Lewis Pass Day 1

Friday 23rd November

We left Camp Murchison about 10.00am after dumping the waste and filling up with fresh water - an essential as we know that the water around the Lewis Pass area, where we will be for the next few days, is non- potable without boiling first and one doesn't want a contaminated tank! It was a nice drive through the valley to Springs Junction and then on to the Lewis Pass road. We are parked at the Marble Hill DOC Camp which has been recommended to us by a couple of people - there are a lot of parking areas off to each side of a long gravel driveway to the river, so you can be amongst the trees or in the open. We can only see a couple of others in the distance from where we are parked which is right beside a sign saying "Alpine Fault Line"! We trust we are not linked up with Mt Tongariro and all will be calm tonight.

Guess who!

At 1.00pm after lunch we decided to do the 5-6 hour return walk up to Lake Daniells which goes from here and it is one of the walks in our book. It was a great walk, mostly along the Alfred River and whenever it left the river there were lots of little streams and waterfalls so there was always the soothing sound of running or rushing water to be heard.
The track is well formed with lots of boardwalks over the muddy areas and it passes through beech forests with a medieval feel created by the huge carpets of moss covering the ground and the trees.

Must use a different hat!

Lake Daniells

Lake Daniells itself is very peaceful and has a jetty running out into it (for what we don't know). Although there is a DOC hut there the track doesn't carry on any further. The return trip took us only 4.5 hrs but we do run the odd downhill bit and I think we are getting fitter by the day. We didn't come across anyone else throughout the walk and even the mozzies stayed away from us - they defintely don't seem to like our special detol/babyoil mix! The track was our favourite so far of all the walks we have done from the book.