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I HAD an adventure of quite a different kind when I went tramping and climbing in the Gertrude Valley, in Fiordland National Park. Nestled underneath the Darran Mountain Range, the valley is reached from a carpark that turns off the Milford Road just before the eastern entrance to the Homer Tunnel.
The Gertrude Saddle, at the head of the valley, has great scenic views down toward Milford Sound/Piopiotahi. It is, however, potentially quite hazardous and needs to be approached with care, and only in good weather. The track up the Gertrude Valley and the final route to the saddle are one-way and return, as the western side of the Gertrude Saddle is basically a cliff.
I went with my sister Maree. We stayed in a tent outside the Homer Hut near the start of the Gertrude Saddle Track. This hut is owned by the New Zealand Alpine Club and is a simple, functional place with thirty bunk beds and no showers. It opened in 1965 and was refurbished in the summer of 2005–06.
The New Zealand Alpine Club has many dedicated members who look after their huts, which is becoming very important with DOC pulling out of maintaining the huts. Often when this happens, a person will adopt a hut and become responsible for its maintenance just to stop it from falling into disrepair.
Many rock climbers stay at Homer Hut because the nearby Darran Mountain Range is a great area for rock-climbing. With the proximity of the hut to Mount Talbot, Mount Crosscut and Mount Moir, climbers have plenty of options for one-day trips or can venture further into the mountain range for longer climbing trips such as the guided five-day North Buttress of Sabre, or the overnight climb to Mitre Peak.
While at the Homer Hut, I tried rock climbing and bouldering, which is when you climb around a boulder rather than up a rockwall. I met a climber by the name of Paul Rogers who had put the bolts on some of the rock walls in the 1980s, a pioneering feat which would have taken a lot of work.
Maree and I went up the Gertrude Saddle, which is quite ahard walk through the valley and up steep rock slabs and boulders. But it’s very picturesque, so we had to pause for a few photo breaks. It’s about a five-hour or seven-kilometre return trip and, when you reach the top of the mountain, you get a beautiful view of the Gertrude Valley and part of Milford Sound/Piopiotahi.
On the way up, we met a group of young native Americans who had brought an American flag with them to take photos with, one they said symbolised the Iroquois nation, not the USA. It wasn’t a conventional view of the flag, so they taught us a few things. As we climbed up, it became slippery and icy and I slipped and fell on my kneecap. It was not an easy hike and, when I think about it, I was lucky not to have broken my kneecap. The American boys helped me up to the top, and I got a photo taken with them and their flag. They were a little bit coy at first and asked, ‘Do you mind having a photo taken under the US flag?’ But I didn’t mind at all.
I love Homer Hut and the Gertrude Valley and have actually been out there about five times now. One of the more recent times was when I got the wrong date for an ice climbing weekend. I had read that the Ice Climbing Festival was 10–18 July, but I was stressed out about something and got muddled, turning up on the 20th.
The trip wasn’t a total washout, though, because I ended up spending the night in a deserted Homer Hut by myself. It was fantastic. The hut was full of wood and coal, so I had a blazing fire and there was a full moon out as well. I really enjoyed myself.
I love to go down with snow tyres on my four-wheel drive, so I can drive over the snow to the hut. It really is beautiful in winter and I do need to make a return visit soon.
I have also done a bit of rock climbing outside of Queenstown in a place called Gorge Road, and also at Wye Creek, about twenty minutes’ drive from Queenstown. That spectacular spot offers beautiful views of the Queenstown area. There is also a walking track near Wye Creek where people take their dogs and then go climbing.
Though I would not call myself a serious rock climber, I love freedom climbing with my pack and I’ve navigated some quite dangerous areas while up in the mountains. I think women generally underestimate their abilities as to what they can do. Still, I’m just a beginner compared to some other people.
Here is the New Zealand Department of Conservation (DOC) page on the Gertrude Saddle. DOC emphasises the hazardous qualities of the saddle, and the page includes a safety handout. A 2018 Wilderness Magazine story describes how a couple of people had fallen to their deaths over bluffs lately, after taking wrong turnings on descent.
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