After finishing the Queen Charlotte Track we made our way inland to the small settlement of St Arnaud in Nelson Lakes National Park. The plan was to spend a couple of days relaxing, giving our legs a break from hiking and enjoying the scenery with maybe a bit of fishing too, depending on the conditions.
The first day we were there was an absolutely beautiful day, which is pretty rare around here. Eric and I have been to this area a couple of times before and each time have had pretty rubbish weather that has been nothing like the forecast.
Given the clear skies and relatively warm weather we decided to hike up the nearby Arnaud Range Track. It is normally easy to find information about the various hikes in New Zealand, but there weren’t many details available about this track, but it looked good on the map and had the possibility of some views from the ridgeline, so we thought we should give it a try.
Like most tracks it started off with a pretty steep climb up through the bush, which is always a tricky way to start as you don’t really get much of a sense of your surroundings. Eventually we popped out of the trees, and after a short scramble, we made it to the ridgeline.
From the top of the ridge we had fantastic views along the St Arnaud Range and down to Lake Rotoiti on one side and the Wairau River valley on the other side. From our perch on the ridge we could pick out places were were familiar with in the town of St Arnaud, as well as the cabin we were staying in.
We spent some time at the top admiring the 360 degree views before retracing our steps back down to the lake. We stopped off at the dock close to the trailhead looking for the eels that tend to hang out there. Luckily they weren’t out and about, so we headed back to the cabin for some food and a well deserved rest.
The next morning the clouds had started to build, so we were glad that we had been able to walk up to the ridge the previous day. With the conditions still looking pretty good, we decided to take a water taxi up to the head of Lake Rotoiti so that my dad and Eric could try some fishing in the Travers River.
We arrived at the nearby Lakehead Hut around lunchtime and after having our picnic in the hut away from the sandflies, we split up to explore the valley. My mum and and I headed up the valley, whilst the boys went back to the lake edge to pick up the river and try some fishing.
Eventually we decided that they boys would keep fishing and wait for the last water taxi of the day whilst my mum and I took the lakeside track all the way back to town. Despite the track being in the trees for much of the length of the lake, we had a few glimpses back up the valley were we had been walking.
From St. Arnaud, the next stop on our South Island tour was Hanmer Springs, and we had a beautiful day for our drive as we followed the Buller River out towards the Lewis Pass. We stopped near the Maruia River for lunch braving the sandflies which were sadly out in force on such a lovely day. The advantage of so many sandflies was that nobody was keen to sit still for long and so we did the short, Alpine Nature Walk that was next to the picnic area. For just a quick loop track, it actually had beautiful views of the Spenser Mountains and the alpine wetlands.
We got back in the cars and finished up the drive to Hanmer Springs and once we had settled into our cabins decided to explore the area and see if the fish around here were any more obliging than the ones in Nelson Lakes. We took the 4WD road over Jollies Pass which dropped us right on the banks of the Clarence River, which is meant to have some amazing trout fishing.
Whilst my mum and I explored a bit of the Clarence River Valley, the boys tried some fishing, but sadly this was either the wrong part of the Clarence River or the fish were just not hungry as there were no trout to be caught. With the storm clouds building on the horizon, we decided it was time to head back over the hill to Hamner for some dinner.