A More Exciting Variation of the Travers-Sabine Circuit

14/02/18 – 18/02/18

Map of my route starting and ending at St Arnaud. Note i took two side trips (light blue) and deviated off the circuit at Sabine Hut to include Angelus Hut and Robert Ridge

Travers-Sabine Circuit

Nelson Lakes National Park lies at the north end of South Island, below the small city of Nelson. It a huge national park and offers a range of hiking opportunities. I didn’t really know exactly which I wanted to do other than what i knew of the park, and in the end, decided on a modified version of the Travers-Sabine Circuit where i would take the Robert Ridge route inside of being in the valley the entire time. I planned to do this in 4 days, but it took me an extra half day.

This hike is split into two parts due to the length. Days 1 and 2 will be on this post, and days 3 to 5 on the second post.

Day 1 – St Arnaud to Hopeless Hut

I didn’t start the Travers-Sabine Circuit until 12pm on the first day, as I had to drive to St Arnaud, organise my gear and deposit a bag in the visitor centre. St Arnaud is located at the forefront of Lake Rotoiti, one of the two huge lakes in the national park. The lake was pristine clear and very inviting for a swim had it not have been overcast.

This first half of the trail is part of the Te Araroa Trail – the thru hiking trail from top to bottom of New Zealand. One day I’d do it – It even reminded of being on the PCT in the Cascades of Washington state. Beautiful forest and lake hiking.

It took about two hours to actually get to the end of the lake and began following Travers River upstream (tomorrow I’d pass its source and beginning). It was beautiful clear water and peaceful to hike alongside.

The lower part of the Travers River before it feeds the lake

There is a swing bridge you cross to get over the other side. I’ve been on swing bridges before, but not ones that only allow one lesson at a time and are very… shaky and narrow. I had to slot my poles into my pack just to hold on!

Can you even get nicer forested trail than this?

Travers River looking toward St Arnaud Range and beyond

I decided to aim for Hopeless Hut to stay the first night. It was far off the main trail, but I knew it wouldn’t be as popular and would have less people than the main huts on the circuit. It was a 4km detour and about 300m up hill following the beautiful Hopeless Creek. The moss grew lush and was just spectacular as it was a less travelled trail and there was less erosion.

I’m pretty hopeless, let’s take a gander!

Definitely a trail less trodden! (yes this is the trail)

Hopeless Creek making it’s way down to Travers River

I spent forever making my way up – just too beautiful not to spot and take it all in

The entire climb for the day was only about 400m, and about 24km distance. The hut was hidden in the forest with only one other kiwi guy there. He told me stories of how awesome this hut was in winter – I’d have to come back it seems.

Day 2 – Hopeless Hut to (near) West Sabine Hut

After sweeping up the hut and packing, I left Hopeless Hut bound for further up the Travers River valley. I was imagining how amazing this hut would be in winter with snow after the conversation the night before – I need to come back someday.

I passed a cute little cascade, which looked to be a part of a fairytale. New Zealand doesn’t joke around with beautiful nature!

Even on a warm day like this, it’s never too hot hiking here in NZ 😀

Travers Falls was the next small detour which was a hidden surprise. The amount of water coming out of such a small opening was intense. Beautiful little area in general.

travers-sabine circuit — Travers Falls with a rainbow

I arrived at Upper Travers Hut and had lunch for an hour or so just before 1pm. My next challenge was ascending the final 500 or so metres to Travers/Sabine Saddle (think of a mountain pass) and then undertake the steep 1000m descend to the Sabine River.

Travers Peak and near the start of Travers River

The climb up to Travers Saddle wasn’t too bad difficulty-wise. It was nice to see the open views of the valley and then the saddle open the views of the next valley. No mind blowing lakes or glaciers, bit still cool! There is only one small remnant left of a glacier in this nation park, tucked in behind Mt Hopeless. It’s sad as all the valleys are clearly glacial formed and over time, the warming Earth has removed them.

The last of the years snow still provides some melt flow

The climb down was harder in the knees, but being in the forest made it easier than say, open scree.

It’s a steep path…. 1000m down in altitude…

The Sabine River was probably even more mighty than the Travers, and at one point the river looks to have disappeared, at least from being the wide flat open river I saw before. I could still hear it though, which was weird. I then came to a footbridge and looked down to see a deep ravine, at least 100m down with the river squeezed in the 1m wide gap. I’ve never seen anything like it!

It’s further down than it looks – that’s a raging river, not a small stream

Father along, you move away from the rivers edge as it cuts deep and now also wide in the valley. The next stop was West Sabine Hut – one if the better huts that I don’t seem to stay at as they cost $15 a night. I decided to camp just before it after stumbling upon an absolutely lovely tentsite. I’d never choose a hut over a lovely campsite… unless it was a huge storm.

Just perfect! River in the background too for water

I hadn’t made a campfire in a long time and decided there would be one tonight, for both heat and warding off the brutal sandflies. In the end, that worked well! I got my cooking gear out, and my small amount of rum and had a merry old time to myself thinking – this is living!

Pasta cooking away and rum by the fire – not bad… not bad at all…

Day 3 – (near) West Sabine Hut to Blue Lake, and Sabine Hut

It didn’t rain this morning thankfully as predicted. Heading off at 8am, the side trip to the infamous Blue Lake was in sight. Following the Sabine River upstream leads you right to its source – Lake Constance. However, this lake was beyond the scope of my plans – you could easily hike for weeks in this National Park, with a new trail to follow every day. Below Lake Constance is this much smaller Blue Lake. It’s thought to have been with actual study, the clearest lake in the world! I’ve seen a lot of clear lakes, especially in Washington State, so I thought it would be interesting to see.

Camping close to West Sabine Hut, I was able to empty my pack in the hut, and take only essentials for the roughly 5-6 hour return side trip. It was a nice walk following the river.

The lake was clear, and I’d agree, the clearest I’d see. I could see every stone, fallen piece of wood (though few) and sections with algae with nonstrain on their eyes. Where it was shallow, it looked yellow green due to the algae; when deep, the beautiful rich blue came out. There was a slight breeze in the air, sending small ripples over the surface. It was an impressive lake.

I headed back to West Sabine Hut where I’d lefty gear and repacked after having some lunch. I still hadn’t roughly 15km to go, 23km in total for the day. Like the night before, I used to get close to a hut, but not actually there. The next hut was Sabine Hut. It wasn’t an overly hard walk – just again following the Sabine River.

Heading downstream back towards the hut where i left my gear

I decided to have a mid hike wash in the river at one point. It was damn cold, but super refreshing and well needed. The water is so beautiful.

A whitewater kayak here would be awesome

I has a cool off in one of the pools near here

At just after 6pm I arrived at a flat grassy clearing near the river. I was exhausted by this point and would have camped sooner had there been any sites. This was the first since the clearing I washed in. There were two others also camped here, I was too tired to care and set up between them with plenty of space. The sandflies were in force, I never left the tent, and cooked dinner inside – not daring to leave until dark.

Just before the campsite – right on the great alpine faultline

If only i could camp here – too rocky though!

There were three of us camping at this grassy spot – only flat area between the two Sabine huts

Day 4 – Sabine Hut via Mt Cedric Route to Angelus Hut

Sleeping in somewhat, it was hard to find effort to leave my comfort of rain and sandfly protection. It started to lightly rain and I decided that I’d stay a little longer. It was 9:30am before setting off, only half hour to Sabine Hut where I’d then daringly venture up the Cedric Track – a very, very steep and long climb (1300m) to Angelus Hut. This is the point where i deviated off the Travers-Sabine Circuit and detoured out of the valleys to have wider views.

Lake Rotoroa – the largest lake in the region

Flat the rest of the way… or straight up. I choose straight up 😛

The forest section was the steep part and was physically exhausting – 1300m straight uphill! It just goes on and on and requires frequent stopping to catch your breath. Once hitting the tussock grass the ascent became easier and more gradual, but sadly the clouds began rolling over and stealing the views.

Looking back over Lake Rotoroa before the clouds block vision

I reached the cloud layer and felt the chill kick in. The clouds prevented most visibility and i was very much relying on the orange posts and GPS to navigate across the rocky ridgeline toward and around Mt Cedric.

Clouds make hiking pretty cool despite less views

Eventually, the rain came… slow at first… then it turned to sleet… and then it poured! The last few kilomtres were wet and cold and i was moving fast to get to Angelus Hut. Visibility became so bad i lost the trail and just used my topo GPS to bee line to the hut.

Chowder berries! I haven’t had these tasty things since Patagonia – mmmm

Angelus Hut is a very popular hut for overnight hikers, and there was no shortage of people there. I ended up meeting a girl currently on the Te Aroroa trail (thru-hike of NZ), another local girl and a couple and we shared some yarns. We all decided to brave wet camping to avoid the hut fee and set up by the lake on soaking wet ground.

Day 5 – Angelus Hut via Robert Ridge Track to Carpark

The rain didn’t ease up, but at least i was warm in my tent overnight. It somewhat eased in the morning as sunrise broke out – It was lovely!

Setting off along the Robert ridge track was awesome. Being in a valley ypu get to see great water features and forest – but being on a ridge offers wider views and dramatic landscapes. This hike was great as i got the best of both worlds.

Towards the end of the ridge you arrive at Mt Robert, not an overly high peak but it rests about the lake and township of St Arnaud. A long descent to the carpark sees the end of the hike. I managed to get a hitch back to St Arnaud from there with ease.

Lake Rotoiti and St Arnaud at the back of the lake

Overall, the Travers-Sabine Circuit is one of the best of all the hikes of done so far in NZ. I think it would be even more awesome to do in mid Spring with some snow caps and where the risk of avalanches is less (many avalanche warning signs along the trail). I’d love next time to go off on more of the side trails and attempt to summit Mt Hopeless.

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