The nervous Nevis

The Nervous Nevis The Great Southern Rock Wren Trip – part 5

Our last instalment left our heroes staring somewhat nervously at the gate to the Nevis track. All over that gate and posts surrounding that gate were a plethora of warnings about the tracks ruthlessness during the winter months.
While this was mid-autumn, it had been a very wet autumn.

However, there was no turning back so up the track we went gaining height rapidly trying to ignore that nagging apprehension deep in my Tummy. This is a long track and a long walk out if we got stuck.

As we followed the steep zigzagging road a wonderful vista unfolded.

This is the close to the boundary between 2 regions. Southland, Cow country and South Otago Sheep country

What I did not expect as we neared the top was an ancient ski hut lovingly restored from the last century.

I’m thinking there must have been more than a few ales and bottles of whiskey consumed as the sun went down behind the mountains in the distance, after a hard workout with a pair of narrow surfboards and 2 sticks.

It was getting near lunch time when we left the hut so we looked for the ideal spot to gobble our goodies in the warn sunshine.

Me going for the killer drama-rama shot

 

Not a such a bad place for a spot of lunch.

Soon it was time to start heading down into the valley of doom and what we knew were going to be some pretty deep water and mud crossings.
We were now tens of kilometres from any help should we get stuck as we followed the valley floor and soon we started to hit the crossings.
Things would not have been half as bad if this valley was not used as a 4X4 playground. It became obvious that hoons in very powerful 4x4s had gouged the crossings much deeper because they had been charging around like mad thing’s hooting and a-hollering
This makes it a much harder challenge for people who do not have specialised vehicles. I’m sorry I did not get any photos of the crossings as it would have meant getting wet feet and that just was not going to happen. We had some pretty anxious moments but the Toyota Highlander got us through.
Relief flooded through me when we came to a sign informing us that there we no more crossings and we had a clear run from here on out.

The Nevis is a very pretty river especially in the afternoon sun., with some pretty decent Trout fishing,

Once we started to come to where the valley opened up we came across this old house.

Gates make wonderful frames for your image and draw your curiosity to what is inside.

This was what was inside

I want to name this One tree flat.

One tree flat.
So much room to breathe in the Autumn air.

Alexandra was our destination for the night and we made the township just on dark.
Sorry bird addicts but birdlife was a bit sparse in the Nevis but we will get our fix in the next blog as the next day we were headed to the Poolburn Dam to look for a pair of native kārearea or New Zealand  Falcons that frequent the area.
Suck it up bird freaks tomorrow will rock ❤