Why am I here?
About a year ago I walked in Tasmania (Three Capes Track) with my two brothers and a sister. We had such a good time that we immediately planned another walk, this time in New Zealand.
Before meeting my siblings for the walk I arranged to do a walk by myself. I chose the Rees Dart track because it is reasonably challenging and is in the vicinity of Queenstown where I would be staying with my siblings.
Track overview.
The track follows the Rees Valley to the source of the Rees River at Rees Saddle. It then crosses over to the Dart Valley and follows the river downstream. There is an optional sidewalk to the source of the Dart River at Dart Glacier and up to Cascade Saddle.
The walk is about 70 km in length, with the side trip to Cascade Saddle, being an additional 20 km.
The track can be dangerous in winter and can also be cut off during periods of high rainfall as the side creeks quickly rise. In addition, there is a bridge over the Snowy Creek that is removed in winter.
The track is subject to avalanches and washouts so the alignment is often moving. In 2014 the track was closed for three years for repairs. When I visited Dart Glacier I was unable to ascend to Cascade Saddle because of a recent avalanche.
There are three huts on the track that provide accommodation (Rock Shelter Hut, Dart Hut and Daleys Flat Hut) as well as numerous camp sites.
History of the track.
The Dart River and Rees River valleys were traditional Maori transport routes. In particular, they were used for finding and trading pounamu, which is a pearly grey-green precious stone.
In the 1860’s the valleys were opened up for grazing and prospecting.
From 1899 until 1902 a gold dredge operated on the Dart River. One of the huts has newspaper articles with letters to the local Council complaining about the state of the track at that time.
In 1964 the area was included within the Mount Aspiring National Park and in 1991 included in the South West New Zealand World Heritage Area.
Preparation.
I flew to Queenstown two days before I was going to start my walk. This gave me a free day in Queenstown to do shopping and any other planning that was required.
I had booked a camping site at the Lakeview Holiday Park. It’s close to the centre of town, has kitchen, laundry, and toilet facilities, and is relatively quiet.
You can’t bring any food into New Zealand so I had to do all my provisioning locally. The grocery shopping options in Queenstown are limited so I caught a bus to Frankton and did my shopping at the Pak N Save supermarket. There was a wide range of fresh and packaged goods and a variety of dehydrated camping foods (including “Real Meals”, my preferred brand).
