Monday 2 December 2024
Mt Arthur/Tablelands/Cobb Valley
At the end of our Queen Charlotte track trip, most of the group headed to Blenheim to fly back to Auckland or pursue their own plans. Five of us took a shuttle to Nelson for a day off, then joined four others for another five-day trip exploring southern Kahurangi National Park.
So on November 22 we were once again on a shuttle, heading to Flora car park. It’s only an hour’s drive from Nelson but the road is sketchy so I’m glad I wasn’t driving. From the car park it’s a fairly quick 1.5 hour walk to Mt Arthur Hut, although it was a bit of a grind with our packs full of supplies. I prefer fresh food so we had meat, eggs, a cabbage, and so on. We got to the hut around 1:30pm, had a quick lunch, dropped off our gear and left around 2pm to summit Mt Arthur. It was cloudy and quite windy but visibility was good most of the way up — spectacular views across to Nelson and the Sounds, and west into the park. As we got near the top we ascended into clouds, lost the views, it got even windier, and we found ourselves trudging through snow fallen the day before. The track also gets trickier near the summit, with some non-technical climbing required. In the last stretch the “track” requires clambering up a tiny ravine to pop out at the flat-topped summit area. It was very windy and cold up there at 4pm and I was glad to tick off the summit and head back down to the hut. Despite the conditions we met quite a few day-trippers coming down from the summit, some shockingly lightly-clad but who seemed more in the “super-fit trail runner” category than the “naive and likely to die” category.
Mt Arthur Hut is only eight bunks (two platforms with four mattresses each) and we were nine people so we’d brought some tents to handle overflow. Five other people showed up after us; one of them had pitched his own tent before we got back from Mt Arthur, and there wasn’t really any more space to pitch another tent, so we had nine of us on the platforms, one slept outside on the verandah, and three on the floor or benches. The others had just come up for one night and seemed happy enough. They were certainly voluble and fun to talk to.
On the 23rd we walked from Mt Arthur Hut to Salisbury Lodge (actually a hut) via Gordon’s Pyramid. This was an excellent walk! There are excellent views and amazing karst formations quite unlike anything I’d ever seen before. The track is difficult in places, with some extremely steep sections requiring climbing. There are also some very spiky plants — kudos to the girl coming the other way barefoot. I was puffed out by the time we summitted Gordon’s Pyramid, but it was well worth it. There is a small section of bush-covered karst between the foot of Gordon’s Pyramid and Salisbury Lodge that is annoying to walk but most intriguing. Salisbury Lodge itself is a fine hut with great views of the Arthur Range. It was full, but not over-full.
We had arrived in time for lunch and a rest, and in the afternoon we explored the “Potholes Track” leading along a stream back into the karst/bush. Despite some boggy patches it was well worthwhile. The stream has carved a little valley pocked with tomos — most pictureseque. Near the head of the valley, at the bottom of one of the pits is the entrance to a small cave. Take care — one of our party shredded his only pair of shorts entering it.
On the 24th we walked to Trilobite Hut in the Cobb Valley, via Lake Peel. It’s a lovely, easy walk across the Tablelands, visit Bishop’s Cave, up a gentle slope to the lake, a scramble up to the ridge, great views of Cobb Reservoir, and then an easy descent to the valley floor. Trilobite Hut is not the nicest hut, but it’s OK — kept out most of the sandflies.
On the 25th we walked up Cobb Valley to Fenella Hut. It’s 13km but a wonderfully constructed track, easy to walk, with a gentle incline up to the head of the valley and then a steep but short climb up to Fenella. The valley is also very beautiful. We were fast and reached Fenella in three and a half hours. After lunch we decided to find the swimming hole. It’s a tarn on a saddle about 400m from the hut; the water was cold but not too cold (definitely warmer than Lake Manapouri) and the setting is absolutely stunning.
We returned to the hut, played some card games, and then got bored and decided to look for the no-longer-mapped track leading from the swimming hole southeast to Lake Cobb. Turns out the secret is to walk around the north end of the hole, where you can pick up a pretty obvious track among the rocks. This was another highlight — wonderful rock formations, and great views of the peaks and valleys in all directions. We had good views of Lake Cobb but decided to retrace our steps rather than walk all the way down to it. Fenella Hut is lovely and has a cooking stove with gas supplied!
On our last day we had a fast three hour walk back to Trilobite — everyone was feeling quite fit at this point. Our pickup was a bit late due to road works on Takaka Hill, but generally Marlborough Shuttles did an excellent job accommodating our moderately complex logistical requirements. In the end we got to the airport in good time after a very satisfying trip.
One interesting thing about this southern region of the park is that almost everyone we met was a Nelson local or connected to Nelson locals — i.e., not many tourists like us. Apparently this area is just not very widely known. It really whetted my appetite for more tramping in this area — Wangapeka Track was recommended to us.
In our ten days of walking, the weather was uniformly excellent — we were so blessed. Pretty much everything went well. People had a few scrapes and blisters but nothing significant. There was practically no drama of any kind. Another classic trip to remember and be grateful for! And as always, getting back home really made us appreciate hot showers, abundant food and other benefits of civilization :-).
