Green Lake Track
Enjoying a well deserved Gin and Tonic on the shores of Green Lake after 8 hours and 45 minutes of hiking!
An intensive backcountry journey through the wilderness of New Zealand, an 11km track takes you from the edges of Lake Monowai to Green Lake, a remote hideaway in Fiordland National Park. This is an advanced tramping track and provides plenty of challenge as you navigate your way to this beautiful hidden lake. It is not for the faint hearted!
Day 1.
On a summer's weekend in early February 2023 my friend Candace and I decided to tackle something a bit different, an overnighter - her first. It was my turn to choose a track, and after seeing the gorgeous photos of Green Lake and it's back country hut on Instagram, we locked it in. Nothing, and I mean nothing could have mentally prepared me for what we were about to undertake, and with the limited information I found online I figured it would be challenging, but doable considering that we've undertaken a few challenging tracks recently. This first section did nothing to change my mind, it was mostly well defined track, and although the windfalls were a bit more full on than anticipated - think sending one person ahead to find the track because the marker was on a fallen tree, and sloshing through almost knee deep mud - we were happy we made it to the hut track junction in the same time as the DOC sign suggested. Lulled into a false sense of security by the incorrect tracking of kms by my smartwatch and manageable gradients, we had no idea what we were in for!
The Climb.
This is where the track got hefty. Once we got to the track junction, we'd passed most of the bad windfall, but there were still many trees to climb over and navigate around. On our first real uphill, we met a couple coming back from the hut who had spent two nights there and loved it. They said the track was in good condition and we were about to prepare for a 3km climb. I feel like no one ever talks about the terrain though, and it was about to get tough. Scrambling up rock banks and tree roots, including ones that I knew I could climb up, but was already feeling nervous about getting back down knowing that my legs would not touch the ground the next day.
A couple of small river crossings were easily navigated, and we finally broke through the trees and got a glimpse of a view we'd been hanging out for - Lake Monowai, and seeing just how far we'd travelled. At this point we'd been walking for about 5 and a bit hours, and after a quick stop I decided, maybe or maybe not wisely, to check how far we had left to go on Google Maps. It turns out there was another 4.7km ahead. As my smartwatch had decided not to track correctly and we were thinking we only had 2km left to go, it was one of those if you don't laugh you'll cry moments.
The Valley.
Making it to this valley was a treasured moment. We were finally out in the open, walking through tussocks, enjoying the fresh air, views, and greenery around us. This section lasted about 30 mins before we were once again thrust into the dense trees, and navigating tree roots, creeks, and mud.
After climbing a lovely deep and muddy bank we came to another sign that told us we had 1 more hour before we reached the hut. At this point we'd been walking for 7 hours and seeing this sign absolutely shattered me and the willpower I had left to continue. However, there was only one way forward, so I picked up the rest of my energy and with my key motivator Candace at my side we pushed on, scrambling down tree roots, butt shuffling, and the occasional tear streaming down my face. One thing in particular keeping me going was my vision of sitting by the lake, having kai and a gin, and a quick dip (this part didn't happen, but the rest did!)
WE MADE IT!
After 8 hours and 45 minutes we made it to the lake. What a sight for sore eyes, and feet, and tired heads. It was the most wonderful thing to pitch our tent and sit down to enjoy the lake while the sun sank behind the mountains. We are so lucky in Southland that during summer the sun doesn't fully set until around 10.30pm. This meant that even though we didn't arrive until late, we still had plenty of daylight to cook, pour a very well deserved gin and tonic, and relax before crawling into our sleeping bags for the night.
It was forecast to rain from 7pm, but when we went to bed it still wasn't raining so we thought that perhaps the forecast had changed throughout the day. I stashed my pack under some bushes with the waterproof cover on to make more room in the tent and we went to sleep, not knowing we were in for a rude awakening in the form of heavy rain in the early hours of the morning.
Day 2.
Rainsoaked.
Well, waking up at around 3am the rain was pelting our tent, but we were still warm and dry, so that was the main thing. It was an eventful night of minimal sleep however, as neither of us brought a bed roll along so we were literally lying on the cold, hard ground. Lesson learned.
At around 6.30am, running on 3-4 hours sleep we decided it was probably best to pack up and hit the track, especially considering how long we'd hiked for the previous day. We were back on the track by 6.50am, knowing we had a wild day ahead. There were definitely a few moments of sliding down rocks on my butt and jumping to touch the ground on our way back down, but I was in high spirits even though it was pouring down with rain the whole time.
Perhaps it was my eagerness for a hot shower, or the knowledge that it was mostly downhill after the initial climb of the morning, but I was humming along, more spirited than I was when I was dry and warm. We knew the mud was going to be bad on the way back and we had a mentality to smash through it as quickly as possible in order to not sink. For the most part this worked, but by the end of the track we were muddy, sweaty, dripping wet messes. To top off the adventure, just as we arrived at the end of the track we were greeted by beautiful sunshine. After 8 and a half hours this was welcome, but we couldn't help laughing at the irony as we abandoned our boots and climbed into the car to drive home.
