Time: 4 hours
Distance: 11.4 km
Start: State Highway 73, small carpark at the hair-pin bend as you climb the hill to Porters Pass
Finish: Same place (it's there and back)
Date: Friday 29th January 2021
Warning: Closed for lambing in spring (October 1st to November 20th according to the sign at the start of the track). Also apparently this walk is unpleasant in a howling Nor' Wester!!
On State Highway 73, at the very edge of the Canterbury Plains, just at the point where the road climbs that enormous hill to Porters Pass, there is a small, easy-to-miss car park with a DOC sign "Korowai/Torlesse Tussocklands Park". This is the beginning of the Coach Stream Route to Trig M: a climb that goes straight up to an inconspicuous hill surrounded by much bigger, and today snow covered, hills: The foothills of the Southern Alps.
It was 9 am when we turned into the car park and rugged up. Boots and puffer jackets on. The rather nippy 9 degrees was a far cry from the previous two days that had seen Cantabrians sweltering in 36 degrees. But the Southerly had swept through in the night and there were now blue skies and a blanketing of snow. No wind. Sun shining. Perfect conditions.
DOC have an information pamphlet about the Korowai/Torlesse Tussocklands Park which can be downloaded as a pdf here. Korowai means "cloak" in Te Reo Māori. Symbolising perhaps ironically "togetherness". Charles Torlesse was an early surveyor who was guided by local Māori. Did these people know how history would subsequently unfold? The path they first trod in 1849 eventually became a rough and ready road - these days referred to as the Old Coach Road. The surrounding lands were divided up for the European settlers. The Cobb & Co company used hardy horses to brutally haul their coaches across Arthur's Pass to the West Coast goldfields. Tough times.
Without wetting our feet we leapt Coach Stream, a remnant of the Old Coach Road, and set off up the hill and soon began shedding layers. It's a bit of a slog, but a pleasant one. We stopped for photo opportunities. At the brow of the hill we got our first panorama of snow covered alps. Spectacular. Then higher up we could see far down the valley to Lake Lyndon. The remnants of a glacier and now a jewel on the landscape. The shores of the lake were well exposed - years of drought.
After exactly two hours we standing on the top at Trig M (1251 m) taking in the panorama of snow-capped mountains in the distance. Beautiful!!
We decided to take a slightly different off-piste route back down to the car. This started as the Starvation Gully Track but then we followed the fence line down the steep ridge. Obviously others had also had the same idea because there was a fairly clear track which only petered out at the point where we had to traverse across towards and slightly below State Highway 73 - the Great Alpine Highway. From this point we scuttled through a stream/slip and then climbed steeply out the other side and onto a farm track which led us easily back to the car park. A nice loop.
We headed to The Yellow Shack Cafe. The place has seen better days and is greatly in need of some TLC. The slightly severe lady who sold the homemade pies is gone and it has the feel that there are new owners who may or may not nurture it back to its former glory. Watch this space [Ed's note May 2024: the cafe has been closed for some time]. The flat whites and peach muffins where great though!
