Mathew Denys

Emily Peaks

Nelson Lakes NP ● 19 – 21 Jan 2024

After summiting point 2023 with only ten days left in the year, I was keen to get to a point 2024 slightly earlier this year. In fact, this trip was planned back in 2023 as a co-conspiracy with Emily when we realised there was a point 2024 right next to Emily peaks in Nelson Lakes National Park. A perfect dual objective. We just had to hope for some good weather.

We left Wellington on Thursday afternoon with the pessimistic forecast of an atmospheric river hitting the West Coast. Staying in the North Island was a very realistic possibility, but we did get on the ferry – a decision which was questioned right up until we were walking, as Sam gradually put alternative plans which eventually provided an exhaustive list of South Island tramps.

The walk began with a small hiccup on Friday morning when we realised the bridge across the Matakitaki was private, and specifically required permission to use. Emily dutifully extracted said permission from a helpful farmer, and we got off to a good start boosting along the well graded farm road. After a couple of kilometres the track diverges from the road, cutting briefly through a bog before heading up hill and entering beech forest. Within no time we were in Nardoo creek.

The mood walking up Nardoo Creek

Travel up the Nardoo involved decent chunks of track, but also decent chunks of river travel. We weren’t necessarily in high spirits walking in the rain, and my suggestion of a brief stop for “lunch” only made us colder. I don’t even remember much of the travel, mostly just a few notable river crossings, and Sam noting that the water would be higher once the atmospheric river had passed through.

Eventually the track cuts steeply uphill, then sidles before returning to the creek at a neat gorge (in contrast to the topo which shows it dropping back to the river rather than holding the 860m contour). In no time we were climbing properly out of Nardoo creek, and once the bush turned to scrub we had some spectacular views of bluffs and a waterfall above us.

Sweet bluffs just below Nardoo biv

Nardoo biv sits by some tarns at the edge of the basin above the bluffs. When we arrived it wasn’t raining, and we even had a slight breeze to dry our gear before the rain set in. The biv has two bunks. Our party of four fit in snugly.

Dropping down to Nardoo biv

Overnight the rain did come, but not too heavily. That said, it did continue into Saturday, and by the time we were satisfied the last forecast front had passed it was approaching 2pm. Not your usual start to a day of tramping, but by that point we were all keen to start walking.

We headed up the basin towards point 1840. Some of us had rather nice travel on snow grass, while the others opted to sidle through deep tussock. Eventually we scrambled up some contours to reach the ridge, and dropped down scree on the other side to avoid ridge travel over point 1786. Rejoining the ridge at 1749 we continued along, enjoying views down some steep country into Branch creek, and eventually reaching Nardoo basin.

One option was to camp by the tarns in Nardoo basin, but we decided we had enough time to reach Burn Creek hut, so continued on

Tops travel above Nardoo basin

The climb from Nardoo basin to point 2024 is one worthy of such a lofty objective – an enjoyably steep scramble with plenty of scrub to hold on to. Unfortunately point 2024 itself is a rather flat, uninteresting, and claggy peak (I concede it may not always be so claggy).

Made it to point 2024

Having reached objective #1, we continued along the ridge towards Emily peaks, the closest of which is only 500m along. This probably would have been easier if we had dropped down a bit, but the ridge travel was quite fun. While we were mostly in clag, there was a brief but fortuitously timed opening in the clouds which gave us eyes on (one of) Emily peaks with a blue sky above.

Heading along the ridge to Emily Peaks

Not feeling a need to stand on top of all three, we headed back towards pt 2024, along the main ridge, skirted below pt 1952, and dropped down the spur to Burn Creek hut. As the day progressed it cleared, and we got decent views of Emily peaks, which sit above some steep terrain. Also a cool slug thing.

A cool slug thing

Despite it being my turn to sleep on the floor, Burn Creek hut provided a comfortable spot for the night – perhaps helped by Sarah opting to sleep in her tent. The next morning began by following a very decent track down to Burn creek. The route eventually gets funnelled onto a narrow spur between the two branches, with steep drops on all sides. We found a route down thanks to orange markers in various forms, although it did involve some unstable ground.

Navigating some steep terrain below Burn Creek Hut

After crossing Burn creek we immediately climbed up the bank on the other side, briefly followed a grassy & boggy terrace, then took a route up into the bush on the true right just before the first stream marked on the topo. We followed a sidle track until shortly after the next marked side stream, after which we lost the track and headed back to the river, finding markers close by it. From here we stayed with the creek for over a kilometre until we reached an open area and the remnants of an old mining operation. At these remnants there was a marked track which we initially missed, leading up and over bluffs by the river. We returned to the river at an unmarked side stream. There was a jumping rock I couldn’t resist, then we continued downstream to Rough and Tumble creek. Here we once again gained elevation on the true right. I was expecting the route to climb above the overlapping contours on the topo, but according to my phone’s GPS we went right through them – and it felt like it! Especially at a couple of points where we could look down and see we were above a 100m drop directly into Burn Creek. Eventually we dropped down Jacob’s Ladder (with the assistance of a fixed line) to reach a substantial side stream which had a route on the true right we could follow back to Burn Creek where we stopped for lunch and a well deserved swim

Swim and lunch spot when we joined Burn Creek after descending Jacob's Ladder

The remainder of Burn creek was generally easy travel, with a mixture of routes in the bush and some river travel. The confluence with the Matakitaki was the big reveal - would we be able to cross after the rain? Fortunately this was quickly determined to be yes – we only had to wander a couple hundred metres down stream to find a trivial (but deep) spot to cross.

Crossing the Matakitaki just below the confluence with Burn creek

The rest of the route to Downie Hut was a highway by comparison. We had been planning to stay the night here and leave early the next morning to make our ferry, but it wasn’t too hard of a decision to continue on. Especially when the sandfies started biting almost immediately. So we added another 20km to our day… a largely uneventful addition except for 15 minutes of increasingly torrential rain – possibly the heaviest I’ve ever walked in – providing a distraction from the monotony of walking through farmland with tired, aching legs. By the time we arrived at the car we were drenched, but it had stopped raining, so of course the sandflies were back.

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Nelson Lakes NP