Young and the Wilkins

Trip # 2 near Queenstown. If you have checked out the prior post about the Rees-Dart trip, you know that after that 5-day trip we rented a car and drove about 100km to Wanaka a very kiwi, laid-back, resort but not too touristy town that sits on the banks of aptly named Lake Wanaka. We enjoyed a nice dinner of steak and/or salmon and slept in a bed that night before heading out to conquer the Young and the Wilkens. Again, we would be hiking up the Young River Valley, over a pass and down to the Wilkens River Valley back to our car.

We had packed up all our gear and resuppplied with food in Wanaka and so we were able to get an early start. We drove to the tiny outpost of Makaroa where we stopped at a local cafe and Morris and Mike opted for a full cooked breakfast (two eggs, toast, bacon, and sausage and a grilled tomato). I chose to just have coffee and pb toast knowing that we faced a good day of walking with packs. The trailhead was 4 km from parking near the National Park center so I drove to the trailhead and dropped Mike and Morris off and then drove to park the car and ran the 4km back to the trailhead. I tried hitching but no luck.

Our first challenge was crossing the Young River which we did with arms locked around each others' shoulders and with pack straps unbuckled. The river was only kneed deep but it was powerful and I am sure in springtime it cannot be crossed on many days. There was actually an emergency radio station on the other side of the river for hikers who became stranded and needed a boat to come across and take them safely back. The day was beautiful and we enjoyed a couple 3 hours walk to the confluence of the North and South Fork of the Young River.

I got there first and boiled water for a brewup. You can see Morris and Mike below with the stove, coffee pot and cups. Why not stop for a half an hour on a nice day and enjoy a cup of coffee and some soup. I will definitely be incorporating this routine into my US hiking. We were passed by a wonderfully nice, quick-moving, retired English couple that we would get to know over the next few days. The next three hours of hiking was very challenging with some sections so steep that you almost had to stop and take a breath every few steps. The trail meandered along the river before eventually ending up at the Young Hut. There we met the nice English couple and a couple from Montana on a fly fishing and tramping vacation. We also met a strange English man with a dour demeanor and the habit of interjecting randomly into a conversation only to disengage as if he had never said anything. He also seemed quite perturbed that there were other people in the huts. Oh, well, everyone else was nice. The hut did not have any water so I went and fetched some for dinner. We drank straight from the stream throughout this trip so we will see if I regret this after a bout of giardia (so far so good). Since this trip was only 3 days we took some box of wine Shiraz that was quite nice in the evenings.

Day 2 was up the tough Siberia Pass. We were hiking at 7:00 AM and made it to the top of the pass (picture of me), before 10:30 AM where we had a nice brewup, or course. We saw this fixed wing plane fly overhead 3 times giving sight seeing tours on an absolutely beautiful day. The tougher section was the downhill into the Siberia Valley which was about 1.5 hours of downhill. The English couple and Mike and Morris were amazed that I could hike without poles. I told them that so far my knees were great (fingers crossed). We did see another kea flying overhead and met a trail volunteer who was a chatty Cathy to say the least. I think I could write her memoir she told us so much information about herself and the local area. Oh well, she was passionate about her volunteering.

We got to the bottom of the Siberia Valley and it was only a one hour hike to the hut, but Mike and I decided to add 4 hours to our day by hiking up to Lake Crucible. You can see the chunks of ice floating in the water with me above. It was really steep through the beech forest with tons of roots to scramble around and over. We had left our packs in the valley floor but it was still quite an effort after already climbing over the pass early in the morning. We finally reached the valley floor again and Mike encouraged me to go ahead and tell Morris (who didn't want to hike to the lake but fish instead) that we were ok and to cook dinner. Sure enough, near the hut I met him with a small pack full of supplies to look for us in case we had trouble. He and I made dinner and started in on the rest of the wine as we waited on Mike at the hut. He eventually ambled along with a big grin on his face; even after a 13 hour day! What a tough guy.

Day three was only a 2 hour hike to a jetboat pickup. We could have taken a plane, jetboat or a helicopter but we chose the jetboat. We were picked up on time and treated to a terrifying jetboat down the Wilkens River back to our car. After 8 days of tramping the jetboat noise and rapid movement was a bit much and the innocent-looking kiwi girl driver was clinically insane I swear. She drove so close to the bank and rapids that I had to look down at times and hope that we would not meet our end on the Wilkens River. Nonetheless, after a half-hour ride, we were back at our car and the scenery that we enjoyed was well worth the risk and effort.