15km Day : 834km Total
8 February 2015
-42.058237, 172.655107

All 5 of the TA hikers started from the hut around 7:45 give or take 10min.  It started with a climb to Travers Saddle, which wasn’t as difficult as we expected.

Morning at Upper Travers

The views from the saddle were pretty amazing in every direction.  There were a few small patches of snow to the sides of the trail as we crossed over the pass.

At Travers Saddle

Above the Clouds

On the other side it was a steep descent that was hard on the knees. It was a mixture of rock and grass.  I’m not sure which was more difficult because the grass was slippery from dew. Before I realized this I slipped and fell and then slid another meter before stopping.  Nothing injured but my pride.

The Trail Down to the River

The Kiwis and I reached West Sabine Hut at noon and stopped for lunch.  Bobby & Andrew had already been and gone.  We took our time here because our goal was to reach Blue Lake, which was only a few more hour’s hike.

The final stretch to Blue Lake was harder than I expected with a few steep climbs and some scrambling over boulders required. At 4 o’clock when I had expected to reach the hut I didn’t see anything up ahead that looked like there would be a lake so I got out my GPS to make sure I wasn’t entirely turned around.  The good news was that GPS showed i only had a kilometer left to walk. The bad news was that I had to climb 200m of elevation.

Bobby & Andrew are not at the hut, so apparently they got here early enough that they could get across Waiau Saddle before dark.  The Kiwis and I are the only ones at Blue Lake Hut tonight.  Although two American TA hikers (Ryan and Robby) from Georgia stopped in briefly then continued to Lake Constance to camp.

Blue Lake