St. Arnaud Range Track - Nelson Lakes

In the Nelson area, there are three National Parks: Abel Tasman, known for its golden sand beaches, sea kayak and Great Walk opportunities; Kahurangi, known for its Heaphy Track Great Walk and Nelson Lakes, known for Lakes Rotoiti and Rotoroa, but, also, for its glaciated valleys and excellent tramping. We headed to Nelson Lakes Park for New Year. We had a couple of days to fill before we needed to head over to Abel Tasman for our sea kayaking trip (more on that later) and hoped we could find a day hike to do. When we read in Lonely Planet that the St. Arnaud Range Track, in Nelson Lakes National Park, was rated one of the Top Five Wildlife Encounters (for Birdlife) in NZ, well, it was the obvious choice! The track started at Kerr Bay on Lake Rotoiti

It was an 11km walk, suggested as five hours. It took us a while longer as it was a continuous up, along many switchbacks, through the beech forest, about a 600m climb above Lake Rotoiti to 1650m. Once above the treeline it became quite steep and there was loose rock, meaning we took our time and were careful. The views from the top were absolutely spectacular and worth the effort.

Rain had been threatening all day, but, luckily had held off until we reached the summit. It started spitting at the top, so, after a very short stop, we headed down as quickly as we could.

Along the way we were rewarded with some sightings of birdlife. We encountered a rare kaka, a very large, wild, parrot. This isn't a good picture, but, maybe will give you some idea of its magnificence.

At the other end of the scale, here is a delightful little tomtit. These are supposed to be elusive to see up close, but, this one seemed very curious and actually kept coming to us, instead of away. What a charmer.

The dull, overcast day made the forest somewhat gloomy, although it was brightened, in places, by Alpine-like plants in fresh spring bloom.

This area of the park is part of the Rotoiti Nature Recovery Project. This project is trying to eradicate  non-native pests, like possums, stoats, ferrets, weasels, rats, mice and wasps from parcels of land that are fairly isolated and enclosed by natural obstacles. There is intensive trapping and use of poisons to achieve this, which is controversial, but, the numbers of native species have definitely recovered, to some extent, in this area at least. We were treated to an incredible example of the numbers of recovered birdlife here when we experienced the most incredible 'dawn chorus' we've ever heard. The forest surrounding the campground came alive around 5 a.m. and shut off, like somebody turned a switch, at dawn. While it was playing, there was a single bird that sounded like it was singing notes on a scale, one note rising in sequence after another, with thousands of others sweetly singing background for it. It was amazing and very lovely, beats an alarm clock any day.