Fabulous views and sunshine greeted us in the morning so we hastened to the start of today’s trek, the 1900m Mt Oliver. The first half of this trek is shared with Sealey Tarns trail, nicknamed ‘the stairway to heaven’ as there are 2200 steps to the top. As you can imagine it was a slog to the top but we had to admire both the ever changing views and the determination of the staircase builders. At times they were so steep and hung onto the mountain side like ivy.
At the tarns we stopped for first lunch and took in the scale of the huge valleys and the spectacular glacier clad mountains. We were able to look right along the Hooker valley, where we’d walked yesterday, to Mount Cook.
The man made path finished at the tarns so it was onto a pole marked ‘route’, much more like the walking we are used to back home (minus the poles), that involved scrambling over rocks. Progress was steady but seemed to take forever until we hit a short section of scree, our old enemy, before traversing to a magnificent view point overlooking valleys, glaciers, lakes and mountain tops. we sat for a while eating second lunch and watching several thundering avalanches from the high peaks opposite.
A short route around an outcrop brought us to the Mueller hut and our first encounter with snow. Many people had hiked up to spend the night here but our goal was Mt Oliver standing behind it. With no marked route and no apparent improvement in the views Yvonne opted to rest in the sunshine so Glenn ditched his pack and scrambled up the rocks. After a short break to take photos it was back down to meet up with Yvonne then reverse the whole route to the bottom.
As usual we’d started late so we had the route pretty much to ourselves, apart from the occasional folk who were on the way to the hut to see in the New Year. As we descended the temperature increased and it became a very warm amble back to the van with both of us in good shape.
The car park had a dump station so we took the opportunity to empty the waste water and unblock the sink with copious amounts of boiling water then it was back to our favourite lake side halt for the night. Even though we didn’t arrive until gone 8pm there was still time for one last coach load of orientals photographing the sunset with their normal verve.
Showers and a large meal of leftovers left us warm, relaxed and too tired to see in the New Year so Yvonne sent a few messages an hour ahead of schedule - still, it was only lunchtime in the UK.
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| The view of Mt Cook from Sealey Tarns |
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| The valley floor |
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| Glenn with glacier clad Mt Sefton |
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| The Mueller Hut clings to the rocks below Mt Oliver |
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| The Hooker Glacier and Mt Cook from the top - a bit clearer than yesterday! |
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| Yvonne (you can just make her out in the centre) begins the descent of the 2200 steps. |
Happy New Year to you both. x
ReplyDeleteI seriously could not do this guys. feel sick at the very idea.
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