Lake Daniells Track

From Nelson Lakes we drove south to the Marble Hill campground, which turned out to be so beautiful we spent nearly a week there. Nothing out of the ordinary for New Zealand, of course, just a beautiful river valley surrounded by vibrant bush clad hills rising to snow-capped peaks.

We camped under this towering old beech

We did another little backpacking trip from Marble Hill, hiking to Lake Daniells, where we spent two nights in a big hut there that we had all to ourselves. The trail was pretty easy and flat through the valley so we were able to really appreciate the little things along the way.

A mouse on the path. Probably a cousin of the one who took up residence in our van while we were at the lake

We especially loved the little robins with their big, black eyes, puffed out breasts, and skinny legs.

Again Lou goes for the camouflage look, this time blending in with the mineral coated hillside.

A little glimple of the Sluice Box, a short stretch of river squeezed between narrow, high bank, and turned an incredible shade of green.

In front of Lake Daniells, with all our gear

It rained the first night. This is almost the same view, but we thought it looked cool with the low clouds at dusk.

It turned out that our hike back from the lake coincided with the Dept. of Conservation’s planned day to do a massive drop of poison bait for possums over the whole area. We were woken up in the morning by the arrival of a helicopter in the grassy area between the cabin and the lake. Then, as we neared the trailhead, we were surprised to come across the scene pictured above. There were three helicopters circling the area from 8am to 8pm. Trippy.