Friday, 13 November 2026 at 6:00 am to Monday, 16 November 2026 at 10:00 pm
Organiser: Justin Atkinson
Explore Nelson Lakes National Park while helping to look after some wonderful backcountry huts and tracks!
This trip is open to those down south!
Plan is to fly from Wellington to Blenheim (30min), then drive about an hour to St Arnaud. We'll do some maintenance work with FMC and DOC along the way.
Day 1: We'll first walk to Coldwater and Lakehead huts, which are a 3hr walk from St Arnaud. On the way we'll visit Whisky Falls, a 40m waterfall. We'll stay the night at Coldwater (standard, 12 bunks) and complete hut maintenance work.
Day 2: we'll walk to Hopeless hut (5hr, standard, 6 bunks). It's hopeless if there's an avalanche or snow covering the valley floor, but there's a nice campsite back the way we came so it's all good!
Day 3: Return to Coldwater, could stay the night there or back at St Arnaud. If the latter, we could walk 3 hours or catch a water taxi! Coldwater has a jetty and boats do one-way ($45) and return services ($60).
Day 4: We could do a chill day walk before driving back to Blenheim and flying home.
As many tracks sit within avalanche territory, the plan is prone to change on the day. It'll be summer so the likelihood of avalanches/excessive snow will be lower.
TBD
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