The sandfly's were there to greet us once again, we decided not to stay another night. We set out to find Mt. Haast, hoping there would be road signs coming from a different direction. Driving almost back to Reefton we decided that we could not find Mt. Haast for a reason and pulled over at the Klondike routes. We opted for the Klondike spur trail that would get us above bush line (tree line state side), and avoid the valley hike through the marsh.
It was a good steep hike that got us above bush line quick, but the trail had not been used in a while and many of winter storms had passed through since the last trail maintenance. A lot of downed trees and branches made it difficult to see some of our orange triangle markers as some of these markers were on trees that were laying on the ground. Moss covered the entire forest floor and was very thick, while squishy and soft you would sink down and wonder how long it will take before you hit solid ground, if in fact you could find something solid. We had to be careful of our foot placement. Quite a bit of the hike was on a steep boulder field that had moss and trees growing all over the rocks. You could see the huge granite boulders by pulling up big sections of the moss or under any of the countless fallen trees roots. Along with watching out for boobbie traps of hidden holes in boulders or tree roots we also had to keep our heads up for hanging branches that had broken off trees but been hung up on others on their way to the ground, it got a little interesting, kept us on our toes. At the top just before breaking bush line there were larger boulders covered with moss, Paul had to help hoist me up some. This section was sketchy, the trees were growing around/through some boulders and seemed to be pulling from them off the mountain. Surviving the boulder dash we found a bit of snow at the top, and beautiful views. Paul got some great pictures and you can even see where we parked our van, basically a long way down right below us.
The way down was even better, while the land did not change coming down it was harder to spot the holes and branches hidden under the moss. We had some good laughs and always enjoy commenting on how crazy the Kiwi's like their trails!
Lewis Pass was very pretty, our little van that could slowly made her way up. The pass had two one way bridges, very interesting for the logging trucks that take it. Once out and making our way down, the valley seemed to change dramatically from the one we were just in. The thick bush was replace with bare mountains creating huge views of the entire valley. We both like the new valley better, and followed it into Hanmer Springs. About 5 min from town we picked up a couple that were hitch hiking from the road. They had just finished with a backpacking trip and were picking up their car to head home to Chirstchurch. We dropped them off in town the guy showed us the start of a road we should follow for free camping and great views. We took his advise and made our way up a gravel road which just kept climbing and slowly loosing width, there were trail heads, and gates blocking closed roads. About 3/4s of the way up the side of the mountain just where the road narrowed to about a foot on each side of the vehicle and the washboard and bumps got bigger than our tires we decided we really needed water and opted to end our wild goose chase and find a motorcamp in town.
Our motor camp is just 5 min from town, is clean, cheap, very small and run by a cute short old couple. The showers are free and have the perfect temperature. In the camp we ran into a couple that stayed at The Barn (by the Abel Tasman) while we did not make their acquaintance at the barn we now met and chatted with them most of the evening.
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