2178 - 2194 West Harper Hut
For those of you who are taking note of the distances, you may have noticed the 28km leap from Morrisons Footbridge. This is due to the weather as per usual.
After going to the Otira Hotel the weather was still bad so we hitched to Arthur's Pass to get our food box and stayed there for two days.
Today we had a plan to do the track in reverse. This would have been easier if the weather was going to improve but upon looking up the valley we turned our backs on it and walked on.
There was also a communication error. I'm not sure why I didn't spend more time on it. I realised it was slightly flaky over the next hour or so. What it meant was Angelynn, who was going to meet up with us, was waiting at a different point to us. IIt was only due to the efforts of a roadworks guy that we crossed paths at all. Thank you roadworks guy.
The walk up to Lagoon Saddle was fairly spectacular with views over the Waimakariri Valley and all the way up to Arthur's Pass. The mountains with fresh snow on them from the recent weather. At one point I just sat for twenty minutes and gazed.
After crossing the saddle Mr Frodo and I carried on down the Harper River to West Harper Hut to set up camp while Angelynn climbed Mt Bruce.
We do have a slight problem with being to early now for our bookings at Lake Coleridge so we may have to take up exploring sidetracks in order to slow down.
Hindsight
- When planning to meet have a backup place.
- Make sure the backup is out of the rain.
- Lagoon Saddle Hut is way nicer than West Harper Hut.
West Harper Hut
