Our second NZ tramp was a three-day hike into Welcome Flats, just south of Fox Glacier. Our hiking book has 53 multi-day hikes in it… but this one was easy to pick out from the bunch: our destination was the finest natural hot springs in all of NZ. We started the day doing a couple of our respective favorite activities: Amy ran 10 miles on a beautiful winding dirt road (yes, the same dirt road she had earlier used to put Dougie in the Ditch), with stunning early morning views of Fox Glacier to guide her along. Meanwhile, Dave drove ahead 10 miles and used the morning to sort and pack all of our camping gear (one of his favorite activities).
We drove to the trailhead, about 26km south of Fox Glacier, and got started around 12:45pm. For the first half of the hike, we walked alongside the beautiful Kararua River – very full, moving fast, milky blue, beautiful rock formations carved over time by the rushing water. We crossed a series of increasingly heart-lurching swing bridges, high above river canyons. We learned that they have to make the bridges so high because they repeatedly have been washed out by avalanches in the winter months. But we trust the Kiwi engineers. Unlike some of those bridges in Patagonia, these bridges seemed to have all their bolts in place. We decided that we really like to hike about 5 hours each day – it’s the perfect amount of time: 1.5 hours, then a snack break…. Then another 1.5 hours, and a lunch break… then 2 hours to finish, planning your dinner all the while. Unfortunately, this was a 6+hour hike…so we were definitely starting to tire by the end, and very happy to eventually see the campsite.
But the world seems to always look so much brighter when, after removing your boots, setting up your tent, and making some dinner, you throw on your swim suit and head off for a soak in some thermal pools. And these were some very high quality thermal pools. Large enough for several people to soak in at once, a few pools with increasingly hot temperatures, and stunning mountain scenery of the Southern Alps in the backdrop. Between the strenuous hiking (and Amy’s 10-mile run as a warm-up) and the relaxing soak, we slept like babies that night.
The next day was a 14km up-and-back day-hike up the valley to Douglas’ Rock Hut. It was a tough hike, and although we eventually did find the hut, we found no trace of either Douglas or his rock. That was a tough day, also 6+ hours, even without our heavy packs, and made tougher by the fact that we somehow managed to forget our bread/rice-cakes for lunch. For those of you who have hiked before, you know that hungry hikers do not equal happy hikers. But yet again, upon our return, the hot pools worked their magic, and once again the world was a better place. We got an incredible amount of rain that night (1200ml… which is about 4.5 inches), but Dougie kept us warm and dry.
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| The world looks better when soaking in hot springs... |
Our second NZ tramp was a three-day hike into Welcome Flats, just south of Fox Glacier. Our hiking book has 53 multi-day hikes in it… but this one was easy to pick out from the bunch: our destination was the finest natural hot springs in all of NZ. We started the day doing a couple of our respective favorite activities: Amy ran 10 miles on a beautiful winding dirt road (yes, the same dirt road she had earlier used to put Dougie in the Ditch), with stunning early morning views of Fox Glacier to guide her along. Meanwhile, Dave drove ahead 10 miles and used the morning to sort and pack all of our camping gear (one of his favorite activities).
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| Hiking along the Kararua River |
We drove to the trailhead, about 26km south of Fox Glacier, and got started around 12:45pm. For the first half of the hike, we walked alongside the beautiful Kararua River – very full, moving fast, milky blue, beautiful rock formations carved over time by the rushing water. We crossed a series of increasingly heart-lurching swing bridges, high above river canyons. We learned that they have to make the bridges so high because they repeatedly have been washed out by avalanches in the winter months. But we trust the Kiwi engineers. Unlike some of those bridges in Patagonia, these bridges seemed to have all their bolts in place. We decided that we really like to hike about 5 hours each day – it’s the perfect amount of time: 1.5 hours, then a snack break…. Then another 1.5 hours, and a lunch break… then 2 hours to finish, planning your dinner all the while. Unfortunately, this was a 6+hour hike…so we were definitely starting to tire by the end, and very happy to eventually see the campsite.
But the world seems to always look so much brighter when, after removing your boots, setting up your tent, and making some dinner, you throw on your swim suit and head off for a soak in some thermal pools. And these were some very high quality thermal pools. Large enough for several people to soak in at once, a few pools with increasingly hot temperatures, and stunning mountain scenery of the Southern Alps in the backdrop. Between the strenuous hiking (and Amy’s 10-mile run as a warm-up) and the relaxing soak, we slept like babies that night.
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| The view form our campsite at Welcome Flats... and from the thermal pools |
The next day was a 14km up-and-back day-hike up the valley to Douglas’ Rock Hut. It was a tough hike, and although we eventually did find the hut, we found no trace of either Douglas or his rock. That was a tough day, also 6+ hours, even without our heavy packs, and made tougher by the fact that we somehow managed to forget our bread/rice-cakes for lunch. For those of you who have hiked before, you know that hungry hikers do not equal happy hikers. But yet again, upon our return, the hot pools worked their magic, and once again the world was a better place. We got an incredible amount of rain that night (1200ml… which is about 4.5 inches), but Dougie kept us warm and dry.
The third day was the reverse of the first day… another 6+ hours back out along the river… with double-lunch to fuel us along. Unfortunately, this time there were no hot springs waiting for us at the end of the hike… just Dougie. So we hopped in and drove a few hours south to the modern substitute: hot showers (and some much-needed laundry)!
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