Hi,
next summer I plan to walk the South Island North to south, from Cape Farewall to somewhere on the south coast. I've started planning the route already using the WAMS-website.
I'd like to cross Kahurangi NP using the Leslie Karamea track. Is there a non-alpine route from the southern end of that track to Murchison. Ideally I drop down to Murchison via the 1000 acre plateau and/or the Matiri valley.
Is there a route possible? Or does anyone have other suggestions?
Thanks
Harold
Harold
I did that route a couple of summers ago as part of a SI walk. I went from Wangapeka Saddle to the Matiri Valley via Nugget Knob. It's a very dry route and when I was there there was no drinkable water (even in the tarn on the map)
Leslie - Karamea is really great but you could be easily held up by side creeks in bad weather. The tops route is straight forward but a long day to Hurricane Hut.. also I had not luck hitching from the roadend and walked all the way to Murchison
I'll post the .gpx file, hopefully it will be helpful
cheers..........skiveoff
Hi skiveoff,
being from the Netherlands I have no idea what a SI walk is. But your comments and .gpx file are pretty helpful routewise. Thanks for those. How many days did it take you to get from the saddle to Murchison?
Another possibility might be to follow the Wangapeka track east for a while and than cross mount Owen to Owen river. Does anyone recommend one route to the other? Is one of those more scenic for example, or significantly more difficult.
Cheers
Harold
Harold
SI walk = South Island walk
Day 1 - Wangapeka Saddle to Hurricane Hut
Day 2 - Hurricane Hut to Lake Matiri Hut
Day 3 - Lake Matiri Hut to Murchison in time to catch the bus to Christchurch
cheers..........skiveoff
