By Hannah, 12 October 2006
TEAM SUPREME: MID-WINTER 2005
Initial team: Amelia, Hayley and Alyssa
Final team: Anna, Andrew, Amelia, Hayley and Alyssa
Level: Easy
Destination: Lake Sumner Forest Park, North Canterbury
Well, where to begin…Our mid-winter trip began like any other, we met at the ferry terminal at the designated time, claimed our tickets, checked in our packs and waited, and waited and still no sign of our fourth team member Andrew. Countless calls to his cell phone gave no clue as to his whereabouts. Finally, as we were entering the Marlborough Sounds, the call came: “I’ve just woken up, bit of a rough night; I don’t remember anything past 11pm. What do I do now?!”
And so our mid-winter trip really began. I’d been prepared for a hiccup free easy tramp!
We spent the first night at the now legendary Windy Point road end. Eight of us crammed into a bus shelter using our packs as a blockade against the falling snow. No cellphone reception meant no contact with our intrepid team mate Andrew who had caught the 7pm ferry and would be arriving in Picton around 12 hours behind us (with no organised way to get to Lewis Pass).
The next morning we considered waiting for him but after ten minutes decided he’d be a while so hit the track instead. Loaded with 20-25kg packs Hayley, Alyssa and I travelled up Hope Valley in the beautiful North Canterbury sunshine to our first destination Hope-Kiwi Lodge. The area is leased by DOC to farmers, so avoiding roaming cattle, navigating through pugged terrain and cow shit and a million photos by Alyssa were the order of the day. Feeling quite rugged after their first real experience of South Island tramping, Alyssa and Hayley set to work chopping firewood and cooking dinner while I cracked open the Fijian phrasebook and tried to learn useful sentences such as “I have rheumatism”.
The next day we woke to a beautiful icy frost in the valley. We set off bright and early, the frost crunching under our feet. We spent a lot of time chilling with South Island robins, riflemen, brown creepers, tomtits, bellbirds, kākā and tui and discovered the beautiful Lake Marion, a ten minute walk from the main track with a thin ice covering, not yet melted by the rising sun. We arrived at Lake Sumner some time after lunch. The lake wasn’t quite what we expected and our hopes of a mid winter dip were quickly dashed when we saw all the cattle damage and pollution. From Lake Sumner we entered the once glaciated Hurunui Valley. Getting to Hurunui Hut that afternoon proved to be an interesting experience! We couldn’t find the marked track so had to negotiate ‘Matagouri Flat’ – the name explains it all!
Meanwhile…our crazy Canadian Andrew had found his way to Windy Point road end, camped out under the stars the first night and got as far as Hope-Kiwi Lodge before bumping into Craig’s group. He was given directions and sent on his way again but didn’t make it to Hurunui Hut before nightfall. Fortunately, on the mountain radio sched that night Craig’s group told us that Andrew was on his way so we back tracked the next morning to find him. After two nights sleeping wrapped up in our group fly and fighting off the possums trying to eat his boot laces, I think Andrew was more than relieved when we found him still forging on to Hurunui Hut!
Our group now complete, we relaxed and recuperated at Hurunui Hut for the day while Andrew caught up on some much needed shuteye.
Day four saw a day trip up the valley to the hot pools and an extra excursion for Andrew and I to No. 2 Hut, which is within the Hurunui Mainland Island. Hurunui is one of nine mainland islands run by DoC. A mainland island is an area that DoC manages with intensive pest control, allowing native plants and birds to flourish. Being the easy group we couldn’t strain ourselves too hard so a further day relaxing in the pools was well received. To add some excitement to our soak we sporadically jumped into the icy Hurunui River before running back to warm up in the pools.
After three nights at Hurunui Hut, Andrew and I at least were ready to leave. Our destination for the night was Three Mile Stream Hut, which we renamed Eight Mile Stream because it looked like it was full of bullet holes. We had quite a tough time getting there because the track markers were white and with a significant dumping of snow in the area, locating the markers was near impossible. During the day we also picked up Anna from Hannah’s group who was not quite cut out for her medium fitness trip. And so our group became five!
A night at Eight Mile Stream was followed by a night at St Jacobs Hut (the location of Craig’s evacuation via helicopter). The hut was located on yet another grassy flat. Our tramp through the eastern side of the park consisted almost completely of grassy flats or river valleys - great if you’re keen for easy walking and sight seeing. We spent the evening playing cards and anointing blisters and generally enjoying our last night in the back country.
Our last day was spent retracing our steps up the Hope Valley. We enjoyed beautiful sunny weather and arrived at Windy Point with somewhat mixed feelings. The group that once belonged to Craig joined us there, Craig himself was in Christchurch hospital getting his badly sprained ankle seen to.
Alyssa and Anna hitched to the hot springs and motor camp up the road while Andrew, Hayley and I remained rugged to the end and spent another night in the Windy Point bus shelter to be picked up the next morning by the shuttle.
As the story tells, our group, eventually named Team Supreme Eco Mashed Spud, made it to the end of a highly memorable Victoria University Tramping Club mid-winter trip. We started off with three and ended up with five so what more can I say. Team Supreme rocks!!