Arthurs Pass - Klondyke Corner - Carrington Hut
Walking along the road was good enough for James and Paul whom we had met a few days ago on the Harpers Pass route so we thought we may as well save ourselves a bus fare and join them as far as Klondyke Corner. From there we would head west over the passes and leave the east coast for James and Paul as they resumed Te Araroa. We meandered our way up the Waimakariri - mostly along the river, but occasionally on short sections of track. Carrington Hut was easy to find thanks to the six-foot cairn someone had built nearby. Carrington Hut was a massive 36 bunk barn, which was quite spacious for the two of us plus another two other trampers who were already there. As forecast, it bucketed down the following day so we sat around the hut waiting for the 150mm of rain to stop falling.
Carrington Hut - Harman Pass - Whitehorn Pass - Park Morpeth Hut
We checked in with DOC on the VHF radio supplied at Carrington, and the weather forecast was looking good aside from some possible showers late in the afternoon. We departed in antipation of beating any late afternoon weather. After the rain yesterday the White River still had a reasonable amount of water in it, but nothing compared to yesterday afternoon! We selected a suitable crossing point over to the true right and soon found ourselves boulder hopping our way up the very impressive Taipoiti Canyon. At the head the canyon we climbed our way out on a well worn tussock track up to Harman Pass. From Harman Pass we continued up on the true left of Mary Creek past the beautiful Ariel's Tarns (great camp site), through some tussock and then loads of blocky scree to the base of the permanent snow field of Whitehorn Pass. Aside from the first 50m, the pass is relatively flat and in good conditions, offering relatively fast travel all the way to the top. The snowfield leads a little higher than the real pass, so we followed the rocks down to the large orange arrow that marks the true pass. It is a long descent over a loosely cairned route down the blocky to the Cronin Stream - this allows plenty of time to take in the views of the Cronin Glacier. The day ended with a brief bush-bash through fast growing toetoe and flaxes before travelling through a series of swamping flats prior to descending to Park Morpeth Hut at the confluence of the Cronin Stream and Wilberforce River.
Park Morpeth Hut - Browning Pass - Harman Hut
After about 40mins travelling up the true left of the Wilberforce we crossed over to the Clough Memorial. Gazing up at the famous zigzag and Browning Pass, the route was certainly indirect to say the least. Looking up, this was much more like a cliff than a "pass". Near the top the zigzag ended and it was a scramble over the "pass". Being scared of heights was not a great attribute at this time as Craig discovered! Once over the "pass" we arrived at the beautiful spot of Lake Browning where we stopped for a swim and lunch. With so many wonderful views to soak in, we took our time over our lunch (3 hours) before dragging ourselves away and began the sidling descent down into the Arahura River. Once at the bottom we discovered that this previously unmarked route now has large splodges of orange paint on the rocks to lead the way. With all the paint it was not hard to pick up the side stream that led to a well benched track and Harman Hut (great deck, good view from the loo).
Harman Hut - Grassy Flats - Campsite J33617114
The route continued on the wide, benched track that was intervened only by the swingbridge over the Harman River all the way to Styx Saddle. When approaching Styx Saddle the travel was through a bog. Craig almost got stuck in the mud a few of times as he sunk down to his knees.
Campsite - Kokatahi
The final day of this section was shorter than anticipated. Just metres from the campsite was the start of the 4-wheel drive track. After about 30 minutes on this track we arrived at the Lake Kaniere road-end (about 9.30am). We had the choice of following this road past Lake Kaniere and towards Hokitika, or heading towards Kokatahi. We made the later choice as the appeal of "big breakfast" was too great. A 15 kilometre road-walk followed past farms and rural landscape. There weren't many cars passing us either. By 11.30am we had passed the "Kokatahi Stadium" and the Kokotahi Pub was in sight. Anticipation was high for a big feed. Afterall, we had completed a rather big tramp, and our food rations were quite low. Everything was very quiet at the pub. However, Victoria knocked on the door, and lucky for us, we were welcomed in for bacon and eggs - even though they were closed. It became apparent that Saturday night's were rather big for the Kokatahi district - they were still cleaning up after a big night when we arrived. It also turns out that the pub has a lot of history. We were also lucky enough to get a lift to where were going to stay for the next few days - the pub also runs a courtesy vehicle so that was handy. This took us to the Riverview Cabins in Hokitika where we were looking forward to a shower and clean set of clothes.