Edwards to Hawdon Valleys via Tarn Col
Labour Weekend 2016
A long weekend with fine weather forecast proved to be a good incentive to head over to Arthurs Pass for some tramping.
Friday night was spent at Porters Heights skifield accommodation where Tim’s daughter, Clare lives and works.
We woke to a -3degree frost on Saturday morning with fog blanketing the lower reaches on the way to Arthurs Pass. As Tim had already had a car at Porter Heights we were able to drive and leave it at the Hawdon carpark to await our return on Monday.The four of us then drove around to Greyneys where we parked the second car near the Bealey River.The fog had lifted and the sun shone as we made our way across the railway bridge and up the Edwards River Valley only to get wet feet soon after immersing in the Minga and various other streams.
After a pleasant walk on the riverbed and in bush, mainly uphill, we stopped for an early lunch at a viewpoint where we could see a spectacular waterfall on the Edwards River. A wire chain to assist passage over a rocky bluff had been replaced by re-routing the track down a steep gravel zig-zag.
We arrived at the Edwards hut just before 2pm to find we were the only ones there. That soon changed as more people arrived at various stages during the afternoon including a group of five from the South Canterbury Tramping Club, swelling the numbers to over twenty, with some sleeping on the kitchen floor and outside. A few of the SC TC members were known to us so we had an enjoyable evening reminiscing with them .
Another frost, but fine day saw us leaving the hut at 7.30am to make our way up the head of the Edwards Valley to the Taruahuna Pass and across an enormous pile of rocks of all sizes, the result of landslides from Falling Mountain triggered by a large earthquake in 1929. A climb up a gut led us to a steep face about three quarters of the way up to Tarn Col. Concentration levels were high as we hauled ourselves up clinging to the snowgrass to reach the top. One slip here would not be pretty.
A lunch break was taken sitting beside the tarn on the Col and then it was over the edge and down the narrow gut on the other side towards the East branch of the Otehake River, where we had another rest and snack before heading upstream criss-crossing to reach the turn-off to Walker Pass.
A short climb through scrub led us over the top passing a picturesque tarn on the way. Many crossings of the tarn outlet followed until a steep, sometimes rocky track took us down passing Twin Falls ( Two waterfalls) and then onto an easy going track in the bush to the Hawdon Hut, arriving at 3.15pm. Once again the comfortable hut, built in 2007 was at full capacity sleeping twenty people for the night.
A 7.30pm start once again on Monday morning enabled us to walk down the Hawdon River Valley and out to Tim’s car by 10.15am. This involved some easy walking in the bush but with quite a few river crossings, the last being well up our thighs (Not Tim’s though). Russell from SC TC hitched a ride with us back to Greyneys and we all left from there to head home.
Thanks to Clare, Tim, Maurice and also the SCTC Members, Dorothy, Kathryn, Russell, Martin, and Robert for their company in making an enjoyable weekend.
Phyllis
