This was a six day/five night trip hiking the Travers-Sabine Circuit, with a side visit the first night to Angelus Hut.
Angelus Hut is one of the "reserved non-Great Walk" huts I mentioned in an earlier post. Apparently, this hut's somewhat brief mention in Lonely Planet drew enough people to force a reservation system. The one thing Lonely Planet didn't mention is that if the weather turns foul it can be a challenge to reach this hut...
Here is the hut, where I spent my first night on this trip:
The weather forecast that morning was for 60km/h winds increasing to 90km/h, then 110km/h the next morning. You're hiking along an open ridge, the trail is a marked route, not a constructed trail. So...these winds blast like hell if a gust (typically 30% greater than the sustained wind speed, though the topography was channeling wind quite nicely in a few areas) comes at the wrong time, in the morning there were times the wind grabbed my pack and almost threw me to the ground. This was a strong cold front coming in from the Antarctic.
The hut was apparently reserved nearly full, though only a few of us actually got to the hut under these conditions.
Despite this unfortunate weather, the mountain scenery is incredible:
...and here is Angelus Lake, without the hut:
The next day, heading towards Lake Rotorua...a trailside bog:
Nice trailside waterfall:
...and the Sabine River:
The weather cleared out the next day giving me incredible views on the hike over Travers Saddle, separating the Sabine from the Travers valleys:
Heading down the Travers Valley...Travers Falls:
Travers River and Mt. Travers:
Beautiful alpenglow from Coldwater Hut, on the shore of Lake Rotoiti:
