This post is a continuation of the Rees Dart adventure.

Day 2: Passed by the Youngsters 

(Shelter Rock Hut to Dart Hut, 10 km)

On paper, day 2 was looking easier despite the climb up to Rees saddle. The night before I told Bev that I wanted to get going early so we had lots of time in the day. That and the photography is way better in the morning light. He groused about it but agreed. I told him to not muck around, be ready and prepared.

What ever term you might like to use when things are not as they should be, that is what I was. Bev had a good chuckle at the chaos. I must have packed and unpacked my bag 8 times, forgot things, left things in the room and all manner of disorganization. Doh. Finally, we were on the trail; it was another bluebird day!

One thing that became clear right out of the gate is that the photography was going to be tough. The Rees Valley heads straight into the sun in the morning, so I was going to have to work around that.

She laughed. Although she kept gaining on us, I do think she purposely slowed down to make sure we made the saddle before her … just in case 🙂

The visual as you reach the saddle is amazing. It is the first time that you get a sense for the massive expanse of rock that makes up the higher peaks. It was one of my favorite moments.

There were seven of us at the saddle: Bev, Carwyn, Marcus, Rio, Sophia, Marissa, and me. We all chatted and ate some food and admired the view. The saddle was at the point where you could see the start of both the Dart and the Rees river.

We hung out on the saddle for quite a while. Bev and I looked down the valley and other than the initial boulder scramble down, it looked like a pretty straightforward trail all the way to Dart hut. We were both confident it was going to be an easy day … how lucky for us!

As we descended, you got a better and better of view of the mountains and glaciers. The going wasn’t too tough … yet.

After we crossed the bridge over the Dart river, you could see that the land dropped away very quickly. It became obvious that it wasn’t going to be a gentle descent into the valley, but rather a steep drop down over a headwall.

The descent down the headwall was slow and treacherous. I was really glad to have my hiking poles. It required descending down large steps over boulders and brush. You would plant your feet and poles firmly—4 points of contact and before you moved one of them you had to make sure the other 3 were secure. Failing to do this would result in a pretty nasty fall. I don’t think it is likely you would kill yourself, but trust me when I say it would not be fun. And those bushes. Always trying to grab your pack at the most inopportune moment. I think we averaged less than a kilometer an hour down the 2-kilometer descent. It was pretty exhausting work. So much for the easy day.

We made it to the hut at about 3 pm. Heaps of time to relax, take a nap, and prepare for our hike to Cascade Saddle the following day. We had dinner with Rio, Sophia, and Marissa. They were great fun. Surprisingly, the hut was not full and we had another 8 bunk room with just 4 of us.

The one problem with bright blue skies is that is makes for lousy photography. Everything just gets washed out and oversaturated. I was hoping for some partly cloudy days like I got on the Kepler Track in order to get some good photos. The constant shooting into the sun was a bit frustrating as well and made me question the sanity of lugging around a 2 kg camera as I scrambled up and down boulders.

Bev and I got up early and had some coffee and were ready to go by about 7. The goat show that I put on the first day was long in the past, but that didn’t stop Bev from giving me endless amounts of merde about it. I don’t think I’ll ever live that one down. I was happy to see that there were some clouds in the sky; it was going to be a great morning for photos.

We made our way over the short scrambly section until we had a good view up the Dart River valley. It was incredible. Truly.

The hike up the first part of the valley is pretty easy going, at least in terms of the Rees Dart track. As the sun was came up, the lighting on the mountains and glaciers kept changing, giving us different views. Although it was a little chilly, you could tell it was going to be a pretty warm day by the time the sun got fully cooking.

Despite just cruising up the valley, there were the inevitable ups and downs over lateral moraines, through gullies, and over boulder sections. Even a few would be classified as “Class 3.”

Finally, you turn up and start the steep climb to Cascade Saddle. You get a great view of the Dart Glacier on the way up, but I will say the bottom of a glacier is really not all that appealing-looking—a big pile of mud and rocks with the occasional piece of ice sticking out. But it is cool nonetheless.

As expected, the youngsters caught and passed us on the steep section. Sheesh, in my mind I can still go that fast. The British Race Car (Bev) was again wishing the motor had been tuned up before the trip.

The views on the saddle were crazy. The other amazing thing was that there was no wind at all. On one side you looked straight over at the Dart Glacier and on the other you looked over a sheer cliff into the Matukituki valley which eventually ends in Wanaka. There was also a big cascade pouring over the cliff. It still left me wondering how it got the name Cascade Saddle, though.

At the top we all hung out, ate some food, and marveled at the location. In some ways it was a bit hard to photograph because of the enormity of the views. You could walk right up to the cliff and look over, but I will confess it did give me the heebie-jeebies when I got too close and tried to take a picture. I wouldn’t have been the first photographer to send themselves sailing over a cliff!

Bev and I decided to not climb up to the camp area because we were both feeling the effort of the week or in my case, the almost 2 weeks. I thought the hike down off the saddle was going to be brutal, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected. It was loose enough that you could kind of side-slip down. There were a few big boulder downs, but nothing like the day before.

We got back to the hut after about 9 hrs of hiking and taking in the views. It was a pretty special day and one that I would rank up there in the top ten of hiking days. I had noticed the day before that I had been losing a surprising amount of weight on the trip and it was clear I was in a pretty big caloric negative. I had dialed it in just about right on Kepler, but Rees Dart took a lot more effort. I suggested to Bev that we use one of our extra meals to amp up the portion for the night. He was all on board with that plan. We ate huge dinner and hit the hay pretty early—two tired old guys needed some shut-eye.

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Day 4: This is the easy day? 

(Dart Hut to Daleys Flat Hut, 18.5 km)

We got going early again. It was supposed to be the “easy” day, although it was still 18.5 km. I could tell my body was really starting to wear out and I just wasn’t recovering enough overnight. It was my 8th day in a row of pretty hard tramping and my body was letting me know about it.

We dropped down along the Dart River. It, of course, turned out to be harder than expected as there were a lot of root ladders to navigate up and down as well as the ever-present gullies. We made it to Cattle Flat, which despite its name, is not all that flat.

My knees had been squawking at me for several days now. It’s par for the course. “Hey, yo, left knee here. Man, I’m really sore. Why you doing this to me, man?” I get that kind of whinging all the time. It’s like my chickens, lots of complaints for mostly no reason. But by the time we got to end of Cattle Not-So-Flats, even my feet were talking to me.

"Dude. It's your feet here. I know those damn whiney knees complain all the time, but we are solid, man. We never complain. But hey, we've been at this for 8 days now, and not a peep from us. I've been talking with the toes and ankles and they feel the same. Dude, we gotta stop. When do we get some rest? You're killin' us, man."

The unfortunate thing for me is that Bev was feeling stronger and stronger each day. The British Race Car was tuned and ready to haul ass. It was quite the turn of fortune.

I know it sounds like a lot of complaining here, but it really was a much easier day despite the early set of root ladders. The last half of the day even had some soft, flat grass to walk on now and again. My body was getting tired, but my mental outlook on life was still holding strong … although my enthusiasm for photography was sagging a bit.

As we were approaching the hut, the British Race Car opened it up. Bev was sprinting along at a pace I just couldn’t keep. He stopped to wait for me at one point and said “The youngsters haven’t passed us yet, I was hoping to get there before they do!” Good thing he is not competitive … but it did motivate me to pick up the pace too!

We got to the hut at a very reasonable hour around 3 pm. And we kicked those ladies asses!!!! Woohoo!!! Not that I’m competitive either. I was relieved both to be stopping and that I would possibly get a few more hours of recovery before the last day of hiking.

We found our bunk, napped, and chilled. We sat around talking and laughing with Marcus, Carwyn, Rio, Marissa, Sophia, and a few others. It was great fun. The hut experience on Rees Dart was the best I have had. We ended up with an amazing group of people to share the experience with.

The hut was completely chock-a-block full that night. People had to start pitching tents outside because there was no more room. It didn’t make for the best night’s sleep. The woman above me came in to go to bed and then spent 30 minutes rustling around with plastic bags or something. It was annoying. But there you have it. Bev got her back later, though, when he started to snore and I could hear her get agitated. I finally gave Bev a poke which was a bummer, because he was so sound asleep. If he hadn’t made fun of my disorganization on the first day I might have felt bad.

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Day 5: I sure hope it is 16 km 

(Daleys Flat Hut to Car Park, 17.5 km)

Long story short, it was not 16 km. Not even close. The DOC distances are notoriously wrong. It’s enough to make an old guy who is now on his 9th day in a row of tramping really crabby. Sigh.

We got up at 6 as usual and got out of the hut just before 7. I felt really tired, but was happy that it was the last day.

It was a beautiful morning and it was pretty easy walking for the first 8 km or so. We would stop and just watch the sunlight on the mountains.

In 2014, there was a huge landslide in the Dart Valley that dammed up the river, created a lake, and closed the trail for a number of years. The DOC finally managed to get a reroute completed but it required them to go up and over a sheer cliff. They had to dynamite out sections of it in order to get the trail through. Thank you DOC!

We traversed along the now drained lake as we approached the reroute. It created a pretty cool visual with all the dead trees still standing in the mud of the old lake.

There is a big warning sign as you start up the reroute that you are about to go along a 200 m shear vertical cliff. Gulp. We climbed up the stairs and got some great views over the old lake.

The DOC brochure had warned that you should have “substantial tramping experience” if you are going to do this section. That seemed over the top after everything we had already traversed without warning. The first part of it wasn’t bad and Bev and I were thinking the reroute wasn’t going to be an issue. Then the root ladders and boulders showed up. Up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down. Even the well-tuned British Race Car was starting to complain. I just hoped the whole hike wasn’t going to be more than 16 km. We were again plodding along at maybe 1 km per hour. Ugh.

It did eventually relent and we ended up in a pretty flat grass field. My knees, toes, ankles, back, and hips all thanked me profusely. After a while the trail cuts into a nice section of beech forest. The trail felt like a veritable superhighway and was pretty soft on the feet.

But then it ended and we got back into some root ladders and boulders. Ugh. And my Garmin said 16 km and it was clear we were nowhere near the car park. I told Bev to just go ahead as I needed to go slow.

At 17 km I hit yet another headland and set of boulders. For the first time in 9 days my mental fortitude crumbled, smashed to bits by root ladders and boulders. “F$%^ me” I shouted to a South Island robin. The robin did not care. I managed to take a few breaths and recapture my composure and finished off the last 500 meters to the car park. Hallelujah!

I now had a full understanding of what the British term “knackered” meant. I was totally knackered, but relieved that the trip had gone so well and it was so amazing.The only thing more knackered than me were my boots, which I have to sadly say, are now headed to the boot retirement home. Goodbye dear friend.

We said goodbye to Marcus and Carwyn and drove into Glenorchy were we were camping that night. We headed to the pub and again beat the ladies there! Ha! Kicked their asses twice.

Sorry for the ridiculously long blog and I applaud you if you made it all the way through. It was just an incredible experience and a true kiwi tramp. It was hard, but it delivered the goods. Bev and I were talking that one of the great things about it was that every time you got frustrated with the effort it would deliver an amazing view.

I highly recommend the hike if you are fit and have some experience in the backcountry with less than ideal trails. We had great weather. This trail would be brutal in bad weather and in many place out-right dangerous on some of the creek crossings. So be careful and check the weather and talk to DOC. I’ll type up a more boring trail report at some point, but I’ve been processing 4000 photos and blogging forever now, so that will have to wait.

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Rees Dart Final Stats

• Five Days/4 Nights
• 90.57 km
• 3,218 m of climbing
• 1 bog slog
• 37 creek crossings
• 238 gully crossings
• 1,473 root ladders
• 8,523 boulder scrambles
• 2 tired old dudes
• The genius of getting two beers at once so you don’t have to stand in line again.

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