During my initial map explorations in search of the perfect field sites, I soon came across “Nina valley” and noticed there was a walking track and a hut as well. Ever since, the Nina has been on my list for obvious reasons. Finally last weekend Thomas, me and my colleague Debra made it up there. And some other people, but more about that later.On a glorious Saturday morning we drove up again to Lewis pass. Lewis, Arthur’s and Haast passes are the only roads that cross the Southern Alps on the South island, and for my fieldwork I have crossed Lewis and Arthur more than I can count. It remains beautiful, but it’s also a crazy thought how most of our visitors make it there once and it becomes a very memorable excursion for them to one of NZ’s highlights, and I just seem to go there all the time.
We parked the car, noticed only one other car, and so started tramping up the track hoping there wouldn’t be much other people in the hut at night. Except that I had forgotten to pack our cooking pots, so I hoped there would be at least one person who could lend us a pot to cook dinner. Debra had brought only a small pot to make tea, because I had said I would make dinner.
The only people we met on the track however were a couple coming down. And 10 billion sandflies. We had visions of being all by ourselves in the hut, hearing kiwi calling in the night and observing the Aurora australis (it was supposed to be visible during the solar upheaval).
A nice reminder of my friend Sylvia's birthday tooThe track was nice, along beautiful Nina river and through lovely Nothofagus (Southern beech) forest.
At the hut, we first noticed some 50 pairs of children’s shoes. Then a subsample of all those children and assorted parents. Turned out the hut was technically already full, but because the 2 families with 5 children could squeeze in a bit, they made room for 2 more people in the bunk beds, and we had brought sleeping mats as well, so it wasn’t a problem, other than the fact that sharing MY hut with 2 families wasn’t how I had imagined things.
Things were working out well however, we could lend a big pot to cook in and even got offered rich amounts of wine by the parents. The children were outside making fire. Then … another group arrived. A group of 9. Of which 7 children and 2 teachers. They were in fact monitoring the kiwi up there and eradicating possums and other rodents, and they had some tents, so all worked out well in the end, but a quiet night it was not. I went to the toilet somewhere between midnight and daybreak, and met two giggling teenage girls, who told me they had already caught and killed 2 possums. This situation was not one I had ever thought I would find myself in. Half sleeping, flipflopping your way through moist shrubs to the toilet hidden in the bush and then trying to engage in a conversation about killing animals with teenage girls. 100% pure New Zealand.
In the morning we stayed in bed until all children had had breakfast and the teenagers had left trapping more animals. We then leisurely cooked our porridge, packed up, swept the hut and walked back.
The hut after everybody else had leftIt was now raining. Along the way we encountered 5 more dead possums.
Lessons learned: do not forget your cooking pots, and easy weekend tramps within driving distance from Chch tend to be overcrowded with children.
We then tried out Maruia springs, some hot sulphuric pools close by, in Japanese style. Here you soak outside in nice hot pools, surrounded by beautiful mountains clad in lush forest, kea’s soaring above. Yet you have to spray all body parts that are above the water with ample insect repellent in order not to be eaten alive by sandlfies. I don’t know how healthy inhaling a mix of sulphur and DEET is, but it isn’t pleasant.
Nevertheless this was an excellent weekend out in the bush, and Nina valley/river is as pretty as you would expect with such a nice name.
