Starting km: (2114)
Finishing km: (2138)/2025
km covered today: 24
Finishing km: (2138)/2025
km covered today: 24
Day two of tramping with Ryan was another good'un. We suspected we had a longish day so started walking before 7, saying farewell to the d'Urville Hut with its nice views of the lake (which we enjoyed), million sandflies (which we didn't) and giant eels (which we didn't see, but I know they're there.)
The morning got off to a bit of a slow start. We easily crossed the d'Urville River, which was very low, but struggled a bit to spot the trail again on the other side. Eventually we found it again and set off into the bush for the next valley over, the Sabine. Incidentally, I'm at a complete loss for how to pronounce that. I'd always pronounced it Say-By-n. Then I phoned the Nelson Lakes DOC office and the ranger there pronounced it Sah-been. Then the farmer who gave us a lift to the trailhead and a volunteer hut warden pronounced it Say-by-n. So I just have no idea.
Along the way we had a crossing of a slow moving, but deep stream that got my bum wet (and veeerry chilly). And had some nice views up the lake from a beach in its centre. The track was generally in good shape, but there were a few fallen trees and slips across the track that made it tricky in spots.
Compared to this, the trail up the Sabine Valley was easy as. Well maintained and only a few small climbs to get over bluffs or past waterfalls.
Pretty much the whole way was in either grassy river flats or through beech forest. I'd observed the previous day that the microscopic wing beats of millions wasps made a sound audible through the whole forest. Intriguingly, I'd also noticed a similar phenomenon with smell.
Most of Nelson Lakes' beech trees are covered in a thick black coating of fungus. Beneath this live scale insects that harvest sap from the trees. They concentrate it and excrete it out long, thin white tubes. The concentrated sap forms small beads (which wasps love to eat) and which ferments and makes the whole forest smell like a mix of a bee hive and a winery.
About four hours up the river we stopped for lunch at the West Sabine Hut. It was here that I rejoined the official Te Araroa route. I think I haven't actually explained what the parentheses around trail km have been for the last week or so. Since I'm haven't been on the official TA route for this time, the distances listed have been my personal trail distances. Though now that I'm back on TA I think I'll revert to the official kms.
At West Sabine we realized that our destination, Blue Lake Hut was going to be very full (based both on people at West Sabine who said they were headed there and info in the hut intentions book.) This being the case I dashed up then 7km of trail to Blue Lake to ensure that we got at least one bunk in the hut between us.
This gave me plenty of time to have a wander up to the head of Blue Lake (measured to be the world's clearest fresh water in 2011, with a visibility of 70-80m!) As well as to fill my water bottle from the Sabine just as it exited the lake. Holding my hand underwater for the minute or so it took to fill my bottle was painfully cold. But that nutter Ryan has a personal tradition of going for swims when tramping, so he actually immersed himself in the 5-8C brand new waters of the Sabine River.
But he also cooked dinner for me and brought along Exploding Kittens (a card game) for us to play, so I should be nice to him.
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