11 days in the Olivines

Had a cracker of an 11-day walk into the Olivine Wilderness Area over new years. Unarmed, but you'd have trouble covering that much ground and still having time to hunt anyway!

Started from the Routeburn road and walked around Lake Sylvan to the Rockburn, up the Dart to the Beansburn, up the Beansburn, over Fohn Saddle to the Olivine Ledge, down the Olivine River, up Forgotten River, over Forgotten River Col to the Olivine Ice Plateau. Climbed a couple of easy peaks there (Blockade and Little Ark) as ridiculously good weather meant the snow was too soft for any steep climbing - carried ropes etc all the way and never even used them! Then back down Forgotten River, up to the Olivine Ledge, over Fiery Col and down to Cow Saddle, down Hidden Falls Creek, over Park Pass and finally down the Rockburn and out over Sugarloaf Pass.

Got all that? Have a look on the map... New Zealand Topographic Map - NZ Topo Map

Fairly big country in there, feeling a bit fitter by the end of the trip for some reason. Anyway, here is a trucking schistload of photos for whoever wants to look at them.

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1674/...2f7e990b_o.jpgBeansburn by Ben, on Flickr

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1540/...56984450_o.jpgFohn Saddle by Ben, on Flickr

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1669/...78b0f8b7_o.jpgOlivine Ledge by Ben, on Flickr

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1532/...d83983f1_o.jpgForgotten River by Ben, on Flickr

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1441/...9859fb18_o.jpgForgotten River by Ben, on Flickr

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1612/...e5bd4f20_o.jpgForgotten River headwall by Ben, on Flickr

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1632/...155ee56f_o.jpgForgotten River hotel by Ben, on Flickr

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1473/...c47f9b8e_o.jpgKea by Ben, on Flickr

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1481/...4ab4edb7_o.jpgForgotten River Col by Ben, on Flickr

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1482/...0a7a233c_o.jpgForgotten River Col by Ben, on Flickr

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1500/...bb75d0fe_o.jpgBlockade Ridge by Ben, on Flickr

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1567/...140f8a00_o.jpgOlivine Ice Plateau by night by Ben, on Flickr

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1517/...f1f39290_o.jpgOlivine Sunrise by Ben, on Flickr

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1465/...d53aa6f3_o.jpgMt Aspiring by Ben, on Flickr

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1606/...b0ecf747_o.jpgLittle Ark and Olivine Ice Plateau by Ben, on Flickr

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1461/...0216a91a_o.jpgLittle Ark by Ben, on Flickr

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1600/...a315643e_o.jpgOlivine Ice Plateau by Ben, on Flickr

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1663/...bd9077cc_o.jpgIntervention Ridge by Ben, on Flickr

^^Perspective can be deceiving - the face above is about 500m away and 500m high.

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1596/...323312ce_o.jpgForgotten River Col by Ben, on Flickr

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1609/...dea85a86_o.jpgIntervention Ridge by Ben, on Flickr

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1638/...f23d34f1_o.jpgSunrise over Memorial Icefall by Ben, on Flickr

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1476/...18351ba4_o.jpgBlue Pool by Ben, on Flickr

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1663/...a3e86d32_o.jpgClarity by Ben, on Flickr

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1714/...56127d3e_o.jpgBlue Pool by Ben, on Flickr

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1575/...79295276_o.jpgOlivine Ledge by Ben, on Flickr

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1498/...cd7d14fb_o.jpgKea in the wind by Ben, on Flickr

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1683/...70c83992_o.jpgFiery Col by Ben, on Flickr

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1696/...fb5aa1bb_o.jpgOlivine Ledge by Ben, on Flickr

^^I Like how this one shows a few of the places we went - Olivine Ledge, the clearing at the Forgotten/Olivine confluence down the valley, the snowy peak of Ark peeking over the ridge in the top right.

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1616/...2e22441d_o.jpgFiery Col by Ben, on Flickr

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1565/...40fcca64_o.jpgCow Saddle by Ben, on Flickr

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1548/...2c531a46_o.jpgHidden Falls creek by Ben, on Flickr

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1638/...ce0a26e1_o.jpgPark Pass by Ben, on Flickr

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1695/...e7ab1be7_o.jpgSugarloaf Pass by Ben, on Flickr

More photos here too for anyone who isn't sick of looking yet: https://www.flickr.com/gp/gravelben/31452P

Superb :thumbsup: Man what an awesome trip.....anyhows did you see any furry creatures?

:cool:

Wow, awesome mate, some of the best, if not the best set of photos I've seen on this forum.......huge thanks for sharing. ...

Took me back to the two attempts I made on Mt Aspiring, failed both times........brill :thumbsup:

Great fotos mate. Awesome country. Did you see much in the way of animals at all?

:cool:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mathias

Superb :thumbsup: Man what an awesome trip.....anyhows did you see any furry creatures?

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Mate spotted a chamois plodding across the plateau and looking about as enthusiastic about post-holing soft snow as I was, but I was on the wrong side of the ridge at the time and missed it.

No 4-legged animals seen apart from that, but we weren't spending much time looking and didn't have binos with us. Heaps of fresh sign on the flats at the Olivine/Forgotten confluence including some pretty big stag prints.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Scouser

Took me back to the two attempts I made on Mt Aspiring, failed both times........brill :thumbsup:

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I know that feeling, was planning to climb it 2 summers ago and slipped a disk a week before the trip! Its still on the list though ;)

Cracker, The night shot in the olivines is the titties, good job.

Truly epic trip and photos, thanks for sharing

Awesome effort to cover that much and type of ground. Awesome pics.
I know that country well and have hunted a lot of it on foot and by machine.

I see you mentioned Helicopters flying below 500 in a wilderness area in another thread.
If on Waro they can pretty much do what they want including landings. If not on waro they are not supposed to.

Unless it was early morning or late evening I doubt they were hunting. But if they have a Waro concession they will just say they were if confronted.




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Beautiful pictures. Epic trip alright!!:cool::cool:

Awesome thanks for sharing:cool:

Great

@R93 - I think the Aspiring National Park management plan says no WARO concessions in the wilderness area now? But they all looked to be tourist helicopters on the Queenstown-Milford scenic loop anyway. We counted 12 low heli flights over the plateau in one day.

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1673/...db33ca0b_o.jpgIllegal low flying over a wilderness area by Ben, on Flickr

One of the other guys made a sign to show them... pilot hovered to read the sign, and there were only a couple flying past the next day :ORLY:

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1617/...ba524fc5_o.jpgDSC_3023 by Ben, on Flickr

Terrific.

Maybe the have closed it or certain areas of the park. It never used to have any waro restrictions. Yeah I have no doubt they were loopy flights. To be honest I have done hundreds of loopy flights through that whole area and I tried to do them as fast as I could as I hated doing them.
Every now and then a few hotties would come up and I drew those rides out, as long as possible.
Had 2 German girls get their gear off when we landed in the snow once. I had to take pictures for them and everything. Twas horrible:D

Haha tough life eh!

I reckon the worst part of the whole trip was the bushbash between the north end of the Olivine Ledge and the Olivine River/Sunset Creek junction. Just over 1km, 500m height loss and it took us about 5 bloody hours to get through it. Bush lawyer, bluffs and big packs are an unpleasant combination.

Terrific trip and photos bro, thanks.

Shit hot

Magic!!!

Absolutely stunning pictures thanks for posting.

Awesome! Cool photos.

Very :cool:

Great trip ---- good stuff

That was really neat mate, I love the photo of the kea in the wind!

Cheers fellas, glad to be able to share it.

Brings back a few memories from a trip we did in there about 25 years ago. Dad was doing geological mapping in the area so we flew in and stayed about a week on the Plateau, also climbed Little Ark as well as an attempt at Darkness.
Also done the 3 passes so been over Park pass and Sugarloaf so seen a bit of that part of the world.
Thanks for sharing

Fantastic country good weather too lucky sod !

Epic:cool: