After a relatively awful asleep, we were away at 3.52am under lights and heading towards the upper reaches of the Waimakariri River. It was good to be under way. I love it when a mission goes from planning to fruition in such a short time (in this case about a month). It gives you less time to talk yourself out of it and come up with inane excuses why you can\u2019t do it. Sometimes \u2018over thinking\u2019 can be counterproductive to actually doing.<\/p>\n
![\"IMG_5354\"](\"https:\/\/www.timmulliner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/IMG_5354.jpg\")
<\/a>Waimakariri River – Venus lighting the sky<\/p><\/div>\n
The plan was a circumnavigation of the Arthur\u2019s Pass town-ship via Harman Pass, the Taipo River, Dry Creek, Hunts Creek, followed by the famous Coast to Coast run via the Deception and Mingha Rivers to arrive back at Klondyke Corner to our awaiting car. Based on estimated times in various tramping guide books, I reckoned on about 16 to 22 hours to complete the 80 km circuit and roughly 3000 m of climbing. A big factor in the speed was going to be the roughness of the terrain and general lack of a worn path. Much of the route was in river beds.<\/p>\n
We had barely left the camp when we waded into the strong flow of the Waimakariri River for the first time. It was refreshing that no one had the least bit of hesitation to soaking their feet in the frigid water, which was just as well as it was the first crossing of literally hundreds throughout the day.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Heading towards the Upper Waimakarirver River (Photo: Scott Condron)<\/p><\/div>\n
As we picked our way up through the matagouri fields of the river plain, the Milky Way resplendent above, behind us Venus stared down on us in the otherwise blank Eastern sky. Further on still, the lighting sky signalled the arrival of the sun, the sun that would today guide us around the high peaks of Arthur\u2019s Pass National Park.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Plenty of waterfalls in the Upper Taipoiti River (Photo: Scott Condron)<\/p><\/div>\n
\u00a0We made good progress past both Greenlaw and Carrington Huts, their occupants still sound asleep before wading across the thigh deep White River and bouncing our way up the rocky, waterfall clad Taipoiti River to arrive at Harman Pass (1321 m) not long after 8am and roughly 20 km in. The moisture from the valleys condensed to form a low fog like cloud which shrouded our surrounds, but occasionally views of the majestic towering ice clad peaks would surprise us momentarily. Of course, we didn\u2019t need the views of the towering peaks to make us feel small. Descending down into the head of Mary Creek through flowering mountain buttercups and daisies, the immensity of the task at hand, the remoteness, and sense of adventure, was everywhere we looked and stepped as we continually crossed boulder fields, tussock benches, thickets of alpine scrub and the delicious eye appealing greens, greys, reds and yellows which to me epitomise the beauty of the South Island sub-alpine backcountry.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Approaching Harman Pass<\/p><\/div>\n
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By 9.40 am we were at Taipo Hut. We had been on the go for nearly six hours but we all still felt remarkably good. Everyone was in good spirits, we had made good progress, we were nearly an hour up on our self-imposed turn-around time and once more we were eager to progress. After a five minute break to reorganise some gear we headed off towards the confluence of Dry Creek with the Taipo River, hung a sharp right and then in the space of 2000 horizontal metres, we scrambled up vertical 1100 m in a rocky Creek bed to gain the saddle between the Taipo River and Hunts Creek. I have to admit I loved this part, all hour and a half of it as perversely, I feel there is nothing quite like the shear grind of a good calf bending grunt. This enthusiasm wasn\u2019t entirely shared by all though.<\/p>\n
<\/a>At the Saddle between Dry Creek and Hunts Creek<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>The long grind up Dry Creek<\/p><\/div>\n
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A brief break at the top (I should point out that all the breaks were expediently brief) was followed by a disappointing scree slide (not the right sort of scree). The highlight (for me anyway) was the presence of the fury leathery skinned mountain eldewieess growing in the inhospitable and impractical environment.<\/p>\n
<\/a>The descent into Upper Kelly’s Creek<\/p><\/div>\n
Hunts Creek was slow due to the complete lack of track, long tussock with hidden boulders and thick bush whacking sections. It was nearly a relief to get to the infamous boulder garden where memories of boulders as big as houses (according to Scott) turned out to be slightly exaggerated, and we made reasonable progress jumping from boulder to boulder (as big as\u2026. well big rocks) until we were spat out at Hunts Creek Hut.<\/p>\n
The bodies were now starting to feel weary, the last section of slow complicated travel having taken its toll. We rewarded ourselves with an outrageously long break \u2013 10 minutes, before trudging towards the half way mark and to see what Hunt\u2019s Creek had in store for us.<\/p>\n