John Hayward Hut and back

I love the walk up the Kowai to John Hayward hut, nestled on its terrace at the foot of Mt Torlesse.

On 19 Oct 1991 I'd biked out from town and walked up to visit the hut. I was just into cycling then but that walk rekindled my love for tramping

Today we only had Sunday morning to spare as we wanted to be back in town to inspect an 'open home' at 2.oo pm. Tagging along for part of Erik's trip seemed much more friendly that just going off somewhere by ourselves.

Our arrival made Erik's team up to twelve. Erik, Jolanda, Joy and Alastair I'd tramped with before, but Helen, Colleen, Tim, Andrew, Brent and Ken were new tramping buddies for me.

We drove out through Springfield and parked at the Lone Pine carpark at the bottom of Porters Pass.

The sun was blazing strongly in a warm and windless day as we set off up the Kowai.

Ahead of us, the looming shingle pile of Torlesse shimmered hazy blue at the head of the valley. Only a thin line of winter snow remained on the lee edge of its summit ridge.

An initial walk across grassy flats with scattered patches of matagouri scrub brought us to the stony Kowai river bed. I usually prefer to walk on the higher terrace track but it made more sense on such a warm day to cool the feet criss-crossing in the sparkling stream.

It only took an hour and a bit to get to the hut. We sprawled there on the grass for a chatty snack.

That was as far as Honora and I were going. Erik planned taking the team up onto the Bob's Knob ridge. We left them to it and turned for home.

On the way out we met a young Danish man walking in to climb Torlesse.

It was a shame to have return to town early when it was such a perfect day. However Honora and I had made a decision that promised other exiting possibilities for us, and the mountains would still be here next weekend.