I walked the St James Walkway in February of 2015, the section from Ada Homestead to the Boyle Outdoor Education Center is part of the Te Araroa trail.
19th February: Ada Homestead to Anne Hut (12 km's)
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| Ada Homestead across Christopher river |
There is Ada Homestead in the distance on the true left of the river, this used to be a working sheep and cattle station, I believe it is now DOC land and provides a link between the Spencer Mountains and St James Station.
The track from Waiau Pass joins the St James Walkway near Ada Homestead, often TaT walkers need to walk some distance up the Christopher valley to cross the river. I could see several easy points to cross the Christopher but then it has been a long dry summer.
Once around Mt Federation there is a 2 hour walk up the Henry River valley to contend with. Take LOT'S of water with you from Christopher/Anne Hut as this section is exposed, hot and bone dry: there is no potable water at all.
It is a massive valley, the far side at the mouth would be 5-6 km's away.
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| Ada Homestead on far bank of Christopher River |
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| Track around Mt Federation |
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| Hot and bothered (not in a good way) |
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| Entering Henry River valley |
Eventually you hook up with an old 4 W/D track half way up the valley, you follow this for most of the way to the hut and makes for much faster travel. Looking at the topo map, there is a connecting track coming from Waiau Pass which fords the Christopher river near the homestead.
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| Henry River valley |
Eventually you reach the Henry Swing bridge, it was quite sporty as the wind had come up and it was swaying back and forth alarmingly. You need to cross this bridge as the 4 W/D ford further up the valley looked deep and swift: far better to play it safe here and follow the track instead.
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| Swing-bridge over the Henry River |
After the swing-bridge you ascent one last hill on the 4 W/D track, it is then a 2 km trip across a plateau to Anne Hut sitting temptingly out on the open plain.
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| Anne Hut (built 2012) |
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| View down valley from Anne Hut |
Look at that view, awesome!
I noted with interest that the hut was connected to the ground with massive concrete piles, which leads me to believe that it must be bloody windy up here sometimes. Also, they must get some shockingly deep Winter snow as the hut was probably at 800-900 meters in the middle of a totally open plateau.
The hut is brand new (2012) the old Anne Hut burnt down: it is warm (well insulated), well appointed with a big wood shed (full) and multiple rainfall water tanks. Very nice.
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| View to West from Anne Hut |
As the day wore on various trampers turned up at the hut, all of them TaT walkers from other countries. Most of them had walked all the way from Caroline Bivy to Anne Hut that day: a distance of 30-40 km's! I was suitably impressed as my 25 km trip from Ada Hut had left me totally stuffed, I don't know if I could have walked another 10-15 km's.
Eventually there were 14 of us in the hut and it made for a great atmosphere. We had Swiss, German, French, Australian, Canadian, Czech and New Zealand trampers there that night. I had several good conversations with people about tramping, New Zealand, their home countries & food (always a good topic of conversation in a DOC hut: Steak, bacon and cheese burgers, wedges and ice cold coke or beer were all popular idea's :).
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| Nightfall Anne hut |
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| Nightfall Anne Hut, view to West |
20th February: Anne Hut to Boyle Flat Hut (17.5 km's)
As usual I was up at the crack of dawn and on my way down the track, the distance to cover to Boyle Flat was 17.5 km's. For most of the day I was walking by myself, around 11.30 several of the TaT walkers caught up to me and we walked the final 5-6 km's of the track together.
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| Dawn at Anne Hut |
I was the first out of the hut, I really like to walk in the early morning as it is a lot cooler than walking in the blazing heat of the afternoon. I also find the light of the early morning very appealing.
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| Setting out towards Anne River bridge |
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| View back to Anne Hut |
About 3 km's down the track you cross to the true left of the Anne river. I made the short side trip to visit Anne Cullers hut near this bridge but stupidly forgot to take a photo. This is another of the historic deer culler huts scattered along the walkway.
From the hut the track continues up the true left of the river.
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| Anne River from first bridge |
Nice easy track up the Anne River valley for the first couple of hours, the track is mostly on river terraces with the occasional climb over intervening ridgelines.
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| Track up Anne Valley |
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| View towards head of Anne River |
The ridge below is the most strenuous part of the track along the river bottom, this climbs above a gorge in the Upper Anne River.
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| One of the ridges that must be climbed over |
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| Last river flat before climb to Anne saddle |
Eventually you reach the swampy head of the Anne River, this is where the real climb starts up to the saddle. As you get closer to the top the track becomes steep, but nothing too strenuous.
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- Start of climb to Anne Saddle
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As you can see in the photo below its not much of a saddle to climb, all things considered...
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| Nearly at Anne Saddle |
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| Anne Saddle track |
Below is the steepest part of the track, this is over the last 200 meters before the saddle, it is steep and rocky and requires a bit of care.
Honestly, this is one of the easiest saddles I have ever walked over, bar Ada Pass!
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| Climbing to Anne Saddle |
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| Anne Saddle |
Here I am goofing it up on the saddle, it took me about 2.5 hours to reach this spot from the hut and is roughly 1/3 of the way to Boyle Flat Hut. I did the East side-West side shuffle here as you have just crossed the Southern Alps.
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| Jon @ Anne Saddle |
The descent into the Boyle is a totally different proposition, it is steep, rocky, and slippery, it would be about a kilometer from the saddle to the bottom but took me over an hour to traverse due to the terrain. My walking stick was a god send on this section of the track as it gave me that all important third point of ground contact.
Take care through here!
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| Descending to Boyle river |
Eventually you break out into the Upper Boyle river valley, it is really beautiful up there and would certainly warrant another visit just to camp in the area. It's all river flats and small ridge climbs from here to Boyle Flat, about 9 km's down the valley.
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| Upper Boyle River valley |
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| River flats in upper Boyle valley |
That track is seared into the grass of the river flats, bisected at regular points by deer/pig tracks coming down from the hills.
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| Approaching Rokeby hut |
About half way along the track to Boyle Flat you pass the old Rokeby Hut, this is a small 2 bunk hut located inside a small finger of bush on one of the ridges along the valley. It is "rustic" in nature, dirt floor, sacking bunks but in quite good condition. There is even a classic corrugated iron dog box for the mustering dogs which were once used up the valley.
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| Rokeby Hut (built 1968) |
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| Dog house at Rokeby Hut |
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| Interior of Rokeby Hut |
About 3 kilometers down valley you arrive at the swing-bridge to Boyle Flat Hut, my final destination for the day.
I've stayed at the hut previously and it is very nice, well maintained and in a prime location.
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| Boyle Flat Hut, built 1980 |
The water source for the hut is normally piped from a nearby stream, but with the dry, hot weather this has dried up. If you are visiting the hut the alternate source of water is the very nice creek about 50 meters to the north of the hut. Follow the track which goes past the left hand side of the wood shed, it is easy to find.
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| Approach to water source for hut |
Nice clean looking water in the creek but I would still purify it as who knows what is lurking just upstream.
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| Unnamed side stream near Boyle Flat Hut |
I spent the night at Boyle Flat hut with 2 Australian and 2 German TaT walkers, the other 10 legged it down the valley as they wanted to get to Hanmer for the night.
That would be a total of 31 km's of walking for the 10 of them!
Personally, I was more than happy to walk the 17.5km's and call it a day....
21st February: Boyle Flat Hut to Boyle Outdoor Education Centre (BOEC) (14.5 km's)
Another early morning as the 5 of us staying in the hut over night headed down valley to the road end at Boyle Village. I've walked this part of the track numerous times now so was well aquainted with what lay in store.
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| Boyle Flat Hut |
Travel through this section is easy, the track is benched from the hut to the first swing-bridge over the Boyle, although there are a number of new slips on the track to be tackled. I really like the Upper Boyle valley it is dense, much like a West Coast track.
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| Track between Boyle Flat and first swing-bridge |
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| Boyle River view South |
Eventually you reach the old stile which separates the upper valley from the cattle flats around St Andrews. The swing bridge is about 100 meters further down the track from this spot.
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| The stile just before Boyle swing-bridge |
I was surprised with how dry the normally muddy track is, no rain for a couple of months will do that I suppose. The dry probably shaved at least 40 minutes off the usual time between the two swing bridges over the Boyle River. Normally you have to carefully jump from log to log, you can plough through but you will end with mud up to your knees.
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| Swing-bridge over Boyle river |
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| Dry track conditions for a change |
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| Mid way to Boyle Outdoor Centre |
I love catching my first view of the Boyle swing bridge, it means you are nearly home, only the last fairly easy walk out to the road end left.
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| Second Boyle River swing-bridge, almost finished |
Fini!
The Australian TaT couple and I reached the road end at Boyle Village together, we meet up with the two German guys as we pulled out onto the Highway. I dropped them all off in Hanmer as I was going there for some lunch on my way home.
I really enjoyed interacting with the TaT trampers they are an eclectic and interesting group of people, and good value. I look forward to meeting more of them as this journey unfolds. Hopefully, I might even meet some more Kiwi trampers tackling the trail.
Cost breakdown for this section:
Ada Homestead to Boyle OEC (2015)
Transport: $100.00 (Car to start/end of track)
Accomodation $ 0.00 (DOC Hut Pass)
Food: $ 45.00
Misc: $ 30.00
Total: $175.00
- Items being worn/ carried on body