Our Easter Tramping trip took us back to Aspiring National Park, although this time we were exploring a new-to-us section of the park close to Haast Pass. This was a trip that had been in our plans for a while, but which we had postponed on a couple of occasions mostly due to various ankle surgeries. With the weather looking reasonable and everything else lining up, we were excited to visit this area.
The trip started with a jet boat ride across the Makarora River, something that we felt was essential as although you can in theory cross the icy river, the fast flowing current doesn’t make it a very safe (or comfortable) choice, especially first thing in the morning. We made the short river crossing in the boat and after scrambling up the river bank, we were immediately in dense forest. We followed the Young River for much of the day, but tucked into the trees you weren’t really able to get a feeling for the surroundings.
Just as the forest started to thin, we got the faint smell of woodsmoke which meant that the Young Hut, our destination for the night, was close by. Despite being on the edge of the forest, the hut had good views up the valley towards the upper basin where we would be hiking the next morning.
We were pleased to wake up to beautiful, clear skies the next morning, which we hoped would make the climb up and over Gillespie Pass worthwhile as we could take advantage of some good views from the tops. The downside to the clear skies was the heavy frost from the night before was still lingering in the valley and we crunched our way through frozen ground for the first couple of kilometers.
As with so many tracks in New Zealand, it didn’t take long for us to gain altitude, with the trail climbing from 750 metres at Young Hut to 1,600 metres at the top of the pass in just a couple of kilometers. Despite the rather brutal start to the day, the climb was well worth the effort as the views from the top of the pass were stunning. The skyline was dominated by the rather amusingly named Mount Awful, and we enjoyed trying to image how that particular peak got it’s name.
As we started to drop down from the pass we got our first views down towards the Siberia Valley, our destination for the night (in lowest point the photo below). After stopping to enjoy our picnic lunch and contemplate the descent into the valley we started making our way down. It was slow going on the rather uneven ground, which was surprising as we both felt climbing the pass was actually slightly easier.
Eventually we made it out of the forest and on to the river flats of the Siberia Valley. It was just a short walk to the hut which was located in the perfect spot to provide ever-changing views of the valley from the windows.
We had hoped to spend an extra night at Siberia Hut to allow us to explore the upper valley, but the jet boat company had warned us that there was weather on the way and that meant it was likely the rivers would rise to the point that they would be unable to pick us up.
Not wishing to chance our luck, we headed out along the Siberia Valley the next morning. It was an easy walk along the river towards Kerin Forks where the jet boat was set to pick up back up. We made great time and were pleased to hear the roar of the jet boat a little while later as the clouds were starting to build and the air was getting quite chilly.