A week near Wanaka
Ray Hoare,
Wanderers Tramping Club, Hamilton, NZ
In mid January 2015, I (75 years old), my son Brent, and his friend Lisa, made our way to Wanaka before beginning our planned week of tramping in real mountains. Rachael at the Mt Aspiring visitor centre tried to talk us out of the first part, which was to walk up the Young River, over Gillespie Pass and down the Wilkin. “Look at the weather map!” she exclaimed. Well, there was an intense storm system off the West Coast and heading our way, but I figured that we could get to Young Hut easily enough, and that the weather we would see in the morning was more important than any forecast. Besides, if DOC were sending everyone into the much less interesting Greenstone valley there would be no room in any of the huts in this alternative. We stuck with our plan to stay in the cabins at Makarora (recommended) and tramp to Young Hut next day.
The Makarora River was too high to ford, and we saved 2 hours tramping by paying $25 each for a jet boat ride to the mouth of the Young. Well worth it. While waiting for the boat operators a group of 4 “mature” trampers from Australia turned up. When getting their hut tickets from the local DOC office they got the haranguing about the weather that we had endured. A half hour of “will we” “won’t we” ensued, clinched for me by the local helicopter pilot saying that if we got over Gillespie pass by 1pm next day we would miss the weather. I resolved to get up at 5am and get my party over the pass in plenty of time, and on hearing this the Aussies decided to come with us. All 7 of us were dropped on the bank of the Young about 10am.
It was almost surreal, going from the township of Makarora to the sublime, dense forest of the Young Valley in 10 minutes of jetboating. The first few hours up the valley were very easy tramping in beautiful forest, but of course even that gets tiring after 6 hours. The rain did not help, but was not too heavy. I eventually started using the GPS app on my phone to see how far we had to go. After 8 hours or so we were very glad to see the enormous Young Hut standing above us in its clearing. The Australians were an hour and a half later than us, so were even more pleased to see it!
The hut had a very effective coal-fired stove, so despite the hut’s size (20 bunks) we soon had it cosy.
I woke at 5 the next morning, and discovered the sky was reasonably clear, but pitch black – I had forgotten that it gets lighter later than at home. Back to bed for an hour, and then I whipped the troops into action. We left about 7:30, with cloudy tops and the wind pushing the clouds along. This is land carved by glaciers, so we had a flat bit, a steep bit, a flat bit, and then the vertical bit. Starting at altitude 1000m up to about 1500m we were in snowgrass and hebes, with little shelter from the wind that became stronger as we ascended. I needed my overtrousers!
Once at the top of the range we had a much more pleasant walk along the range for a while – great views, less wind, and downhill bits. Views of rainbows over the valley below us. The downhill bits slowly became more difficult, but come 1pm we decided that we had met the challenge set by the helicopter pilot and won the race with the weather. 
Time for lunch in the snowgrass.
We met others going up the track including an Englishman in sandals who we met later – he told us he used sandals all the way to Young Hut! Neville, the hut warden, was going for a day walk to the top of the pass and back.
The weather got gradually wetter, so when we got to the flats about an hour before the hut I went ahead, moving fast to keep warm instead of changing my clothes. I also wanted to get the fire going for us all.
Siberia hut was similar to Young Hut, but had a volunteer warden while we were there. We enjoyed the warmth of the coal fire again, and kept expecting the Australians to turn up and thank us for helping to dry themselves out. However, there was no sign of them that day.
Next day dawned overcast, but not too bad. The side trip to Lake Crucible was on! We put all our food and gear for the day in Brent’s pack, and set off back the way we had come, branching off to the left at the top of the flats, and finding a good fording place over the Siberia River. Up the side of the glacial valley again, very steeply for 300m, then flat, then just ordinary steep for 200m up the old moraine that dams the top of the valley to create the circular lake with vertical walls around most of it, and icebergs from the glaciers that adorn the mountains above. A pity that the rain and occasional sleet spoiled the best views that could be had, but we were glad we had made the effort.
The Australians turned up that evening – the wind of the previous day had put them off. We gathered they had no idea of how to use the strength of the group to safely cross a river, so part of the evening’s entertainment was we three demonstrating various ways to use mutual support or walking poles to do this.
The next day we turned our minds to how to get back to civilisation. The Makarora river was too high for us to feel we could safely ford it. The jet boat operator had a contract to take the Australians out the following day, and we had enough food to wait for that, but we were keen to get on with the next tramp. Neville, the hut warden, had radio contact with the Makarora DOC office, who could tell him at 8am what plans there were at that time for people using transport up the Wilkin that day, but who could not take new bookings for us. We heard that a boat was due to drop people off at the landing, 2 hours walking away, at 1pm, so we resolved to try for a ride back to Makorora on it. If we missed the boat we would come back to Siberia Hut.
We decided to leave at 10:30am, to give us plenty of time to get to the landing by 1pm. However, I was nervous about our speed compared to the “expected” speed, so pulled ahead of the others after about an hour. About noon I meet a woman tramping up the valley. “How did you get here?” I asked. It turned out that she had been in the transport company office in Makarora, expecting to get a ride up in the jet boat, but the people who had booked it pulled out. So she hired the helicopter!
Our plan to return on the jetboat was looking rather unlikely, but it was not far to the landing, so I decided to push ahead just in case someone else turned up unexpectedly. At about 12:10, I see a helicopter fly up the valley – it has to return some time! At about 12:20 I get to the open flats where the boat lands, and start to wait. Sure enough, I hear the buzz of the chopper, and I stand up and wave my arms furiously, making a very obvious “thumbing a ride” motion. The chopper lands.
I explain the situation, that I and my 2 friends want a ride back to town, but that I don’t know how far behind me they are. We wait, chatting, for about 10 minutes, the motor still on and the pilot checking his fuel a couple of times, until he decides he has to leave. I book a return flight for 1:15, and the helicopter leaves without me, about 5 minutes before Brent and Lisa arrive. After half an hour pretending we can shelter under the large beech trees at the side of the clearing, our ride returns and in 10 minutes time we are booking a nice warm cabin with hot showers, towels and sheets.
The weather cleared overnight, so it was off to Wanaka for a good lunch and to buy hut tickets for the Alpine Club hut in the Matukituki valley. Then we were on our way again. Only 2 hours walking to the hut (but 9km), the sign said after half an hour, but we were in no hurry, the sky was blue and we just took our time.
The plan was to spend the next night at Liverpool hut, at about 1200m, after leaving the valley at 600m. You climb this distance in about 500m horizontal distance! But the effort was worth making. Magnificent views of Mt Aspiring and the peaks around it, from the track and from the cosy 10-person full hut. 
The evening was marred by one of the occupants appropriating my camera until I made so much fuss that it miraculously reappeared in the morning on a path I had just walked to the outdoor toilet.
Descending was much faster than the ascent, of course, and we arrived back at Aspiring hut for lunch. We decided to leave that afternoon instead of spending the night there, and had a rush back to the car so we could cash our unused hut pass at the Visitor Centre before it closed at 5pm.
As compensation for this effort, and to get us closer to Christchurch for my next adventure, we drove to Mt Cook and stayed in the newly-renovated Unwin Lodge, where Brent re-lived some of his mountaineering triumphs of yesteryear.