Category: Overland Track

So… Morning of Day Two… I am snug in my sleeping bag with my beanie jammed over my eyes and I am hearing people stirring and getting started for the day. I finally poke my head out and Fiona and Kim are shouting at me “Welcome to Canada” and all I see out the window is white!!!

Actually I have it on good authority that Fiona’s first exclamation was slightly less enthusiastic and mostly unprintable! haha
However, I was thrilled with the unexpected beautiful covering of snow!

Apparently the first snows are seen in April but not usually this deep.

We had some breakfast – I think Fiona had some porridge and I just some coffee, then packed up our gear – let me tell you, people – its a hard thing pulling on wet socks and shoes just before heading out into the snow!

Here is Fiona in her rain kilt looking thrilled to have a go at snow hiking!
Apparently her kilt did really well in the rain and snow overall (It was a new item she got after seeing a hiker in New Zealand wearing one)

Since we weren’t the first to set out, we had the advantage of following footprints in the snow. There are occasional poles to mark the way, which is good as the boardwalks and path in the snow aren’t always the easiest things to spot.

When there was boardwalk, it was mostly quite narrow and very easy to misstep and fall off – which we did on a number of graceless occasions!

My tactic was to note the deep prints to each side where previous hikers had stumbled off and aim for the middle.

Sometimes we would enter small glades of snow covered trees which was just magical – we would even get ‘Christmas Snow’ (Which is what we called the thick flaky softly falling pretty stuff’)
This made Fiona quite happy!

Then we had to head back out into the open exposed areas

Which is all fun and games until a blizzard catches up with you…

At times there was no discernible path. The snow became quite deep in places and our pace was slow. Its all very well to step knee-deep into a snow hole, but not so fun to wrench your leg if you are set off balance (Which with a heavy pack I assumed a possibility.)

This is Fiona’s ‘I am not fond of Blizzards’ face:

In a very monochromatic landscape, seeing the bright yellow and orange of the tree bark was a bit of a relief to the eyes!

We stopped for a brief snack and drink at the turnoff to a side trip – but not for long. Any time not hiking caused you to cool down extremely quickly.

The landscape changed again, which was a welcome sight – we knew the next hut wasn’t too far away.

Fiona reckoned this tree was an example of what happens to you when you stand still long enough up there!

Finally and not a moment too soon we found Windermere Hut, where we could get out of our rain gear and wet boots and enjoy the warmth of the hut and hear everybody’s stories of ‘The Big Snow Hike’ 😀

Those planning on camping soon decided not to.

Below is the platform that Jeff, Rachel and myself camped on last year. Doesn’t look quite as inviting this time!

In the hut, the usual shoes, socks and clothes were hanging up and around the heater (giving the air that nice lived in smell haha)
We chose a bunk and got our sleeping gear ready (more thoughtful than blowing up your mattress and squeaking about after everyone else has gotten in to bed!)

Because it was a short day’s hike and we were in early, it gave us plenty of chances to have lunch, dinner and relax, talk to people, swap stories and food.

The ranger, Mitchell was there at that hut and kept us up to date with the latest weather information and told us stories – my favourite being the girl who was walking with friends around Cradle Mt area, got separated from her group and KEPT WALKING to Waterfall Valley Hut (ie night one of the Overland Track!!) then asked him to call her an Uber Driver!!!
Sometimes people are so far out of touch with their environment it boggles my mind.  I think I laughed every day about that one.

7pm and time for bed. It was a small hut so very warm.  Fiona did have some sleeping mattress issues – ie it ran away and practically fell on the people sleeping next to us in the middle of the night. I think she wiggles one way and it wriggles the other!!

A big days hiking the next day so everyone was keen to get some sleep and be up and moving bright and early!

Cheers!

 

 

 

Hello!
Well, here we are, Day 1. Apparently a bushwalkers alert was put out since the winds were pretty solid with 100km/hr gusts, rain, hail and snow.
So we all rugged up:

Actually it was the only day I didn’t wear my thermal pants… but I didn’t suffer too much. Was getting plenty of exercise to keep warm. Just couldn’t stop long!

I think my pack was about 18kg all up. I forgot to weigh it and me before we left! Bit miffed about that! I am telling myself now I have a much skinnier backside! 🙂

I was using Jeff’s pack – we have a few budget constraints so getting a new pack for me wasn’t on the essential list. I was pretty happy with it – carried it very easily and the only time I got sore shoulders was at the end of the two longest days (third and seventh). Fiona had a lot more trouble with her pack and it not fitting right, which was an ongoing issue for her.

All the views were gloomy with details looming out of the cloud and rain. It certainly had its own beauty that was quite different from other times we have been up here

 

Fitness wise I am pretty proud of us. We didn’t gallop about but we kept up a decent pace, despite the load and the fight against the winds.

We got to the top of Marion’s Lookout, but it wasn’t the weather to stop and there was no view to admire! The camera didn’t come out from my jacket much as it just got soggy… you can see the artistic rain smudges on these shots!

It was hard to find something dry to wipe the lens with!
There was water everywhere up there – and by this time we were heading pretty smartly to Kitchen Hut to get a bit of a reprieve from the wind, adjust Fiona’s pack and scoff the sandwiches that Jeff awesomely carried up for us.

The rain brought out the great colours of the mosses and lichens

At last Kitchen Hut loomed up into view and we were very happy to get inside.
We found Kim and Brod, fellow hikers who we had connected with through facebook by chance, already there.

It was great to start meeting the people who we would often meet on the track or in the huts of the evenings. We had no intentions of trying to camp this trip unless there was an emergency.

We enjoyed our sandwiches but had to get back out there and moving to stay warm. Jeff said the fond farewells and headed back towards a fire and a cuddly kitty.
Fiona and I headed back out towards Waterfall Valley Hut through some pretty intense wind and rain.

The Fagus has started turning its colours and was really beautiful to walk through

Basically when the rain dropped I had the camera out…

Occasionally the clouds lifted a little further for better views

I think it was around this point that we started getting snowed on which made me laugh. I said we’d get snow!

Lots of water, mud and rocks to trudge through!

Whoops! As awkward as that looked, Fiona didn’t fall off that rock!! We did fall on occasion though – the wind pushed us about a bit.
One of our fellow hikers actually got picked up by the wind, pack and all then got dumped back down!!! That’s a lot of weight so a bit scary what Mother Nature can throw at you (in this case unsuspecting hikers!)

Up on the exposed plains the rain and hail came in sideways and the camera got tucked away again – we really had to fight to stay upright on the way across.
Finally we made our way down and reached the hut, a bit shell shocked and soggy!

We changed out of our dripping gear and hung stuff around the heater. It might not have crisply dried everything but at least your clothes weren’t icy to put back on the next morning.
The bunks had big platforms for people to put their sleeping gear on. A few people braved the old hut and the hungry rodent (Well done, Angela, Martin & Paul) and the rest of us squeezed in here.

Nobody stayed up to party. In fact, pretty much every night people were tucked up and falling asleep by 7pm – a fact that we all laughed at ourselves over! Night falls earlier now and everyone has had a hard day, so as much sleep as possible seemed to be everyones aim.

Fiona and I had started earlier than most so made it in good time to the hut. People started trickling in – two dads with their kids arrived. One fellow and his daughter who were from Tassie and their Melbourne friends. The poor kids were little shivering puddles when they arrived! Mind you – they recovered well and did an exceptional job hiking the trail over the coming days!

Time to snuggle down into the sleeping bags and get as much sleep as possible for the next days hike!

And in real time – I have managed to catch a cold – went for an 8km hike today with a 12kg pack anyway (something about eating a scandalous amount of potatoes last night). Really feel its time to get to bed!
Hope you have enjoyed the start of the adventure!

Cheers

 

 

 

Hello!! I am back, showered warm, enjoying the fire and looking at the time feeling odd that I haven’t hiked for 5 hours today!
Well… we started in epic conditions. I think there was a bushwalkers alert out. 100km/hr (62mph) wind gusts along with rain, hail & snow!
Jeff walked with us up to Kitchen Hut where we ate some lunch before parting company – Fiona and I heading on and Jeff hiking back to the car and home (and a fire sob sob)

I am so glad we left early that first day. Its a bit over 10km with a lot of uphill parts along with some very exposed areas that were challenging in those winds! It also meant we reached the first hut in good time to change and recover a bit!

What we didn’t expect was to wake up to see snow a foot or so deep the next day!!

It was stunningly beautiful and I always wanted to have a go at snow hiking!! That was a tough day though as the path was hard to keep, the deeper snow was tricky to traverse (we fell down a lot) and we got hit with a decent blizzard while on the exposed plains part of the track (of course)

There were moments of concern, especially when the track route wasn’t obvious and the snow quite deep. But we, along with the other shell-shocked people who started on our day – all made it to the second hut in one piece!

From there on the weather grew steadily better! The long day three (nearly 17km) was rain and wind off and on, but a superbly beautiful walk.

Mud was unavoidable – I tended to plough right through as it was less energy than trying to rock hop. In the end, you were going to end up in a mud puddle!

Sometimes the track was covered in water.
Ok… I think 85% of the time the track looked more like a creek course, but sometimes there were exciting waterfalls to walk across!

No choice here about paddling. The boardwalk was about half a foot under water!

I have just added about 1500 images to the backlog of photographic post processing to wade through (Although that kind of wading will be more comfortable!!)
We have no immediate guests arriving so looking forward to some quiet days to get gardening and photos attended to, then I can return to share more of the recent adventures!

Hope you have all had a great week too – but perhaps hope you were all a little drier, less smelly and had more toilet paper!! 😀

 

 

Well… thats me about packed!
Jeff took the kids off on an adventure today so I could get my brain in order and go over my gear. (and pre prep dinner!!)

Bag weighed in at 17.5 without my water or jerky.
Hmmmm
Did a bit of a jettison act and got it under 17.
Still undecided about camera gear. But I have one whole day to think about that!
Weather calls for a lot of rain and from the recent photos I have seen, the paths are more like creeks!! Fun fun!! So excited!! 🙂

Off to bed – hoping to get some kayaking in tomorrow morning and one more beach before Moe and Ryo have to fly out!

Cheers!

Hello! Finally had a chance to get the last images done to wrap up this amazing hike.

Morning at Windy Ridge was beautiful. The sun hitting the mountains and watching the clouds roll over them was a fabulous way to start the day

 

We packed our gear for the last time – we were aiming to get the ferry at the next hut and finish our journey. We hadn’t booked it though, so it was a bit of pot-luck.

No more crazy uphills for todays walk. We were heading to Narcissus which was a pretty gentle walk down the glaciers path. Lots of wonky paths and small streams to cross but nothing to test us like the rest of the hike.

We had a lot more of these smoother paths under our feet on the last day

Even though it was a short day, we still adhered to our ‘packs down every hour’ rule

All of a sudden we were in open country again

We reached the little suspension bridge and we knew Narcissus Hut wasn’t far away. Felt a bit weird though – like I hadn’t done enough work for it to be over!

It was a hot day and the river looked rather inviting.

Rachel had gone ahead today and the hike was too short for us to catch her! But she had gone and arranged the ferry – almost. She had passage for Jeff and the three packs – but Rachel and I had to pack day packs in case the ferry had a couple of no-shows before we knew if we would be taking the 30 minute ride to the end, or doing the 17km walk!

Plenty of people were taking a well earned dip in the lake while waiting for the ferry

Our ride arrived and happily for us, the people that didn’t confirm earlier still hadn’t showed, so we could all jump on board together

So – back to the car, which was happily where we left it and full of cake, drinks and biscuits!

It was really one of the best things I have done – despite the pain and tiredness at times, the positives far outweighed those discomforts.
There is something beautifully simple about getting up, putting your gear on your back and walking to your next sleeping spot. Eating, sleeping, then doing it all again. No chores to worry about, nothing from your usual life can be done, so you narrow down your focus and enjoy the breathtaking and stunning scenery before you.

Thanks for reading about the adventure – We are very keen to do it again some day!!

Day Five kept up the beautiful weather. The start of the walk was crisp, cool and sunny – and was a nice gentle sort of terrain too.
We were making the 9.6km hike over to Windy Ridge and also planned a couple of detours to see the local waterfalls.

Occasionally we would break out into the light, but most of the walk up to the waterfall crossroads were forested areas

We kept up our rule of packs down every hour.
The mottled light was still giving my camera a headache 🙂

We came across one of the historic huts – Du Cane Hut. Built in 1910 by Paddy Harnett, who was a snarer, miner and bushman.

 

We found Rachel at the crossroads to the first waterfalls, abandoned our packs and took a walk down to check them out.

The first falls (and the prettiest) we got to was D’Alton.
It was quite the view from the ledge we were perched on

It was pretty great sitting here and soaking up the view
If you leaned out far enough you could see back down the river

Scrambling back up the side of the hill – using handy tree roots as ladder-rungs – we walked over to Fergusson Falls

Not as picturesque but still fabulous to sit by it and get deafened by the roar

And why not clamber down the edge to get a better view and a photo?

Back at the top to collect our packs and seek out the next waterfall

One of the group guides, Nick, pointed out to us the leatherwood tree blossoms. While it flowers, no other trees do. Bee keepers move their apiaries into areas where the trees are to get leatherwood honey.

Again – great to take a walk sans packs!

Heading off to find Harnett Falls

 

At the top of the falls there was a great little spot to sit, relax, dunk your feet or head in the water and generally enjoy.

I lay back and soaked my head in the water and it felt sooooo good!

Rachel photosynthesised.

One of the guided groups sensibly had their lunch down here!

A few of our fellow hikers highly recommended we expend the extra energy and take ourselves down the path to the bottom of the falls.
We are so glad we did. Even though it looked like a long way down (you have to think ahead – going a long way down inevitably means you have to haul yourself back UP again!)

But it was beautiful.

The clifftops seemed to loom over head.

 

Time to get back to our packs and continue out hike over to Windy Ridge. The waterfalls were only a little over half way there.
And it mostly went up.
And up.

Most of the pathways were lined with oversized rocks which was challenging for my short legs. Not least because today I took on ‘tent duty’
The extra weight was ok, but getting that weight up two foot high ‘steps’ gave my legs quite the workout! I started to get quite whingy about when the ‘up’ was going to turn into ‘down’!!

I was so thrilled to finally come across a section of boardwalk that was flat I had to stop and savour the moment. (and take a photo)

Going down had its own challenges. Balance for one!

It was a pretty walk down to Windy Ridge Hut and camping areas, but again – nice to find our platform and set up camp and take the boots off!

Nothing more to do than have some dinner and watch the sun set over the Du Cane Ranges.
Cheers!

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoy – I had a spectacular couple of hours under the most beautiful stars.

 

We woke up to a clear but frosty morning at Pelion Hut! I dashed (as much as I dash in the morning anyway) out to take a few photos before getting packed up to start on todays walk.

Carefully treading the frosty boardwalks

Day four was our favourite day. We were to hike for 8.6km from Pelion to Kia Ora Hut. It took us about 4 hours or so, and was a really beautiful relaxed day.
The sun was out – although the mottled light through the trees made the photographer in me twitch…

Again, Rachel set off that little bit earlier than us, but it didn’t take too long for us to catch up with her today.

A quick side trip down to see a waterfall, which is where we found Rachel today.

As usual during the day, we passed through various landscapes – hard to get bored up here!

We made the mistake yesterday of pushing on far too long without a break. We decided to make it a new company policy to stop on the hour and take the packs off to stretch. This really made a big difference.

 

We got to the top of an ongoing upwards hike finally. It was kind of a saddle between two options of sidetrips up mountains. We took option C and continued straight down (DOWN being operative word here) to the hut.

We met a ranger at the platform who was trying to convince everyone to hike up ‘Doris’ I think the mountain was called. I wasn’t swayed.
Actually he was there waiting for some runners who hadn’t paid the Overland Track fee.
Yes – runners.
A number of people run the whole track in a day!! Sheer madness. Apparently about 50% of the runners try to avoid paying the extra $200 fee to hike this track. Sadly for them, when caught, the fine is $400.
The people in question had been seen leaving Ronnie Creek at 5am and given the option to turn back at the first hut.
Every year in February there is a race. The record time for the track is just over 7 hours!!!!
You would have to be insanely fit and agile to do this!

We put the packs on and (without running) headed down the other side for Kia Ora.

I like going down or across. I am good at it.

We were pretty much first in and found a nice snug little tent platform and made ourselves right at home

Jeff and I even went for a dip! And was the water bracing!! Wow

I got up to my waist, and dunked my head and hair in… but couldn’t quite come at totally submerging! There is a line between refreshing and snap-freezing. But it did feel good. My hair was feeling a bit feral.

Standing on the helipad checking out my options for a planned night photography session

Later that night after my star photos, I got back to the tent and had to shoo a determined possum who was trying to get into Jeff’s bag. I had put my pack in the hut as usual. Jeff then removed the pack after having to spank the possum on the bum to get it to move! (Signs around the place say to maintain a respectful distance and observe animals quietly haha)
But he left his boot full of used ziplocks that the possum got straight back into!!! Sigh… there is me running about in a t-shirt and thermal pants putting his boots in the hut only to come back to find the possum trying to eat its way through the soap bag!!
Having images of said possum running about the bush blowing bubbles out of its nose!
Once that was removed there was nothing more of interest and the rest of the night was nice and peaceful!

Cheers