Day 92 - cascading
Angelus hut —-> Upper Travers hut 23km
We awoke to a perfectly clear sky, the torrent of horrendousness we’d seen the day before thankfully now nowhere to be seen. If we thought the view from the hut was good when we arrived, with the clear sky it was mesmerising. The reflections of the mountains crystal clear in Lake Angelus.
This morning we were leaving Angelus hut to head down the Cascade track, which would connect back up with the Travers-Sabine circuit and we’d be back to following the normal TA route.
The Cascade track followed a series of waterfalls down a steep valley. Surrounded by mountains on all sides, the track was one of the most beautiful I’d been on to date.
The gradient made it slow going, but we gradually lowered ourselves down through the valley, hopping over the streams of water as they gushed past us. We must have been seeing everything in full flow thanks to the previous night’s weather.
By the time we’d gotten down to the main stream, cloud had settled in the valley, keeping us cool and adding a eeriness to the forest.
Ferns decorated the sides of the footpath as we moved through the forest.
As we got back out into the open, the clouds lifted and we walked alongside a very agreeable track by the Travers river. The cascade track had taken us almost four hours, an hour longer than we thought it would, so we needed to get a move on if we were going to make it to Upper Travers hut before dark.
The track weaved in and out of the forest, up into the trees and then back down again to the river. The ground underfoot wonderfully soft from the beech leaves.
John Tait hut provided the perfect place for an afternoon snack. We could have very easily made it our home for the night were we not chasing the weather. There were a few tricksy climbs in the coming days; Travers Saddle and Waiau Pass. We needed to be up and over them before a spell of bad weather hit. So we pushed on.
We continued on through the forest, the gradient now climbing gradually.
I had to stop for a while shortly after leaving the hut, a tree branch got caught in my eye as I walked past. It felt like it had scratched my eyeball but after a wash out it felt fine and we carried on.
The track disappeared at moments along the track. Either a stream cut through it and we needed to wade through or there had been a slip and we had to clamber across.
Just as our legs were about to give up, Upper Travers hut came into view at the end of a large tussock field. A lot of grass bashing later and we were unpacking our stuff in a busy hut.
The Nelson Lakes circuit was one of the most popular multi day hikes in NZ. All the other hikers in the hut were out for a few days, we were the only TA hikers there.
As we were making dinner, my eye began to really hurt and I was struggling to see. I washed it out as best I could and then took myself to bed, loading myself up with paracetamol.
