the traverse-Sabine circuit

Jan. 15th.

Monday.

A fine day to start the traverse-Sabine circuit. the 4th consecutive Monday we're going on a tramp.

we started the Tongariro, the Taranaki and "the queen" on the last 3 Mondays.

Well, to be honest, "The Queen" wasn't really a tramp. More like a walk. A long one, but not really a tramp...

Anyway, we started along a nice lake, easy nice walking. We had lunch near the lake head (in a hut originally called "head lake") and carried on along the river, in a beautiful valley. We stopped for the night in a nice hut, after a perfect day.

The following day was even better - we walked for a couple of hours in a nice forest, along the river, and then, walking out of the forest the views were just amazing!

Steep mountains on both sides of the valley.

Brilliant.

Near the next hut, where we had lunch, we saw a regular sign pointing towards traverse saddle. But, in smaller letters... "are you prepared to traverse saddle?"...

well, after lunch we felt ready, so we started off...

We followed the trail to end of the valley, where it took a right turn, and started climbing the steep mountain-side to the saddle.

Just before getting to the saddle, there was a big rock split in half. We took a few funny photos, and carried on to the saddle...

So pretty!! Such great views!!

Snow capped mountains. rugged peaks. Beautiful!!

But than we started descending; a long, steep, scrumbly, ugly descent.

Yuck.

We got to the hut with sore knees.

In the hut we met Katie - a local wine-maker who invited us to come to a wine festival in Blenheim on Feb 10th.

Next day was a short, quiet day, easy walking.

The only problem was that the hut we got to was swarming with sand-flies... The door had been worked on the previous day so it was open for hours...

Morning.

We started off.

After 5 m, maayan stopped, looked up, and asked me "there?".

I looked, and said that I don't think so.

But it was there.

Without any warning or time to get warmed up, the trail took a turn, and we started climbing an almost-cliff.

We climbed that steepest of climbs for 2.5 hours, in the forest, with sand-flies closing in on you whenever you stop.

Maayan, coming out of the forest, said "I thought I'd never see the sun again!!"

Well, after a refreshing break we carried on along the narrow ridge-line. That was the only part of the trip with foul weather. It was very foggy and we could just make out the next marking pole each time. But it was still impressive and misty.Mainly misty ;)

After a couple of hours we could see a beautiful, blue lake. The clouds cleared a bit, and we could see the most inviting angelus hut.

we toured the surroundings, enjoyed yet again clear blue sky, great weather and even greater scenery.

later, in the hut, we met again Elad & Liat - the nice Israeli couple from picton...

So we had good time in the hut, even though we were 25 people in the hut, 13 of them Israelis...

The next day we had some more great views from the peak of angelus Mt. It was really amazing - snow capped mountains everywhere you looked... And we could see almost all our tramp...

Fabulous!! Than sore knees from the climbing down, and a nice evening in the company of Elad & Liat...

About the kiwis and the human-introduced mammals.

When in the 1 of the huts on the traverse Sabine circuit, we met this nice old granny. She seemed like 65 years old and super-fit. She did our 5-days-hike in 3 days.

As she put it "everyone and his favored pace..."

Anyway, she was really a cute old lady, charming, gentle, doing some sudoko.

Until Maayan said that we saw a stoat the other day.

Immediately she raised her head, her features hardened, her eyes turned cold and in a somewhat harsh voice she asked: "did you kill it?".

It was puzzling, almost even scary...

the next day was very bad for hitchhiking. Or rather, for hitchhikers... Two specific poor hitchhikers.

Yes, i mean maayan & me...

We made it from St arnoud to kaikura in just 3 rides, but the total waiting time was 6 hours... It took us about 9 hours only 3 of them we spent in a car...

The next day we went on a whale watching cruise, and we saw a sperm whale!!

Only one whale, but such a magnificent creature!!!

Afterwards we waited for 2.5 hours until we got a ride to amberley, where we met with Caroline (i hiked with her in Alaska).

We used her place as a base, going each day to Christchurch, to extend our visas, shopping etc.

The following day, the 23rd, Maayan's father landed so we parted. But only for less than 2 weeks.

But that's for a new post...