This weekend I made it out to Nelson Lakes National Park with three of my friends from Lincoln. It was an amazing trip! We left Thursday afternoon because Friday was a field trip day (they happen every 3-4 weeks at Lincoln)and none of us happened to have field trips this time. We spent the night at a Department of Conservation (DOC) campsite about 3 hours from Lincoln. The next morning (Friday), we drove the remaining 1.5 hours to Nelson Lakes National Park.
At about 1:00 on Friday, we departed with our packs on a 2-day tramp to Angelus Hut. The hut is closed for renovations right now, but our plan was to camp near the hut. I've done plenty of day hikes before, but this was my first overnight backpacking trip - I had to carry my tent, sleeping bag, food, water, and extra clothes all in with me. It was a cool experience. Anyway, we hiked the Robert's Ridge track on the way in and it was very scenic. After a very steep inital climb (~2hours), we reached the ridge and walked along it (gaining elevation steadily) for the next three hours. The last 0.5 hour was a short descent into a small depression where Angelus Lake sat. Right before that final descent, however, a hard rain started and we were faced with high winds and a lot of precipitation. We scrambled down to the lake and set up our tent when the rain had died down somewhat. About 25 minutes after we set up the tent, the rain stopped and the sun came out. If we had only waited a bit, our tent would still be dry! We were fine, because we had rain gear and plenty of warm clothes, but it was still cool to have a little drama on my first serious trip in the bush. The next day (Saturday), we hiked out 5 hours along the Speargrass Track, taking us into dense Beech Forests and back to Lake Rotoiti, the place where we started.
A quick swim in the mountain lake was really refreshing, and we hopped on the road again to get a little bit of driving done. We stayed at the same DOC campsite as we did on Thursday night, and it was a fun time. The next day, we headed home to Lincoln, but not before we made a quick stop at the beach and swam/scrambled through the big waves.
Check out the pictures:
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| Nelson Lakes National Park |
Grandma will be around for a few nights this week as part of her recent elderhostel travels. I'm really excited to see some family. Love you lots!
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