Our planned route was to waltz up the D’Urville Valley, over David Saddle, through the Matakitaki and St James and we would soon be at Lewis Pass. The weather forecast was not looking too flash with gale-force winds forecast, but the gales were forecast to ease which we hoped would enable us to get over David Saddle. No significant precipitation was forecast. We stocked up with some extra food from the St Arnaud general store in case we needed it whilst waiting out the wind.
Lake Rotoroa - George Lyon (nee Ella) Hut (6 hours)
We
left the Lake Rotoroa water-taxi in reasonable weather
on New Year’s day as we headed up the D’Urville Valley to George Lyon Hut (formerly
known as Ella Hut). The D'Urville was a well forested flat valley with an excellent track that provided fast travel. It is about three hours between each of the huts in the valley - D'Urville, Morgans, George Lyon and the Upper D'Urville Biv. There are numerous camping possibilities but you will need to be wary of the numerous sandflies which don't so much eat you as carry you away!
George Lyon Hut - Upper D'Urville Biv (3 hours)
The following morning was wet so we laid low in our pits and left in the afternoon so as to catch the forecast better weather the following day. We arrived soaked at the two bunk Upper D’Urville Biv to join another tramper for the night, optimistically thinking we would be heading over David Saddle the following morning. We awoke early to clag and very limited visibility which was followed by persistent rain so we stayed on waiting for a break in the weather. The next day proved to be more of the same except that there was even more rain, but around 5pm Victoria spotted some blue sky. Our optimism returned, this would be 3rd and final night in the two-bunk biv. We still had the time and rations to complete the journey.
Upper D'Urville-Bushline-George Lyon-Morgans-Lake Rotoroa (3 day amble)
Come morning, there was cloud and drizzle in the valley but with a slight improvement on our barometer we set off toward David Saddle hoping the weather would improve. Unfortunately by the time we reached the bushline we were caught in a blizzard and decided it was time to bail out and made our way back down to the valley to George Lyon Hut. That night we met a nice couple of trampers who happened to be going to Maruia Springs and kindly offered us a ride. This was helpful since our next food stash was in Hanmer. We ambled down to Lake Rotoroa over the next two days and made it to Mariua Springs where we thought we might camp for the night and make our way to Hanmer the next day. When we discovered that it was $25pp for a small patch of lawn by the highway we decided to find ourselves a bus to our food stash at the backbackers in Hanmer instead.
Thanks heaps for the lift Nigel and Hanna!
NB: A few weeks later we returned and completed a similar route in much better weather!