Adventure 2 - 24th - 28th September - Lake Sumner Excursion
View from Hurunui Hut deck
This months adventure was a little bigger than the previous one. It was the school holidays so I had booked a trip with the kids down to catch up with Glenn in Christchurch. We had a loose plan of heading up to Lake Sumner for a few days out in the wild.
The forecast wasn’t great with some rain and reasonably strong westerly winds as well as temperatures down below freezing over night. Jo had been down to Christchurch the week before and had some low temperatures with some snow in the hills so we were very conscious of packing enough warm clothes for the kids. Several shopping trips to Hunting & Fishing and Macpac in the week leading up got us the gear we needed.
DAY 1
We had a 6am flight on Wednesday morning. Jo was very kind to get up at 4:15am with the rest of us to drop us at the airport. A quick flight and an uber ride saw the boys and I arriving at Glenn’s place in Kaiapoi at around 8am. We had a bit of a gear check before packing everything into Glenn’s Ute. A quick stop at the supermarket to grab some fresh food, and the gas station to fuel up and we were off.
Waikari kitchen is a required stop whenever travelling in this neighbourhood and we arrived there for a significant “morning tea” around 10am. Suitably full we jumped back in the Ute and headed for the hills. It wasn’t long before we were entering the Hurinui River valley via Lake Sumner Rd. The twisting gravel road offered some spectacular scenery as we wound our way up the valley. We stopped for a brief break at the split of the south branch of the Hurinui River giving the kids a chance to throw some rocks into the raging current. Then back into the car and onward to Lake Taylor. The public road stops at the southern end of Lake Taylor and from there it is a much rougher 4wd track through to Lock Katrine. We arrived at Lock Katrine just after 1pm.
Glenn and I had been waiting to see the water state on the lake before deciding on our next move for the day. There was a reasonable north westerly breeze blowing down the valley which was creating a short chop on the lock. An option was to set up some tents at the doc camping area at Lock Katrine, and see if we could get some calmer weather the following morning. We decided to set up the boat and see how we go on the water, if we needed to we could bail out to the camping option.
Glenn inflated the boat as I got the kids ready and did some final bag packing. We loaded our 4 packs as well as an extra gear back with some tents and spare food into the front of the boat and all jumped abord to start the first section of the water crossing. The chop on Lock Katrine meant it was slow going with a bit of water splashing up over the front of the boat onto the gear and us. We eventually made it to the northern end of the Lock where a small manmade channel has been dug out connecting the Lock to Lake Sumner. We enjoyed the calm water of the channel before heading out onto the open water of Lake Sumner. The wind was pushing down the length of the lake creating some reasonable tough conditions. We quartered the waves making our way over to the northern side of the lake where we had a bit of shelter.
From here we had a few options to choose from. We could stash the boat here and either camp on the shore or set out for Hope Kiwi hut (about a 3hr walk away). We could push into the chop to the western end of the lake and head for the Hurinui hut (about a 2hr walk away), or we could head with the chop to the eastern end of the lake and make for Gabriel Hut (about a 1/2 hr walk from the end of the lake). We decided that Gabriel was our best option and prepared ourselves for a long ride down the lake. We took a bit of water into the front of the boat but most of the gear (and the kids) stayed dry. We eventually made landfall at the beach at the eastern end of the lake. Glenn and I were both reasonably damp and it was now around 3pm. We were please to have what we thought would be the most challenging part of the day behind us and were looking forward to reaching the hut.
We stashed the boat in a small hollow at the back of the beach and chucked our packs on for what we understood to be a short 1/2hr walk to the hut. With the kids leading the charge we made our way up the initially well defined track. It wasn’t long before we came across some serious windfall blocking the track and had to start climbing over or squishing underneath fallen trees. Somewhere in this process we managed to lose our route and ended up bush crashing through some fairly inhospitable vegetation. We had a GPS amp on my phone and tried to use it to cut sideways across where the track was shown to be. Eventually we managed to located the track again and pushed on towards the hut. A final stream crossing to make sure I didn’t keep my boots dry and having turned what we expected to be a 1/2 walk into about 1.5hrs of misery we were there.
The kids were very excited to have finally reached our destination but this excitement quickly evaporated on closer inspection of our accommodation for the night. The painted deer skulls fixed to the front of the hut, the broken wooden floor showing the dirt underneath and the general shack like appearance of the hut left them less than enthused. “Are we sleeping in that? Can we set up a tent instead?”. Once the gear was inside and the fire going it was a lot more inviting and the kids got busy setting up their beds for the night.
We had carried in some fresh mince so I made chilli con carne for dinner. Couple of lessons here for next time, I need a little chopping board in my kitchen kit as there was nothing in the hut which I would describe as sanitary to cut on and cutting onions in a bowl is tricky. Also my knifes profile is not great for cutting vege’s as it tends to split them rather than slice them. Something to keep a watch out for next time at the shops. Despite my poor onion cutting meaning some fairly big chunks we managed to get the food into the kids. Glenn followed this up with some marsh mellow toasting over the fire before everyone headed off to bed.
Boat ride across Loch Katrine
Track through scrub to Gabriel hut
Stream crossing near Gabriel hut
Makeshift cabin on boat for kids
“Patricks Rock”
He fell over this twice in about 20 seconds
Swing bridge over Hurinui River
DAY 2
We woke in the morning to the sound of wind in the trees around the hut, the hope that the wind would drop out overnight had not come through and we were in for a wet trip up the lake. We discuss the option of staying at the southern end of the lake and walking some of the trails in the area, but decided that at some point we would need to get back up the lake and with a forecast not likely to improve in the coming days decided now was the best time to try it.
Porridge for breakfast then we packed up our gear and headed for the boat. We tried hard to pick the spot where we had left the trail the day before, but the walk back to the lake was fairly simple and we couldn’t workout where we had lost the path. We found my glasses in the only area we thought we might not have been so that proved we had no idea.
Once back at the boat we hatched a plan to wrap the packs and the kids in a tarp to try keep them dry. Once all in place we set out on a bumpy ride west up the lake. we initially tried to keep to the northern shore but couldn’t find any shelter and decided to try the southern side of the lake, here we found a bit of lee from a headland and some smooth water for the first time on the trip. After about half an hour we pulled in to the beach for a break. From here we had to make a call on our next move, we had two options, head to Hope Kiwi Hut to the north of the lake, about a 4hr walk with a reasonable climb up to the saddle, or head to Hurinui hut to the West of the lake a slightly easier 2-3hr walk. We decided to head to Hurinui Hut, it would mean we could have the option to walk out to the car if the weather deteriorated further and was also a little easier on the kids given the massive day before.
Once up and going again we put the hammer down and bounced our way to the western end of the lake. Here we stashed the boat and head out across the fields following the Hurinui river towards the distant tree line. Just as we reached the tree line the track joins the main Hope Kiwi Track. We explored north along the track to the swing bridge with Patrick testing it out before heading back to the intersection and continuing west to the hut. Glenn and Robbie pushed ahead with the goal of getting the fire going in the hut and getting some lunch on.
The route had been flat across the fields but now in the tree line it was a bit more up and down. Patrick and I took our time and slowly made our way to the hut making sure we counted every orange marker to avoid the experience of the previous day. We finally spotted the smoke from the hut and Robbie bounding out to tell us “This is a way better hut Dad”. Later Patrick would let us know that this hut was the best hut ever and that the other one was “A bit creepy”.
We spent the afternoon relaxing in the hut. Playing cards (Dumb Dumb as well as some games the kids had a go at making up), collecting firewood and cooking dinner. A couple of cows came to investigate the noise in the Dinner was animal pasta for the kids and a freeze dried meal for Glenn and I. Then we had time for some stories and bed. We had plans to continue west up the track the next day to some hot springs before returning to the hut for a second night.
Gabriel hut
Hurinui Hut
Snow on the hills from Hurinui Hut
DAY 3
We woke to a forecast via satellite text from Jo that included snow and rain. The walk to the hot pools was going to be 4-5hrs return through some pretty marginal weather, and the forecast for the next day was worse. We made the call to head back to the lake and end our trip a day early so we could spend some time in Kaiapoi before our flight back to Auckland.
We got the kids layered up and they headed outside while Glenn and I packed up the bags. It was snowing lightly between rain showers, with clumps of snow washing off the roof with some of the heavier rain showers. The kids failed completely in trying to stay dry but it was probably inevitable as we were all wet soon after as we started our hike out through the bush.
Again Glenn and Robbie set the pace with Patrick and I trailing at our own speed. We followed the track through the section of beach forest along side the Hurinui river east towards the farmed land. We again diverted to the swing bridge, this time all of us made it over to the northern side of the river with the kids having a lot of fun on the bridge.
After the bridge it was a dash across the farm land east back down the Valley back to Lake Sumner. The weather had cleared a little and we had a bit of sun to warm us as we trekked across the fields. Patrick was excited to find some poo mushrooms on some of the cow patties as he took his time on the walk back. We came across the farmer about half way back and realized he was the first other person we had seen since a chat with a walker on the 4wd track two days before.
By the time Patrick and I made it the lake Glenn and Robbie had the boat in the water and ready to go. We loaded in our packs and jumped aboard for a smooth run back across Lake Sumner, through the cannel and down Lock Katrine to Glenn’s Ute. We packed the boat and gear back into the Ute, got a dry set of cloths on and started the final leg of the journey back to civilisation.
We had a final stop for some lunch at DOC campground on the shore of Lake Taylor. The campsite is at the start of the 4WD track so from there is was back on public road through the Hurinui valley and back through to Waikari and onto Kaiapoi.
Tired and satisfied with a great adventure we all agreed it was something we want to do again in the future. The kids had a great time and it was awesome to be able to give them this experience where they could just be in nature for a few days. Thanks Glenn for making this possible, the logistics of this trip just don’t happen without access to the gear you have, but also having your help with getting two kids through the challenges of the trip and your ability to continue to make it interesting and fun for them throughout was a huge reason this was a success. Hopefully the first of many.
Walking back across farmland to Lake Sumner
Adventure Map
Patrick’s Poo Mushrooms
Lake Sumner under the clouds