“A Mish a Day” #235 Paratu Stream. Arthurs Pass National Park. 28.12.2020. After my first Christmas with the whanau in 12 years I needed a hike to burn off multiple Christmas feasts. Being the holiday season I would rather be working (time and a half!), but Christmas with the family is an excellent upside to a year which hasn’t offered many things to celebrate.
The excitement began before starting my hike with interesting holiday traffic. You can really understand why we have such terrible road tolls when you see a Ute with a trailer passing a truck towing a boat and another car on a blind corner! After so many missions from the Milford Road I have gotten used to insane drivers, and it’s best to just let them pass and hope for the best. After driving through a very busy Arthurs Pass Village I began the climb over the alpine pass, and then the descent into the Otira Valley. The western side of the pass is a jaw dropping feat of engineering. Where the Otira River flows through a deep gorge, the road spans over the drop on a magnificent viaduct. This is a replacement to the old zig zags at the ominously named ‘Deaths Corner’. It had been a while since my last trip to the West Coast, and with the sun shining it’s beauty is hard to beat. My injured hip meant minimal loads, so I was still using two bags to distribute the weight of my camping gear. I set off from the busy little roadside car park, and immediately crossed over the Otira River on the Morrison Footbridge. From the bridge the views were spectacular up and down the valley, even with the assortment of signs of mankind in the form of powerlines and railroads. From the bridge I followed a section of the Te Araroa Trail, before gaining altitude via the open grass flats at the base of One Shot Hill(1214m). My objective was finding a campsite somewhere near where the Paratu Stream enters the glassy flats of the Otira Valley. Thanks to years of grazing by sheep and cattle there are excellent campsites in the lower reaches of Paratu Stream. I found an awesome grassy spot on the riverbank under a massive lone rimu tree, and now I had to head back to the car for my second bag. On the journey back I realised it had taken about 45 minutes to find my campsite, so I knew it would be a while before I returned with the bag containing my tent.. I left a Weka in charge of the camping area, and headed back across the grass covered flats towards the West Coast Highway. Eventually I got back up to Paratu Stream with the rest of my gear, and as a light rain fell I pitched my tent. The afternoon forecast was for 0.3ml of rain, but there was definitely more than that. It rained on and off all afternoon and evening, but I found myself reasonably dry due to the shelter of the large rimu tree. The light started to fade, and eventually the evening sun disappeared behind Kellys Hill(1394m). As usual I had a better sleep than I would in a normal bed, and I woke to a loud morning chorus.
I was up early-ish as it was the Wilson Whanau Christmas get-together in the afternoon, and I hadn’t caught up with that side of the family in ages. Nothing better than hiking in the early fresh air, and as I arrived at the road I was surprised to see so many cars, meaning the hills were full of other trampers. I stashed load number one into the car, and headed back up to Paratu Stream for the final time. I packed down my tent, still soaking wet from the morning dew, then made the last pilgrimage across the clear water of the Otira River. In the end I hiked quite far, and my hip told me so. But as I drove back over Arthurs Pass on a bluebird day I thought to myself ‘It is really hard to beat the West Coast on a sunny day’…
