Lucretia Hut - 11/12th December 2010

Uncle Roddus Tramping Diary:Tramp No. 95

Lucretia Hut - 11/12th December 2010.

 

Lucretia Hut is situated  2/3rds up the Lucretia Stream, which feeds into the Nina river near the Lewis pass in Lewis Pass National Reserve. I thought it about time I got out on another Club trip with the Christchurch Tramping Club and this one looked pretty good to me as I hadn't been in this area for quite some time and had not yet been to the Lucretia Biv. The Newsletter description mentioned heading into the hut on Saturday, dropping the packs and heading upstream to the head of the valley, then back out the same way on Sunday, an easy/moderate trip. The weather leading up to the weekend had been patchy, with plenty of rain west of the divide and a reasonable amount on the east as well. The forecast was for rain clearing about the divide in the morning on Saturday and Nor'West winds dying out and changing to light Southerly in the evening with rain returning on Sunday evening. This gave us the perfect window of weather to do out walk if the weather behaved as forecast.

I met the group at Amberly on the very warm and quite humid Saturday morning. We headed up to the Lewis Pass and 7 of us left the cars at Palmer's Lodge in light drizzle before heading over the road to cross the Lewis River swing bridge. The track up the true left of the Nina is very well marked and well used, with many using it to access the Nina Hut as well as the Lucretia and upper Nina Biv etc... The track is mostly flat and travels through stunning beech forest and lovely grassy river flats before we get to the Lucretia Stream.

The track up the Lucretia is not quite so well used but is well marked. We headed up the true left climbing a steep section of about 200m height gain to sidle the hill above the stream. Crossing the stream about half way to the hut, the water was quite high and swift but didn't cause any problems to cross. The track meanders through heavily moss covered Beech forest and beds of ferns before we get to the Biv after about 3 and 3/4 hours.

After inspecting the Biv and deciding that the canvas bunks didn't look too inviting, we set up out tents and had something to eat. The weather had done what was predicted of it and so we were enjoying a pleasantly warn and partly sunny afternoon. The Nor'west was still blowing up high as the clouds were rushing past at a considerable pace. After making camp some of us set off up the valley to see weather we were keen enough to climb up to the Lucretia Tarns. The track heading upstream from behind the hut is no longer maintained by DOC, although there are still some old permolat markers evident. A friend had emailed me saying that he had done some trackwork on this track over the last couple of years and although the track was still a bit overgrown and not that easy to see in places he had marked it very well with orange ribbon do we were able to follow it with out too much trouble. We were slowed by the condition of the track and also some pretty big windfalls we had to negotiate. It took about 45 minutes to get to the end of the valley, where we started to follow the ribbons and some permolats heading up hill through the trees on the true right of Lucretia, but the windfall was so bad in there that we keep losing the route and gave up. We climbed up the first part of the hill to the Lucretia tarns to the top of the waterfalls but decided not to carry on to the tops as, by the time we got to the tarns and then came back the same way we might run out of daylight and I was also getting quite hungry for dinner. We got back to the camp about 6:30pm and spent a warm and pleasant evening chatting round the camp.

Sunday, the weather continued to do as predicted as we had a bit of a sleepin and broke camp just before 10am, heading back out the way we came. 

Our first lunch at this nice open spot on the Nina.

The track through the Beech Forest on the Nina

looking upstream the Lucretia

Some ferns

Our German friend crossing Lucretia Stream, the level was half this on Sunday

The lovely Moss covered trees in the Lucretia valley.

Lucretia Stream again.

inside Lucretia Biv. No One was too keen to try these canvas bunks.

So instead we all slept in out tents.

The waterfalls fed from the Lucretia Tarns on the top of the hill.

looking back down Lucretia valley from above the lower waterfall.

Near the top of the lower waterfalls.

looking west at the top of the lower waterfalls

You don't want to have an encounter with one of these.

These trees will grow anywhere.

Me at the Biv

Lucretia Biv nestled by the trees and this very good camping site.

A small stream I photographed on the way out on Sunday.

I particularly like this section of track on the Nina with the openness of the Forest. Unusual to see this down so low and it was only in this small patch.