Flooded Stream Turns Plans Upside Down

It was May in Nelson Lakes National Park and the weather looked promising as Anne and her husband set off on a three-night tramp. With only light drizzle forecast, it was shaping up to be a peaceful escape into nature like many trips before. Then the weather changed and so did everything.

The pair was walking a section of the Travers-Sabine Circuit, staying at Lakehead Hut, John Tait Hut and then Hopeless Hut on their last night. The route involves unbridged streams and a river crossing, but they are experienced trampers and had completed a river crossing course a few years earlier. They’d packed for delays, including extra food, and had a personal locator beacon (PLB) in case of an emergency.

Making good time, they arrived at Hopeless Hut by mid-afternoon, still with dry boots despite the stream crossings, so were feeling pretty happy when the weather took a surprising turn.

“We’d been at the hut for a while, when the skies opened. It was sudden and unexpected,” says Anne. “We knew we had a number of stream crossings the next day, so we talked about packing up and heading out immediately. In the end, we decided it was too late in the day. Given the forecast, we also thought it would just be a minor downpour.”

However, the rain continued pouring through the night.

Hoping to beat rising water levels, they got an early start the next morning, heading toward Coldwater Hut where they were meeting a pre-booked water taxi to take them down Lake Rotoiti and back to their car.

Even with their early start, the streams that had once been easy to cross were quickly becoming dangerous.

“We crossed the first streams successfully but had to bush-bash upstream for the next one to find a safe crossing spot because the usual crossing place was too dangerous,” says Anne.

That just left the last Hopeless Creek crossing, near an un-named tributary,before they were on the home straight. But when they reached the stream, they were greeted by a powerful torrent that was clearly unsafe to cross.

Time was running out for them to get back to Hopeless Hut.

“It was still raining, and we were conscious that the streams behind us were continuing to rise, and we didn't want to be stuck out between them,” says Anne. “We decided we needed to head back straight away.”

Safely back at the hut, they checked their map for another route out. But, with the rain setting in, there was no safe alternative, so they made the difficult decision to stay put until the rain stopped and water levels dropped.

In the back of their minds, however, was the water taxi booking. While they had their PLB for emergencies, they were out of cell coverage so couldn’t contact anyone to update them on their new situation.

“We thought of the water taxi driver making an unnecessary trip to collect us. We also thought of our friends who we'd left our intentions with. We were due out that night with an extra 'padding' day before they would hit the overdue button,” says Anne. “It was stressful, but all we could do was wait.”

The kindness of strangers

What they didn't know was that the water taxi driver had done due diligence. When the pair weren’t at the meeting place, he’d gone back up the lake hours later to check again. On his way back down, he stopped at the jetties to check, and then walked in to Lakehead Hut to see if they were there.

With no sign of the pair, he called police.

Anne’s emergency contact had also become concerned. After calling the taxi company, he contacted police the next morning.

Meanwhile, the deluge continued.

“We'd resigned ourselves to another night in the hut, and we’d just lit the fire in the late afternoon when the clouds appeared to lift. It seemed only moments after that, that we heard the helicopter.”

Five minutes later, a police officer and search and rescue volunteer walked down the path to lift them to safety.

“It turned out the weather was clagged out for another 4 or 5 days after we got back, so we were very happy for the ride,” says Anne. “We’re also so thankful for everyone's kindness and professionalism in coming to our aid.”

Anne’s key learnings

• Take essential gear in case you get delayed. We always pack extra food and a personal locator beacon, but my advice is to also pack extra medication that you need.
• Take a two-way comms device. The only thing we could have done differently was take a two-way satellite communications device so we could have let our emergency contact know we were safe but delayed. While we had a cell phone, there wasn’t any coverage at Hopeless Hut.
• Always record your intentions in hut books – even when you’re stopping for lunch. We always fill in the hut books, but I was surprised to learn that the helicopter had stopped at each hut from the beginning of our tramp, checking our entries, which meant they were able to find us relatively quickly. I’d always assumed they’d go to the last hut first.
• Stop and think. We had the water taxi booked but we didn't let that override the fact that there was no way the river was safe to cross.

PHOTO CREDIT | Anne | Nelson Lakes flooded stream