to cross the river several points.

The river wasn’t very deep and for the first few crossing we managed to keep our feet dry. But as we made our way up the valley the river bed deepened and we had to cross in the water. I can’t describe how horrible the feeling of wet feet inside hiking boots feels.

It took us 4 hours to reach the hut, at this point we were at the top of the valley and with about an hour of daylight left we dumped our backpacks and headed out fast and light to climb up the ridge top to get a view back down over the valley.

The scenery around us was like something from the wilds of Alaska or Canada. We crossed quite a lot of landslides were the weight of the snow and melt water had sent millions of tons of head sized rocks down to meet the river.

All the mountains that topped the valley were covered in snow and the contrast in colours was beautiful. The view from the ridge was awesome. We had the valley laid out before us from the front and we could see the path we had taken to get to the hut. Behind us was the ring of snow-capped mountains with a very snow clogged mountain pass into the next valley.

The path up to the ridge was very steep and we climbed up over rocky outcrops, as we climbed out of the trees the rock in front of us was covered in ice and it made for a very scary ascent and descent.

It was dark on our return to the hut but the fire had been stoked by the other trekkers staying there and it was really warm that night. For our return journey we were hoping to out run the rain that was due but when we woke up it was already chucking it down.

Normally this wouldn’t mean anything apart from spending the day walking in the rain but as we had to cross the river about 5 times it started to be a problem. The more it rains the more the river level rises and as we were in a river valley with all the water running off the mountains and filling up the side rivers and main rivers.

We knew that we were going to be very wet and as we crossed the first side river and kept our feet dry Danny decided that it would be a safer and dryer to try and bash through the forest on the left of the river to avoid having to cross the river so many times.

There was no path to follow apart from a very small conservation path that was used to lay traps for the Possums. We climbed through trees, up muddy banks over rocks and slid down banks. Eventually we walked down the side of the river until we finally had to cross.

We linked arms and using the walking poles for stability against the current we waded across the main river. It took a couple of seconds for the water to get into your boots but when I did it was freezing. We then crossed the river another four times before we were able to get to the car park. We must have walked for 4km with our boots squelching.

I’ve never been so happy to get back to the van and warm our feet up over the camping stove. I was so wet through and cold that I had to take all my wet cloths off and travel back zipped inside the sleeping bag, which Danny though was hilarious.

A great weekend though but I think I’m going to wait for the weather to improve before I try river crossing again