54 days into Fiordland

Dreams don't come easy.

Honora and Janet Macnab were 54 days into Fiordland, after leaving the south coast just before Xmas 1994. For a 32 day stretch they saw no track or other people. Two days after this Janet's badly infected leg meant an emergency evacuation, and the end of the dream.

Honora told the story of their incredible journey in a presentation at the Christchurch Tramping Club the other night.

In '94 Janet had asked me to join her on a South-North traverse of the Southern Alps. I couldn't take 6 months off work and said no. That was such a stupid thing to do. When Honora was asked she didn't need to think about it.

Janet planned right from the start to do it complete. That meant going through the centre of Fiordland. Very few have got through there.

Honora and Janet faced up to the steep and jumbled terrain, the heinous scrub, the atrocious weather, the horrendous loads, the scanty route information and got to within a week or so of reaching the Milford Track.

A year later they both went back to the Glaisnock Wilderness to complete that short section. Janet fell and died while climbing steep slopes to a pass out of Taheke Creek.

Comments

[Adrian Barr]

I remember hearing about this. Tragic and terrible, (the Greeks would see it as a appropriately heroic death for such a warrior). Still, my God, what country to see, what wilderness to be in. Having spent ages pouring over Fiordland maps looking at the likes of the Longburn, Wild Natives, Stillwater etc, and having done a comparatively modest 12-day trip over Hunter pass and through the Dark and Light rivers, the thought of that amount of time in that sort of country is exciting, compelling and fear-invoking all at the same time. Would have loved to see the presentation. RIP Janet.

[Adrian Barr]

Pardon my curiosity, Frank, but do you know where the photo was taken??

Cheers, Adrian

[Frank]

The photo was taken climbing out of the head of the Wapiti River. Moments before, Janet had been leaning against that rock crying from the pain of her injured leg. They carried on. A few hundred metres later, while sidling to Edith Saddle, they came upon a Takahe. The rewards are sublime.

Now, Hunter Pass into the Dark and the Light valleys? That country was long on my dream list.