Princess Mountains Traverse - February 1979
All images © David Noble. No image can be used for any purpose
without permission. Some photographs taken by Gordon Thompson.
The Princess Mountains lie in Southern Fiordland between Lake Hauroko
and Lake Poteriteri. This was a 15 day trip. We had mainly bad weather
on the walk - but a couple of good days on the tops made for a great
trip. I had seen photos of the Princess Mountains a few years earlier
when the range was traversed by a party from the Kameruka Bushwalking
Club (of Sydney). That trip had been organised by NZ based member,
Barry Dunnet.
On this trip, Gordon and myself originally intended to traverse the
Cameron Mountains to the west. But the bad weather early on the trip
meant that that goal was not feasible so we decided to traverse the
Princess Mountains instead. Later, in 1986, with others, I returned
for another long Fiordland walk traversing the Cameron Mountains.
Above - Dave at Te Anau enjoying some Hokey-Pokey before starting the
walk
Above - Gordon near the start of the Dusky Track at the west arm of
Lake Manapouri
Above - Dave on a walkwire
Above - Gordon on a walkwire. These were tricky in the rain with big
packs.
Above - The Spey Valley
Above - Upper Spey Hut
Above - The Spey Valley
Above - The Spey Valley
Above - Gordon and Dave in the hut
Above - Looking up the upper Spey Valley towards Centre Pass
Above - From Centre Pass - looking back down the Spey Valley
Above - At Centre Pass I climbed up a nearby hill to get this fine view.
Above - views from above Centre Pass
Above - looking back down at Centre Pass
Above - Looking down from Centre Pass at Tripod Hill and Lake Kintail
Above - On the descent - looking out of the rainforest
After a very tricky walkwire over the Seaforth River at Loch
Maree we climbed up to a nice campsite on the Pleasant Range
Above - views from the Pleasant Range
Above - Looking down to Dusky Sound
Above - Dusk
Above - Sunset.
Above - next morning - looking down to Dusky Sound
Above - The Pleasant Range
Above - The Pleasant Range
Above - Interesting reading about a previous party from Australia in
the Lake Roe Hut logbook
Above - Lake Roe
Above - Lake Roe
Above - Looking to the Princess Mts and the Hauroko Burn from a
sidetrip up onto the Merrie Range above Lake Roe
Above - The Merrie Range
Above - Merrie Range
Above - Looking back down to Lake Roe
Above - nearby lake
Above - The Merrie Range
Above - The Merrie Range - Tamatea Peak
Above - The Merrie Range - view from Tamatea Peak
Above - The Merrie Range
Above - Dave back at Lake Roe Hut
Above - Sandflies! View out the window of a hut on the Hauroko Burn
From the north end of Lake Hauroko we traversed around to the northern
spur of the Princess Mts and climbed up onto the tops.
Above - Looking down Lake Hauroko
Above - Dave reading the hut logbook
Go to part 2 - The Princess Mountains
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