Lake Daniells

Lake Daniells / Manson Nicholls Memorial Hut Track.

Over the weekend Matias and I decided to kick Spring off with this easy two day tramp. We decided to leave Christchurch at 5:30am Saturday allowing us to arrive at the car park (located in Lewis Pass) around 8am. We started our walk as the morning sun flooded through the forest with the birds singing – you could tell that Spring had finally arrived!

As we progressed along the track we found it to be incredibly well kept with boardwalks over most marshy areas and only one tiny stream crossing. There were also a few places for us to stop at streams and use our water purifier to refill our bottles.

Unfortunately for us the trout fishing season for Lake Daniells doesn’t open until October 1st. We managed to sneak up on 3 big rainbow trout in the Fraser stream just before Lake Daniells and then saw more trout in the lake itself. I will definitely be going back in October!

We were the first to arrive at Manson Nicholls Memorial Hut at 11am. This well-positioned, serviced hut offers the perfect spot to stay while at Lake Daniells with a fairly big patch of grass out the front overlooking the lake. This fantastic hut has water on tap, a fireplace you can cook on, 2 bunk rooms with 12 beds in each, and even lever powered toilets – as far as huts go this is pretty glamorous!

Soon after we arrived at the hut we whipped up some lunch and a cuppa and headed out to the lake jetty to play cards in the sun and enjoy the view. The solitude was fleeting as this is a very popular track and hut, we ended up being joined by 19 lovely people (a few families and some couples). Luckily this hut offered plenty of beds for us all, although it was a snug fit (which is probably a good thing since there was a moderate frost in the morning and we all stayed toasty warm). 

We awoke at 6am to pots clanging as the 10 kids in the hut were up and ready to start Father’s day celebrations. So after a quick coffee and breakfast we got packed up and were off for a walk to the far side of the lake. It took us under an hour to arrive, we found the track to be a bit rugged unlike the other, with some dense areas especially near the end. It was totally worth it as we were finally greeted with a clearing and a lovely wee beach. We set ourselves up for a morning of reading as the sun crept through the trees and mounted high into the sky. After lunch, we decided we’d better make our way back to the car and head home.

The walk out was just as gorgeous and as the walk in, but this time we were lucky enough to see a pair of nesting tuis and a beautiful NZ wood pigeon amongst all the other regulars – fantails, bellbirds and some very friendly south island robins. We got back to the car at 3:30 which left plenty of time to get back to Christchurch for work on Monday.

All in all this was a fantastic walk that I would highly recommend doing whether you’re new to tramping or if you’ve been doing this for years – this track never gets old and will always be one of my favorites!

- Zena Calvert