2012 Pyke Valley

This epic trip had everything … a plane flight to land on a remote west coast beach, river crossings, tenting, and lake wading for 12km in late May!

The idea of tramping this route was seeded by Tim Duthie as he wanted explore the surveyed but never built link road joining Haast to the Hollyford valley. His idea turned into reality and we found a group of keen guys to head bush.

Leaving Sunday after church we headed for Fiordland to stay the first night at Gunns Camp … an experience in itself with the coal range and rain teeming down outside. An early morning had us drive just a bit further down the valley to the airstrip (since washed away) to wait for the plane from Milford to take us to Big Bay. Two trips were needed.

My first time on a small plane and first time landing on a beach was an outstanding experience I won’t soon forget. I was on the second trip. I must admit that watching the plane depart with only our small group of 7 guys left standing on the rugged and remote beach surrounded by the mountains as the plane engine faded from hearing was probably the most isolating feeling I’ve ever felt. We knew it was now up to only us to get ourselves out of the wilderness.

Day 1 was tramping through to Pykes Crossing … a tent camp location. A deer was spotted along the way but noisy voices scared it away before the shot was taken (probably a good think due to the darkness drawing in). At Pykes crossing the tents were erected whilst Alf tried to light a fire to keep us warm. We boiled the water and ate what was probably the most miserable meal I’ve ever had … damp, wet from drizzle and Alf failing lighting a fire (if he couldn’t light a fire then a fire was not going to be lit that night!). After downing our meal we crawled into our tents and used our body heat to keep warm on what was a long and cold night.

Day 2 dawned frosty and blue skies. A quick breakfast before packing up and starting on our biggest day of the trip. We knew if we didn’t make the Olivine Hut that night then we would be spending another night in the tents … not something anyone relished. We had 3 major water courses to cross with the state of them unknown since we knew the whole previous week had been flooding. The Pyke river was crossed with relative ease albeit with very cold feet for those of us that crossed without boots on to try and keep them dry. However another creek crossing 5 mins later followed by another 5 minutes later meant that Hamish was the last to keep removing his boots with each crossing … something he eventually gave up on as well and embraced like the rest of us, wet feet.

Wet boots, wet clothing (from the dew that was not fast to burn off in the not very warm early winter sun) and water crossing after water crossing certainly kept us in a state of type 2 fun (bordering on type 3 for some).

The major water crossings were:

• The Barrier River which we knew could be wide and fast flowing however it wasn’t that bad although the shingle fan indicated that it would be a very dangerous crossing in heavy rain
• The Diorite Stream which we knew was deep and slow flowing which it was – this was our first introduction to waist deep water and would not be our last.
• The Olivine River which we knew was swift, freezing cold and a misstep would put you into the main Pyke river. We also knew there was a cableway across it.

It was starting to get dark and we probably would have stopped to setup for a second tent night if it wasn’t for my GPS that reported that the Olivine River (and hut) were only 20 minutes walk. So we continued as the dusk continued to draw in. Arriving at the Olivine river meant using the cableway crossing. As each person was taking about 10 minutes to get across I grew impatient in the cold waiting – it was starting to freeze already.

I convinced Alf and Hamish that the river was crossable. We linked arms with Hamish on the topside, me in the middle and Alf bracing against the flow below with his stick. Immediately stepping into the river in water halfway up to our knees we discovered the water must be only a few degrees above zero as it comes off the Olivine Ice Plateau! As we moved across in the fading light the river got deeper to about mid thighs but our feet were numb from the cold so feeling the rocks underneath was challenging. The main flow was on the far side immediately before getting out and it was too late to back out so we pushed through. I remember Hamish on the top side with a wash of water almost up mid chest as the flow split around him and Alf was almost in no water but suction as the flow consolidated below him. It was all I could do to hold them together. We got across just as the final person came across the cableway.

The Olivine Hut was like a 5 star hotel … we all felt like kings lighting the fire and drying out, having a decent meal and a good sleep.

Day 3 was another big day with the “Black Swamp”, the known to be deep Alabaster Creek at the head of Lake Alabaster and the fact we knew that Lake Alabaster was high with water still from the flooding the week before.

It was a good days tramping in drizzle with a few missed turns in the swamp. Alabaster Creek was waist deep as we crossed but it prepared us for travelling down the lake in flood. There was not real track down the lake shore so most of the time it was easier to just wade in the lake anywhere between knee deep and waist deep … and it was cold. I estimate that about 4km of the 6km shoreline was spent in the water.

Halfway down the lake we came across a bluff that had no easy way around it … shoulder deep water or a high scramble up near vertical bank to get over the bluff. This was when Hamish produced a large coil of climbing rope (that guy carries everything in his pack!). Whilst we were waiting for Hamish to haul packs up the bank, Kynan was waiting standing on a log which he slipped on and I can still see him falling backwards into the water before he then amazingly reversed the fall … falling back out of the water to a standing position with an astounded “I’m not wet”. Of course he wasn’t wet … he fell back up out of the water so fast the lake didn’t have time to wet him.

About 2km from the hut we heard a motor and a dingy was spotted motoring across the lake towards us. Bruce, the possum guy that lives on the opposite side the Pyke river from the Black Swamp, had spotted our bootprints and came to see us. Several of our party took his offer of a lift down the lake to the Alabaster Hut whilst the rest of us continued on foot.

Lake Alabaster Hut is a new modern DoC hut and it was again like a 5-star hotel to stay.

Day 4 had us walk the Hollyford track out to the roadend. A stop for lunch at Hidden Falls hut was had. With the previous 3 days tracks being mud, unfortunately by the end of day 4 I think we all had blisters walking on the benched gravel hardpack track.

Having knocked the Pyke valley off we headed home with many fond memories.