tramping new zealand

Fox township is superficially similar to earlier visits, but the glacier has since melted, and the place is now occasionally dominated by the buzzing of helicopters as visitors are transported to the glacier by air. The ice is now a few kilometres back up the valley from when I saw it during its 1980s advance.

Franz is, of course, similar, except the extensive grass river flats up near the glacier have been washed out into a gravel/boulder field.

I wanted to claim another hutbagger trophy, although you get a second for free with the Cape Defiance Hut relocated to the car park.

I was aiming for Hende‘s Hut, which is a relatively easy walk on the true right of the Waiho River that drains the valley. It’s just a shelter, but it has something of interest: having been built in 1907, it features considerable ancient graffiti, much of which is over 100 years old. The legendary mountain guide Alex Graham’s name is prominent.

This may come as a surprise to some, but the graphite from pencil leads reacts with the zinc galvanising coating on the steel to create a permanent mark. I’ve seen much similar graffiti over the years, of considerable vintage, such as World War I soldiers on training exercises before being sent to Europe in 1917 at Bridge Hut on the St James Cycleway.

The earliest date at Hende’s was 1911, but there may be older inscriptions if a more thorough survey is conducted.

On the way back, I decided to take a shortcut across the valley floor, which involved scrambling down to the valley floor, then about six ankle-deep river braids to get through. I’d seen that the river was very low when crossing the long suspension bridge over the Waiho.

I had booked the cheapest non-dorm room in town, but when I arrived, there were so few people around that I was upgraded to a room with an ensuite for no extra charge. They even threw in a delicious muffin.

Yeah, can cope with that.