Blue Lake Hut to Waiau Hut (Waiau)

30/11/21, Day 48, 18km, Total 1177km

Elevation Gain:970, Loss:1316m

An outstanding day.

Left the hut at 7 and arrived at Waiau Hut at 4.30pm. That’s nearly 9.5 hours on my feet except for a couple of short breaks for lunch etc. This is a typical day.

The day started with a 1 hour climb up to Lake Constance. This is a huge lake that feeds the Blue Lake but it has no outflow river. All the water sinks into the ground.

Once past Constance the real climb began. Straight up a scree slope for 600m. Tough climb but I am very much better at coping with them. I am getting fitter.

While on the Pass I tried to upload the blog posts I’d written but the connection wasn’t good enough. So I dealt with a few txts and left.

Some snow on the Pass and down the other side that I had to cross. Fortunately it was soft enough to kick steps but steep enough to be scary. Very serious consequences if I took a fall. The track dropped very steeply down to the river then followed it all the way to the hut. Initially there were a few river crossings. Most of these were somewhat risky as the rivers are still up from the rain 2 days ago. Made it safely though.

The scenery today was out of this world. From looking down on the beautiful Blue Lake, to Lake Costance reflecting the mountains, then the stunning vista from the top of the Pass, then finally the river valley. All so spectacular.

The sandflies at this hut are ferocious. Fortunately it is a newish hut built in 2017 thanks to a donation from a farmer/tramper. So it has good insulation and insect screens to keep the pesky things out.