Double Hut
A short trip to Hakatere Conservation Park (August 2022).
I leave late, but still need to go to the supermarket to get cookies, and still need to fuel up the car. The reason for needing to get cookies is that I am going to Cookies Hut, and it would be quite unacceptable to go to Cookies Hut without cookies. I am also going to Tribulation Hut, so it is only reasonable that there will be some sort of struggle to get there.
This is only too right. While the cookie purchase and fuelling up goes well, the drive does not go so well. The road is closed. I have not planned for this so I plan really quickly and decide on a plan b.
Upon arriving successfully at the start location of my plan b I realise that my maps do not cover this area at all, and I am relying on my unreliable phone battery.
There is a lot of snow. This is not unexpected and is relatively nice. I eat some of it once I get into the conservation park, and admire the partially frozen Lake Emily.
The snow proceeds to get deeper, and I am forced to detour around a small tarn whose ice is not thick enough to hold my weight no matter how gently I try to stand on it. No one has walked this track since the last snow dump, so I am trudging through deep powder up to my knees. Once I have descended into the upper West Branch of the Stour River I am back on a 4WD track, still fresh and untouched. Fresh snowmelt is pouring down the tracks, but at this stage snow has already found its way in through the tops of my gaiters, so I splash straight through. Once they’re wet, they’re wet.
Manuka Hut is a gem. The afternoon sun is bathing it in warmth and the snow still hanging off the roof is dripping frantically. The hut is cosy and warm and I am certainly tempted to stay, but I have been walking for just over 2 hours and driving all this way to walk for 4 hours does seem a little silly. I could see so much more.
I resume the walk, now following footprints. The trapping effort in this area is impressive. There are many traps: SA2 Kat traps (confusingly, these are for catching possums), Timms traps and DOC 200 traps. These traps reliably accompany me along the entire stretch of trail between Manuka and Double Hut, straight through the mostly frozen Seagull Lake, which has a SBBG (Southern Black Backed Gull) on it. I am not sure these particular traps are currently being very useful in controlling predators as they are mostly submerged, but some of the un-submerged traps show strong evidence of success.
It takes about 4 hours to get to Double Hut from the Lake Emily track. I unpack and sketchily climb up the bluffs behind the hut in my new pink crocs to photograph plants. It is successful and I do not take any embarrassing tumbles in front of the family setting up camp on the other side of the stream.
My phone has not died, so I pore over the map planning my next day, although in practice, who knows what I will actually do. I read a lot of my book then engage in some chat with the two hunters who return at dusk.
Double Hut was an old Musterers Hut, housing 4 musterers with about 6 dogs each, and a cook. The hut walls tell some of the stories from these times, however you might have to devote some serious time to deciphering the beautiful cursive handwriting scrawled across the panels. Nowadays many more have added their thoughts to the walls, albeit with far less taste and elegance.
Sir Edmund Hillary visited Double Hut and climbed Mt Taylor, I do not. I decide to prioritise the fact that I have signed up to cook for the flat tonight and have identified that if I did decide to go up Mt Taylor I would be late. Also the snow is deep and soft and I feel that I would not enjoy it with an overnight pack. So I inch my way up an extremely steep but relatively stable scree slope until I hit the ridge leading to the Fingers. I suspect this scree slope is less stable when it is not frozen.
I drop my pack, and armed with crampons and ice axe I make my own way along the ridge. I have shoved some cookies into my pockets and I snack on these when it gets to my turn-around time, before I head back to consume the final cookie still in my pack.
I do not enjoy what follows. The descent onto the sloping plateau is unenjoyable. The snow is deep, loose powder, with no traction. I breathe a sigh of relief when I get to the broad river bed then dive into thigh deep snow covered tumatakuru (matagouri | Discaria toumatou) shrubland that is the final barrier between me and the plateau. Once on the plateau I enjoy myself, speeding along the boggy ground, dodging spikey plants and water-filled holes on the fly. I spot Manuka Hut and throw myself straight into some heinous spine filled scrub with a dusting of bush lawyer topped with a generous helping of snow. Once freed (of a substantial amount of blood) I speed along the track back to my car, wishing for some cloud cover to provide respite from the baking sun.
This way out takes me just over 8 hours. You can choose to make things easy for yourself, or you can choose not to.
Hakatere Conservation Park was established in 2007 and covers nearly 60,000 hectares of country between the Rakaia and Rangitata Rivers. It encompasses a wide range of important habitats for rare plants and animals, and beautiful landscapes that show evidence of the glacial history of the area.
For my route click here.
