Welcome Flats hot pools (and rain, a flat tire, and a blizzard)

We had yet another possibly too eventful weekend trip here in NZ – getting tired of hearing about all of my travel struggles yet? So this weekend we set out to the west coast to hike to the biggest natural hot pools on the south island – a very exciting destination! Our group was pretty big and consisted of me, Dahlia, her friend who’s visiting from Australia, Zak, Bernard, and then another car full of guys. I was in charge of getting the rental car for my group so I got to drive on the left side of the road for the first time and it was just as fun as I thought it would be. You get used to it pretty fast but the first few roundabouts and turns at traffic lights were pretty interesting!

So we set out with me driving on Friday afternoon so we could camp at the trailhead and get an early start the next morning. We had to drive over Arthur’s Pass, which is pretty steep and windy, so it was a little nerve-wracking to drive up because I still didn’t have a good feel for how wide the car was. You need to know one thing about New Zealand drivers, which is that they’re crazy and fly through mountain roads and it’s normal to cross the center line going around corners (don’t ask me how they don’t crash into each other all the time). Coming up to one corner a car came flying around over the center line so of course I reacted by trying to hug the inside corner and not run into them. Unfortunately I must have underestimated how much room I had because we hit the curb and boom, flat tire. It was a little scary because I’ve never gotten a flat and I was already nervous about driving. We got the spare tire put on no problem but it was only a donut/space saver that’s half the width of a normal tire so our new problem was that we had another 200 miles to the trailhead and then 300 miles back to home. We pressed on slowly and carefully because it was all we could do at that point and hoped for the best.

We got to the trailhead no problem, though the drive took 7 hours instead of 5, and set up camp. It rained all night and into the morning, which is typical of the west coast of New Zealand (same as Washington) but made for a rather dreary start to our day. It ended up raining the entire day of our hike, which was unfortunate and made the hike pretty cold and miserable. Luckily the trail was fun and not too hard, mostly winding through rainforest over streams and some bridges over bigger rivers, and after a very long 6 hours we made it to the Welcome Flats Hut.

Lovely hiking weather

This was by far the nicest hut we’ve been to so far – huge living area, second floor with 30 mattresses for sleeping, and most importantly, huge geothermal hot pools five minutes away! There are 4 pools of different temperatures and the area is in a valley surrounded by awesome mountains with waterfalls. We even saw an avalanche while we were sitting in the pools. We spent the night enjoying the pools, eating tons, trying to dry all of our stuff by the woodstove, and generally enjoying being at the hut after all of the struggle of getting there.

Nothing feels as good as coming around a corner and seeing this

Super nice hut

A small portion of the wet gear hanging up to dry

Hot pool #1

Hot pool #2

Hot pool #3

Boiling pool where the hot water comes out

View of the mountains around us

Video I took of the hot pool area.

The next morning we set out early to make sure we had plenty of time to get back on our sad spare tire. The hike back was much better because it didn’t rain so we could see the gorgeous surroundings but it was still quite long. The first part involved crossing a couple really cool suspension bridges, which was by far the best part. After 4 hours we thought we might be getting close but because it was so rainy on the way in we hadn’t been paying attention to landmarks and the forest all looked the same so we started getting pretty tired and frustrated as we kept going, and going, and going, without ever seeming to get any closer to the trailhead. It started to rain again and my wet feet were developing some lovely blisters so by the time we got back to the car I wasn’t exactly a happy camper but it was still totally worth it.

I was just kidding...kind of.

We knew we had to be really careful driving back because our spare tire wasn’t meant to go so far so we slowly started making our way back. After a stop for fish and chips and dry clothes in Hokitika we headed back up Arthur’s Pass, the toughest part of the drive on our tire. The weather had been fine on the way over but as we reached the top of the pass it started snowing HARD. We only had a few more kilometers before we’d get to the village where we could stop if we needed to so we crawled our way along but in a matter of minutes the roads were covered and it was snowing so hard we could barely see – Bernard was driving by the reflectors on the outside of the road. It was a very tense few minutes but we got to the village, checked in about road conditions, and just a few minutes out of the village the snow turned to slush and soon the roads were clear again. This was just another stressful obstacle for our trip but luckily we were able to get out of the snow before it was too sketchy. From there we made our way back to Christchurch on the little space saver that could, exhausted but happy. This trip might have been a little too adventurous but it was certainly a fun adventure!


Sandfly bite count for this trip: 30. Now all my energy is devoted to not scratching these awful bites and marveling at how Kiwis can live on the west coast where sandflies are so common. Fun times here in NZ!

Arthur’s pass weekend – hike, cave, explore

A few weeks’ break from tramping and generally any physically demanding activity was very much needed, but last weekend it was time to stop being lazy and get outside again. After watching New Zealand crush Japan in rugby on Friday night we woke up early and headed up to Arthur’s Pass once again for another tramping trip. This time the agenda was Sudden Stream/Valley and our team included me, Dahlia, Bernard, and three of his friends (what? a majority of Kiwis? this means it counts as a cultural experience too!). This was a nice easy hike, only 4 hours, and a good way to ease back into tramping without burning out our bodies and willpower because we have a lot of hiking to do in the next few weekends/months/rest of life. It was a scenic walk mostly up the river valley – we’re such pros at river crossings now it’s barely worth mentioning – into the mountains to a small hut called a “biv”.

 River crossings, as usual

 Nice waterfall along the way!

 Ridiculous rocky scree slope

We got to the biv really early so we wandered around and gathered a ton of firewood. Our night basically consisted of an awesome fire, lots of laughs, giving the Kiwis their first smores experience, and eventually heading to bed as it started to snow. It was so pretty in the morning to see all the hills and mountains around freshly covered in white! We eventually got going and had a relaxing walk back, making it back to the cars at about 2. We decided to check out a few other Arthur’s Pass spots since we finished so early, so our next stop was Cave Stream.

 Our clever sock drying setup, which worked a little too well and singed most of the socks

The crew at the end of the hike

Cave Stream is, as you might have guessed, a stream that runs through a cave that you can walk all the way through. One of the guys had done this before so we just basically went for it without really knowing anything about what to expect. We already had wet feet from the river crossings on our hike so we weren’t too worried about wading through the water for the 40 minutes it took to get through the cave. What we didn’t know, however, was that the very first pool was chest deep! It was freezing but I didn’t think much of it and waded on through to get going into the cave. The rest was usually knee deep, and we were all too excited to really be cold even though the water was freezing. It was hard to get good pictures but the walk was through these narrow stone passages ways, scrambling up rocks and even waterfalls in places. It was so cool! We eventually got to the end, which was a really deep pool with a 10-15 foot waterfall at the other end, so I was confused about how we were supposed to get out until I saw the metal rungs in the wall on the left side. You climbed up that and then shimmed/crawled along a short ledge, holding onto a chain so you didn’t fall down into the pool below, and you could eventually work your out into the stream above the waterfall. It was pretty crazy but seriously one of the most fun adventures I’ve ever had!

Entrance to the cave

Yeah, that first pool was pretty deep

 Looking down on the ladder at the end

The awkward wiggle from the ladder to the exit

Coming out of the stream above the waterfall at the end

The sign Andrew wouldn't let us read before we went in so it wouldn't ruin the surprise - you can see the waterfalls we climbed up, the highest of which is 1.5m

After the cave we stopped off at Castle Hill, which is an area with tons of giant rocks that is a haven for climbers. We’ve driven by a few times before and it always looks so cool, so we were excited to get the chance to just clamber around and have some fun. The rocks were way bigger than they looked from the road and they went on forever! We all ran around, climbed up and around the rocks, played some hide and seek, and just generally explored and had a good time. It’s so fun to just play around like that and I wish I did it more because it’s so fun. It was great to be with a group that totally wanted to do the same things as me. We could have easily stayed at Castle Hill for a whole day but it got to be dinner time so we reluctantly drove back to Christchurch, of course making the traditional stop on the way for warm drinks and meat pies. This was a really fun weekend to get out again and have some easy fun, so I’m really excited for all the other outdoor plans I’ve got coming up! Next weekend we’re hiking to the best hot pools on the South Island, so keep checking back for more awesome adventures. :)