Two Thumbs Track

Sam drove us to the Bush Stream car park on the south side of the Rangitata via a long and dusty dirt road – we got stuck behind an animal transporter – then stuck behind some cantankerous cows. Sam guided us up the track for a while until it was time for him to turn back, and we carried on up the stream then up and down a horrid little goat track, then a final climb up to Crooked Spur hut. This old musterers’ hut was perched amongst craggy peaks in a huge landscape that made us feel small.

Bush Stream from Crooked Spur

Crooked Spur Hut

A misty morning played havoc with finding our route markers, but we put paid to the trials of tall tussock and sneaky spiky stuff with my invented puttees – a pair of cut off long tramping socks. We had lunch in the delightful Stone Hut, situated at the bottom of a rock slide. One end wall was made of stone with a huge fireplace. Then it was on to Royal Hut on a reasonable track. The old door of the hut has a record of all the mustering teams going back at least to VE day in 1945. Rob put his handy man skills to use and fixed a broken window, and late in the afternoon we were joined by two trampers, one a Te Araroa walker from the States who called himself Cheese and was walking south to north.

 We enjoyed our morning trip up to the highest point on the whole of the Te Araroa Trail, Stag Saddle at 1925 m. But we made a HUGE mistake at the top – it was still a bit misty, so we decided it wasn’t worth going higher up on the ridge for the views, and proceeded down the valley. Well, that was just fine for a couple of hours and we did get lovely views of the brilliant blue Lake Tekapo – but then the trail deteriorated, the markers seemed almost senseless and it all became just hard work. Meantime of course the mist had lifted, and if we’d gone high we would have had a great track. What we thought was a five hour day turned into seven – very depressing!

Stag Saddle

View from Stag Saddle to Tekapo

Evening cloud viewed from Camp Stream Hut

But we did find the lovely old Camp Stream Hut run by the Mackenzie Alpine Trust in great order, and soon made it home. The hut book suggested there was water available from a seep in a horse paddock – it was gross – so we clambered down a bank to a lovely sidestream where we filled up every plastic bottle and billy in sight. To our delight at 8.00 pm, Sam and Lorraine arrived, having biked for an hour and hiked for five hours. They had only found the hut by sheer chance - just as well they did as that night was freezing, and we woke to frost on the ground. Rob was the only one who had spent a comfortably warm night – he’s a lizard.

View over Coal River

It was a lovely walk out together in the morning, discovering our own route up on to a high terrace and avoiding a precipitous climb. We said a sad farewell to Sam and Lorraine at the Round Hill ski field road, and we carried on through a stunning landscape of snow topped mountains and the blue lake in the distance, with the Richmond Ranges towering over us. A hot afternoon was spent walking on gravel road to an inferior backpackers (the YHA was full)in Tekapo, but a fantastic dinner at Monteith’s.

Notes:

Day 40: Bush Stream carpark to Crooked Spur Hut. 9.5 km
Day 41: Crooked Spur Hut to Royal Hut. 15.5 km
Day 42: Royal Hut to Camp Stream Hut. 14 km
Day 43: Camp Stream Hut to Tekapo backpackers. 33 km