With another beautiful summer day ahead of us, we planned a trip up to the high country to escape the heat of the city. We drove up to Hakatere Conservation Area in the foothills of the Southern Alps; this huge park is the site of a large wetlands restoration programme around the many high country lakes in this area. Although I had previously visited one of the lakes in the area, I knew that there was a lot more to see.
Despite the remoteness of the area, it has always been used; Māori passed throughhere when transporting greenstone from coast to coast and recognised this area as being rich in food. European settlers set up huge sheep stations with Hakatere Station and neighbouring Mt Possession station together carrying as many as 28,000 merino sheep. The stone cottage which was constructed in 1862 to accommodate the manager of Hakatere Station is one of this area’s oldest dwellings.
Leaving the old station buildings behind we headed further up the valley to Lake Roundabout. After scoping out the fishing potential of this lake we decided to continue a little further along the track to Lake Emma.
As the conservation area focuses on the preservation of the wetlands, boats aren’t allowed on most of the lakes in this area, making everything very quiet and providing beautiful reflections in the glassy water.
After stopping for lunch on the shore of Lake Emma, we left Eric and my dad fishing at Lake Emma and took the trail around to the far side of the lake to the historic hut. The two room hut was built between the late 1860’s and 1890 and had remained remarkably well preserved with the furniture and bunks still there.
With the fish not biting we decided to return to the car and continue further west into the valley towards Mount Sunday.