DRAFT: Text maybe be revised and photos coming soon
Makarora - Young River - Young Hut
After an early start we made our way from Wanaka to Makarora via shuttle bus. Due to recent rainfall the Makarora River was looking rather fearsome. Our pride dented, the trip not even started, we coughed up $25 each to be delivered by jetboat with the tourists at the confluence of the Young and Makarora Rivers.
Once we started walking, we had an uneventful 20km plod on a good track up a wide river valley. Pleasant (aside from the 10 days food on our backs), but not much to write home about. The day finished a little earlier than expected when we arrived at the new and palatial Young Hut. The new hut site had been relocated 1.5km away from the avalanche chute of its predecessor.
It was pouring down with rain the following day so we stayed at Young Hut for two nights.
Young Hut - Gillespie Pass - Lake Crucible - Campsite, Siberia Stream
We awoke to an overcast day. The weather forecast was for "scattered showers". We figured that this meant that the forecasters did not know whether it would rain or not. On this basis we proceeded past the old Young Hut site and up the well worn, but steepish trail to Gillespie Pass. As we got near the pass we found ourselves in a fresh dumping of soft snow. Craig & Victoria had enjoyed playing in the snow, laying fresh footprints between the orange marker poles, while Amanda & Spencer behind us obediently followed our footprints.
Following the descent down to Siberia Stream there was some discussion about how far we should travel on any given day since we were on "holiday". Following this we set up camp for the night near the confluence of the Gillespie and Siberia Streams. Craig & Victoria took up Spencer's kind offer to cook dinner and went for an early evening stroll up to the rather frozen and spectacular Lake Crucible before returning for a well-earned feed (Thanks Spencer).
Campsite, Siberia Stream - Kerin Forks Hut
We woke to a marvelously sunny day. Our original party of four were now traveling as two parties of two. Craig & Victoria made their way down track, passing a busy and populated Siberia Hut and onto a heavily maintained track that was almost like walking along a road. We soon found our way at Kerin Forks where many of the tourists were waiting for a jetboat. We stopped for an early lunch and a brief nap while we contemplated the best place to cross the Wilkin River. During this time the river fell a little with it now being a little over a day since it rained. We made our away across several channels and across to Kerin Forks Hut. It was such a pleasant spot that we called it day and enjoyed the spot with the place to ourselves for the evening - New Years Eve.
Kerin Forks Hut - Top Forks Huts
We enjoyed having a tramping grade track instead of a road as we made our way along the Wilkin River past the Wonderland and Jumboland flats and on to Top Forks. On arrival at the hut our thoughts that crossing the Wilkin had taken us off the tourist track were soon dismissed as there were two friendly guided parties at the huts. We found this quite surprising given that it was peak season - New Years Day!
Top Forks Huts - Lakes Dianna, Lucidus and Castalia - Waterfall Flat
It was another beautiful day and we decided to make the most of it. We departed early to look at the three nearby lakes. First up was a nice tarn with reflections from the nearby mountains and a good campsite to boot. Lake Dianna was barely worth much of a pause as we made our way to the large Lake Lucidus. As it was still quite early in the day we were not quite able to witness any avalanches falling into Lucidus. It was a pleasant enough spot but we soon started making our way up to Lake Castalia. It was a fairly long walk but well worth it. As it was now late morning on a warm day we saw numerous small avalanches falling to the edges of the lake. We enjoyed the spot for an hour or so, doing our best to attempt to capture one of the small avalanches in video on our digital camera.
If we were to get anywhere today we thought we had better get moving and made our back the Top Forks Huts to collect our belongings before heading up to Waterfall Flat. Just as we were about to leave Top Forks Amanda & Spencer arrived. They kindly offered to carry some of our excess food as we were planning a more challenging route and could really do with lighter packs. We recommended that they camp by the tarn and departed for Waterfall Flat.
It was a hot afternoon as we steadily climbed on a sidle on the true right of the upper Wilkin River to Waterfall Flat (2.5 hours). Another half-hour and we had reached an outstanding rock bivvy about seven hundred metres in front of the Waterfall Face. We set about preparing dinner and spread the aerial for the mountain radio over the rock above us to get the forecast (fine).
Waterfall Face
We gave ourselves the luxury of a lazy start to the day with mist all around us. Following a few brews the mist cleared and we packed up and made our way 700m to the face. Up close, the Waterfall Face did not look as intimidating as from afar. We were confident that the Face would not defeat us as we made our way up a 50m snow grass slope and through the first set of rocky bluffs with a few clumps of short grass to cling to. As we scrambled across to the right-hand side of the Face we were nearing the height of the waterfall (90m) and were becoming rather height aware. Due to this increased height awareness we were requiring more and more grip with our hands, and better footholds for our feet to feel comfortable. Unfortunately we soon came to a patch of rock with some water oozing out of it. Without anything to hang-on to to cross this narrow ledge we were not feeling comfortable enough to go for it. We slowly and carefully picked our way back across to the left of the face and down to the snowgrass slope. We were quite disappointed to have let the Waterfall Face get the better of us on this occasion, but at the same time felt we gave it our best shot and hadn't let it intimidate us - even though we had camped underneath it the previous night.
Two other parties arrived and successfully ascended the Waterfall Face. Watching them ascend the Face made it look even more difficult than it seemed when we were attempting to climb it ourselves.
I would not want to put anyone off attempting this route. If you do intend doing this route it is best that you have a look at it yourself on the day. You will need to be prepared to scramble up the face with the same amount of grip as you use when you are 5m or 15m off the ground. The route takes you a long way to the right of the waterfall, the waterfall is 90m and the route leads to about twice the height from the foot of the Waterfall Face.
It was a great afternoon of weather so we enjoyed the splendor of the flat, swimming in the stream and enjoying the sun and mountains around us. This left us with another night in the rock bivvy.
Waterfall Flat - Wonderland Flat - Kerin Forks
We woke to yet another day of marvelous weather. How often do you get the chance to tramp in this area while there is a big fat high pressure system over the southern Tasman Sea, Fiordland and Aspiring? Actually how often is there a big fat high over the southern Tasman Sea? We had one last look the rock that had sheltered us for the past two nights and made our way down the sidling track to Top Forks (2.5hrs).
Having seen a brief and dated paragraph in Top Forks Hut about how to get into the Wonderland Valley we decided to go exploring. We headed back down the Wilkin and had lunch and swim just before we reached Wonderland Flats. At Wonderland Flats we crossed the Wilkin and tried to bash our way into the valley on the true left of the Wonderland Stream as indicated in the text. We first tried through the bush but it was incredibly thick virgin forest with tree-falls and undergrowth everywhere making progress slow and cumbersome. After consulting the map, we retreated and tried to make our way up the true left of the Wonderland Stream only to be thwarted by large impassable boulders amongst the rapids. Rats! Defeated again! (Note: If you attempt this please check the sentence beginning "Since floods in 1994" from Moirs Guide North p96.)
We set up camp on the Wonderland Flat and cooked dinner. Following a sandfly invasion, we thought if we couldn't sit outside and enjoy the spot we might as well be moving so at 8:45pm we set off for Kerin Forks. There would be no-one there since the jetboat drops and collects next door right? A little over two hours later we arrived at Kerin Forks Hut. There were three people there this time so we unpacked our gear outside and slipped in as quietly as we could manage.
Kerin Forks - Makarora
We pondered walking out down the Wilkin and crossing the Makarora River to Makarora. A combination of the uncertainty of the amount of water in the Makarora, the number of cows and the fact that Victoria had only ever been on one short jet boat road (see Makarora - Young River above) saw us choose the easy option of jumping on the jetboat - a total of five minutes walking for the day.