Nelson Lakes

I was ready for some adventure after a couple of weeks in Nelson and we had about 3 weeks before my parents showed up for a visit. During our time in Nelson it was hot and sunny with the last dose of rain in December and, of course, the second we decide to leave, it rains... but I've committed to not let the rain get in my way so the adventures continued! We were booked to camp up at Angelus hut, an alpine hut at 1650m that is up between Lake Rotoiti and Rotoroa in Nelson Lakes National Park. There are a couple ways to get there but I wanted to take Robert Ridge route since it would give us the best views of the area. It’s considered a challenging hike with exposed ridge and at times poor visibility but definitely doable and is pretty cool since you are up on a ridge for the majority of the time. Based on the weather forecast the rain was likely going to hold off for a day or two and if it rained it would probably just be light rain. Unfortunately we did not got so lucky in the weather department and the clouds and rain rolled in earlier than expected. It was light rain as promised but we had almost no visibility for the majority of our ridge walk. It seemed pretty safe but really we couldn’t tell what was around us. The ridge starts out very wide and eventually turns in to traversing large rocks and scree field.
The hut is just down from the ridge between 2 small alpine lakes. We decided to tent (as usual) because the hut was fully booked for 40 people that night. Our tent spot was quiet and eventually the clouds broke so we could see what was around us. I woke up hoping for clear skies so we could at least get some views on the way back. Although better than yesterday, it was still very foggy and cloudy so we decided to take a different way down since the ridge was likely not the best option. This was a longer way around with an initially steep drop down to the river below and then a long river walk back to the car. In hindsight we should have done this hike the other way around and saved the ridge for day 2; especially since our crappy weather cleared up by the afternoon... I kept looking back up at the ridge wishing we were on it but eventually I had to let it go. Can’t have it all I guess!Читать далее