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Over the summer my husband was driving down the Maitai Valley road in search of a new swimming hole as a fierce and ferocious eel had been biting kids at our local swimming hole.
Winding along the dry and dusty gravel road he came across a bush beaten, old man holding out his thumb for a ride. The man was from Blenheim and came to meet his brother, in three days he walked through the bush, over Mt Fishtail down a ridge, to the Pelorus River, to Captain Creek Hut. From there over the Bryant Range and to the Dew Lakes, and finally down into the Maitai. It was slow going and there was lots of windfall were his comments as he requested a drop off at the Sprig & Fern to quench his thirst.
I remembered this story over the weekend as I stood on Dun Mountain and took in the vast expanse of land laid out at the base of Mt Fishtail, Mt Fell and Mt Richmond. There is always so much yet to explore in our "backyards" and I hope I’m still out and about in my later years…
Also I visited the Dun Shelter nestled against a bank on a tussocky plateau. It was very quaint from the outside, but I wouldn’t recommend picking it as a place to stay. A bit drafty, no mattress and suspicious holes in the floor and wall that I suspect were homes to rodents.
At a very early stage is Birdcage Hut, with the first heavy base layers laid down and the initial details emerging.
Situated towards the head of the Cass River near Lake Tekapo Birdcage Hut is nestled against the Haszard Ridge on the valley floor at just under 1100 metres above sea level.
This hut is a derelict one...
After this latest snow dump we feel so lucky to have spent time just before it immersing ourselves in the Molesworth. Access in winter can be a challenge, snow and ice on the passes and we just heard that the rivers in Rainbow got blown out after the last rain/snow storm I imagine these are impassable now as they get gauged out very quickly.
It's very cool to see others just as passionate about the area as us - when we turned up it made me laugh to see another ute had skis in the back (although they had biked in) nothing was going to stop them going in! It would have been a very long...
I'm getting into the finer detail now on the Poolburn Dam painting. The morning mist rising off the cool water as the sun warmed it was a challenge. It adds a great mood and is only visible for such a short time early in the morning so I really wanted to include this...
