The Wills-West Hunter-Landsborough trip

After our return from South Westland, we were still restless and ready for another trip, preferably a shorter one this time. Studying the maps of the Haast region, I noticed a potential 4-5 day trip up the Wills valley, over Wilson Pass to the top of the West Hunter, over Lower Studholme Pass and Watkins Dome, down the slopes of Mt Napolean to Harper Flat and a long walk back to the car near Pleasant Flat. As the weather forecast looked the best in months, we decided to start on the 13^th of January.

It was another 4.45 am drive from Invercargill to Arrowtown on touron-free roads in the crepuscular hours. I wheeled into Gavin's place just after 7.00 am and then promptly set off in convoy for the West Coast. At Makarora, we had our usual stop at the Country Café for a coffee before carrying on to the Gates of Haast and Pleasant Flat. Just before the bridge at Pleasant Flat, there is a 4WD track into the site of the old Landsborough homestead so we left my car there and drove back to the Gates of Haast where Gavin dropped me off with the gear and parked at a layby back down the road.

Loading up, we started along the old track at bridge level, which ended in an awkward slip on the hillside. Scrambling along this, we picked up the continuation of the track on the far side. This meandered along through some nasty patches of stinging nettle. Near the Wills, the track was in much better shape and well disked. The day was sunny and warm under a cerulean blue sky, the forest vibrant and welcoming. Our packs were light for once without the packrafts, which we left in the vehicles. We had intended to pick them up on our return and paddle down the Haast River with John Longden. 

It is 7-8 km from the bridge to the Wills Hut, which is situated on the big flats in the Lower Wills Valley. There are lots of ups and downs, even a ladder up a cliff face and nevertheless, it was a pleasant ramble. Two falcons paid us a visit, alarmed at our presence as we cruised past. Once out on the flats, I noticed how vibrantly green the beech forest was reaching up to tawny-brown tussock and the grey cliffs of Mt Brewster.

We forded the river easily and walked up the extensive flats to the renovated Wills Hut. This is a 4-bunk DOC hut and very nicely restored. By now it was later afternoon and I was glad to spend the night here. Looking through the hut book, it does not get a lot of use though it is an invaluable and welcome base in the Wills. I was feeling the lack of sleep from my early start so had an early night.

We were up at first light and off as the mist was lifting off the flats and the rose hint of dawn slowly crept down the surrounding mountains. We had a few fords to cross, picking up the easiest travel until the valley closed in. Then we met a bedrock gorge and here we diverted up the bush on the TL. From here on, it was mostly on the boulder banks, across slips with diversions into the bush until we reached the top flats. The mountains were spectacular and the snowfields a russet colour from the recent Australian bushfire ash. We had a leisurely lunch on the grass of the flats before pushing on up the valley. At this stage, we did not have a view of Wilson Pass, which was around a bend ahead. It was very hot and sultry as my desultory pace slowed. I was keen to keep on but realised it would be a hard struggle in the heat so suggested to Gavin we bivouac at the bush line and make an early start tomorrow. 

We found a nice place at the bush edge on the TR and set up camp. It was rather idyllic and cooler in the shade. Later, I climbed a tree beside the tent and set up our skinny rope for Gavin to practice abseiling. The trees hereabout are amazing–knarled trunks, pachydermatous, scaly bark covered in multi-coloured lichens, a black fungus or mould on the smaller branches. I studied it for some time, imaging this living sentinel of the forest, standing firm in the summer heat and winter snow, the nagging winds, the cloud hurrying across the sky, year in and year out. Then my gaze shifted to the surroundings–verdant green forest reaching up to tawny tussock below grey rock slabs and lustrous snowfields. A powerful luminosity and energy enlivened the scene bringing a sense of wonder and enjoyment. With a sense of contentment, I lazed around until dark. We planned for a big day to cross Wilson and Lower Studholme Pass.

We both slept poorly so it was no hardship to arise at first light. Soon we were away following a deer trail around the bush edge and crossing the first stream. The scrub was minimal and it was open easy country. There were lots of flowing plants–Hebe subalpine and treadwellii,  Ranunculus Lyalli, Gaultheria crassa, Olearia moschate,  tiny cushion plants which delighted us.

We reached scree slopes that curved around to the right to old avalanche snow that took us up to a steep cirque leading to Wilson Pass, now visible among shifting cloud. We climbed off the valley floor onto a steep spur that led to an old deer trail on its crest. Then it was a steady climb up tussock slopes to the pass. Suddenly, upon the ridge north of the pass, we saw a herd of chamois, who stood like sentinels gazing in our direction. Then two of them came on down the ridge for a closer look–graceful and elegant denizens of the high alps, their tan-coloured pelage contrasting with the tawny tussock and grey screes. Then suddenly they were gone leaving us with a sense of loss, an intuition of sadness. We carried on.

It was very steep on the Hunter side of the pass so we walked along to a promontory, which afforded us a good view of the country below. A tussock slope dropped down the cliffs to a basin a long way below so we moved over to it and commenced the descent. About halfway down, we decided to try a different route, which was more or less straight down and this zig-zagged through cliff lines and took us all the way down to the valley floor at 960m. Here we crossed to the TL and climbed up this for about 1.5 km before starting our ascent to Lower Studholme Pass.  This is a 700m climb up tussock, scree and was very straightforward. Nearing the pass we spied another small heard of Chamois, racing across the screes and silhouetted on the skyline.

The pass itself was covered in shattered rock and slabs and on the other side was a great view of the distant Landsborough, glinting in the evening sun. Further along to the north was Watkins Dome 1946m, a steep snow slope on the right and a black rock buttress on the left. We found an easy scramble up the rock buttress. The snowfields were russet-coloured from fallen ash. To the north was an extensive plateau of snowfields and shattered rock leading to the NW slopes of Mt Napolean. There seemed to be an endless succession of spurs to cross until we finally reached tussock slopes and far below we could see a weather station perched like a dunny on a knoll. Near it was a tarn so we descended down to it at 1600m and camped in a most delightful spot.

Gavin had a grin from ear to ear and later when sent a message to Carol telling her “he was in paradise”. We had been 13 hours on the go, climbed 1650m and felt . . . knackered. Gentle tussock slopes descended into the shadowed valley of the Landsborough and looking over the bush-covered Solution Range, we saw the expansive snowfields of Mt Hooker. The dying embers of the day saw us set up camp on our best day of the trip.

We arose at 5.30 am the next morning. The cobalt sky had a rose hint of dawn, and cloud filled the valleys as set off for the bush line above Harpers Flat. It was straightforward and then it was a long haul down through the open forest to the valley floor 1000m below us. The last 200m or so were down very steep crown fern slopes among pungas and beech to the luminescent tussock of Harper Flat. It was hot and languid as we walked down the flats to Strutt Bluff as heat waves danced on the stony flats. About 2 km down valley, the Landsborough River had cut into a bluff forming a deep pool. I tried to wade it as I had done previously but this meant a swim and a dangerous one at that as the river thundered past. So we backtracked and tried to follow along the banks and hopefully over the top of the bluff maybe 70 m above. Unfortunately, this did not work so we went back along the boulders until I spotted a line of weakness up the face of the bluff. Here, I deployed our skinny rope and leaving my pack climbed up maybe 7-8 m to some trees where we managed to grovel along a ledge past the pool and abseil back down. This diversion cost us 1.5 hours to progress a mere 10m–sigh! 

At Strutt Bluff, the river had changed course and wiped out our large marker on the bank that we'd placed there 3 years previously, so it took us a while to find the start of the track. Once on it, we had no difficulty following it though it was overgrown with Blechnum Ferns and had some large windfall on it. Then it was another 4 hours plod out to the car along the 4WD track.

At 8.00 pm, we finally made it and decided to head home as we were too tired to paddle the Haast River the next day. And so ended a splendid 4-day circuit as we set off for Gavin's place in Arrowtown.