Gillespie Pass Circuit

[wildwanderer]

Hoping someone who has done this walk or is familiar with it can answer some questions. Im planning to do the walk in late November.

- How easy is to camp along the trail? Are there good spots near to the Young/Makarora River junction? I’l be coming via bus and the bus schedule is not optimal for arriving at Young hut on the first night.

- Do I need to treat the water along the route?

- Whats temps should I expect in late Nov? (in the mtns)

- Is there any mobile phone reception or communication options along the route? Im a bit concerned about rain/snow melt and needing to stay longer than planned due to a river being too dangerous to cross etc. So ideally id like to be able to send a msg to a family member to reschedule hotel/international flights/jetboat should it be needed.

- How accurate are the track notes for walk time to destination. (track note times listed below)

So far, my plan is

Day 1 Arrive by bus at noon. cross Makarora R (by foot or jetboat depending on R). Camp along trail.
Day 2. Walk to Young Hut. (10km-20km depending on how far I get Day 1)
Day 3. Young to Siberia hut (12km 6-8 hour according to track notes)
Day 4. Day trip to Crucible lake (14km 6-8 hour return)
Day 5. Siberia hut to Makarora R (22km, 6- 8 hour) camp at junction Young/Makarora R
Day 6. Cross Makarora R (either by foot or jetboat) and connect with lunchtime bus.
Day 6 . Delayed option. Get early morning jetboat from Kerin Forks to Makarora. 2-3 hours walking, 2.5 hour jet boat.

- Should I reduce the trip by one day and walk down from Siberia hut to Kerin Forks (2-3 hours) in the early AM on Day 5? Get a 10 am early morning jet boat (if available). But this would mean leaving Siberia hut at aprox 7am. Would it still be dark at that time? If so any dangers in walking down in dark?

- Or is it better to have the extra day up my sleeve in case Im delayed by bad weather?

[Walk_fat boy_walk]

Hoping someone who has done this walk or is familiar with it can answer some questions. Im planning to do the walk in late November.

Did this last year at a similar time of year, with a few extra days exploring the upper Wilkin as well.

- How easy is to camp along the trail? Are there good spots near to the Young/Makarora River junction? I’l be coming via bus and the bus schedule is not optimal for arriving at Young hut on the first night.

Good camping at lots of places, including just upstream from the bridge across the Young north branch (has a toilet, otherwise toilets are only at huts), upper Young area in the 'bowl' near the bottom of Gillespie Pass (plenty of spots), Gillespie Stream about 1/2 of the way between GP and Siberia Valley (obvious grassy area near where you first hit the stream), the camp at the bottom of GP track on the Siberia side (in the treeline near the Gillespie/Siberia confluence, just where the track flattens out from a lot of downhill), lots of places in Siberia valley and around the jet boat pick up area across from KF hut. Also a couple of hours upstream from KF on the Wilkin at wonderland flat is a fantastic camping site if you're inclined to do a bit of a side trip. Can't remember specifically a site at the Young/Makarora confluence but if you head up the Young track there are some good flats about an hour in between the confluence and the north branch camp (and there's probably a site or two somewhere beforehand, just can't remember any).

- Do I need to treat the water along the route?

As will most NZ alpine areas, probably not, but can't hurt. I generally throw a puritab in. There are tanks at the huts.

- Whats temps should I expect in late Nov? (in the mtns)

Can get anything so need to keep an eye on the forecast (not helpful I know, but Mt. Aspiring area in Nov can be anything from blizzard to scorching sunshine).

- Is there any mobile phone reception or communication options along the route? Im a bit concerned about rain/snow melt and needing to stay longer than planned due to a river being too dangerous to cross etc. So ideally id like to be able to send a msg to a family member to reschedule hotel/international flights/jetboat should it be needed.

I keep my phone off while out walking, so can't answer that, but if you need a jetboat they run to a (generally daily) schedule. Can check with them in Makarora beforehand (or give them a call) to get a handle of confirmed timings.

- How accurate are the track notes for walk time to destination. (track note times listed below)

(Stating the obvious) walk times vary from person to person, but as track notes go, the DoC ones are as accurate as any.

So far, my plan is

Day 1 Arrive by bus at noon. cross Makarora R (by foot or jetboat depending on R). Camp along trail.
Day 2. Walk to Young Hut. (10km-20km depending on how far I get Day 1)
Day 3. Young to Siberia hut (12km 6-8 hour according to track notes)
Day 4. Day trip to Crucible lake (14km 6-8 hour return)
Day 5. Siberia hut to Makarora R (22km, 6- 8 hour) camp at junction Young/Makarora R
Day 6. Cross Makarora R (either by foot or jetboat) and connect with lunchtime bus.
Day 6 . Delayed option. Get early morning jetboat from Kerin Forks to Makarora. 2-3 hours walking, 2.5 hour jet boat.

Your itinerary looks sound, although Crucible from Siberia is only a half day trip, so you can push on to Kerin Forks in the afternoon if you want; even more do-able if you camp at near the Gillespie/Siberia junction amongst the trees where the Gillespie Pass track emerges into Siberia Valley at the bottom of the hill (mentioned above), since this removes an hour of backtracking from Siberia hut to get to Crucible. Also, KF down the Wilkin to Makarora is a bit of a boring trudge and most people take the jet from KF (daily departures... around lunchtime but would need to confirm the actual time).

- Should I reduce the trip by one day and walk down from Siberia hut to Kerin Forks (2-3 hours) in the early AM on Day 5? Get a 10 am early morning jet boat (if available). But this would mean leaving Siberia hut at aprox 7am. Would it still be dark at that time? If so any dangers in walking down in dark?

Plenty of daylight at 7 am. In any case, because they do tourist day trips (fly in to Siberia, walk to KF, jetboat out) the section of track between Siberia and KF is pretty much a footpath (think 'great walk' standard), bit of a juxtaposition to the rest of the tracks in the area. Can easily do it in 2 hours and the standard of track would be suitable by head torch in the dark either way. Again, you should check with the jet operator to make sure there will be a departure on that day/time.

- Or is it better to have the extra day up my sleeve in case Im delayed by bad weather?

If you have confirmed that the jet is running on your last day, you have that contingency anyway really, noting my above comment that you can easily role crucible and Siberia to KF into a single day if needed.

Couple of other points... Quite a few unbridged river crossings to watch out for after heavy rain, particularly if crossing the Wilkin IVO KF area (if you do need to cross to KF hut, head downstream to the jet boat pick up and go across via the gravel island in the middle using the obvious shallow points... note though that this info is 12 months old and the river can completely change with heavy floods). Also depending on snow conditions need to be aware of the avalanche risk around GP.

Shame you don't have an extra couple of days to head upstream from KF on the Wilkin and check out the top forks/north Wilkin lakes area... spectacular country (lots more river crossing too )

Hope this helps.

[wildwanderer]

Thanks for all this excellent information. Really appreciate it!

I wish I did have more time as yes the top forks/north wilkin lakes look amazing. Next trip!

[wayno]

weather can do absolutely anything from one day to the next, that includes snow, if often snows in november and even december. not usually in massive amounts, but its accompanied by very strong winds, the windchill and getting wet is the issue.
people look at the temps in NZ and think its not that bad, but its one of the windiest places in the world.

the vast majority of the route has no cell phone coverage at all.
the only place you MIGHT get it is near the road. mountains block cell phone signals extremely effectively and they don't put cell phone towers around the mountains for trampers...

[wildwanderer]

Whats the wind like in the young and siberia valleys? (river level) I'l be camping for a couple of nights (river level).

If I can expect 60km/h+ winds I'l bring a sturdier (but heavier) tent setup.

[wayno]

Whats the wind like in the young and siberia valleys? (river level) I'l be camping for a couple of nights (river level).

If I can expect 60km/h+ winds I'l bring a sturdier (but heavier) tent setup.

easily exceeded, the valleys are wind tunnels

[Drew]

My partner and I are heading to Queenstown in late Feb for a couple of weeks. Rough plan is to do the Gillespie Pass walk, then hire a car to visit Doubtful and Milford Sounds, then do the Rees/Dart walk.

I'm trying to nut out the details now and I'm finding the logistics of planning for Gillespie a little challenging due to all the variables of river crossings, jet boats, public transport etc. One tricky part is the last day options of 1) catching the jet boat from Kerin Forks to Makarora vs 2) walking out to Makarora including crossing the river. From looking at a few trip reports online it seems that most people opt for the jetboat, but not sure if this is just because the walk is a bit of a trudge. I must admit that I balk a bit at the cost of it ($280) but the river crossing also sounds a bit intimidating! I thought that catching the jetboat was the only option if we want to catch a 12:45pm bus back to Queenstown, although earlier comments in this thread suggesting we could do Crucible Lake sidetrip AND walk down to Kerin Forks in one day could change that equation.

I guess I'm curious about how common it is for the river to be moderately (or more) dangerous to cross at that time of year? If the weather forecast was bad then we probably wouldn't do Gillespie Pass at all (Greenstone/Caples is the backup idea). If the weather is decent then I assume the crossings should be okay.

We're considering hiring a car to give us more wriggle room with timing, taking bus timetables out of the equation.

Sorry, bit of a rambly post, but any advice/clarification around options for the final day would be appreciated.

[wayno]

river could flood at absolutely any time of year..... no shortage of rain so far, the lakes are pretty full, they are going to have to spill water out of the hydro dams
caples and greenstone huts must be booked and will be busy in summer

[Drew]

Thanks wayno.

Yeah, I know that the rivers could flood at any time but I suppose I'm just wondering how common it is, for example if a lot of people plan to cross but ended up having to change plans, and whether it's more commonly a spring/early summer thing. But if it's been pretty wet then maybe we should just budget for the jetboat and factor that into our planning.

Re booking, I was planning to book Siberia Hut and keep an eye on bookings for Greenstone/Caples (heaps of availability now) and book those too if they start filling up (plus take camping gear).

[wayno]

can't predict it, theres no typical summer, some are dry some are very wet, some are in between, the weather patterns shift from year to year... people come through and say oh NZ was great in summer it hardly rained.... and people see that online and plan for that then they come over and get hammered by a wet summer... its been snowing until pretty recently the kepler was closed for a week in november opened and then snowed again... global warming here is making it a lot wetter when it does rain. more big floods, getting the jetboat is the last of your worries theres been a lot of track damage on various tracks. but global warming can bring bigger droughts...

[wayno]

storm forecast for later this month

https://metvuw.com/forecast/forecast.ph ... oofdays=10

[Aardvark]

It's a tediously long walk from Kerin Forks to Makarora and once you pay for the jet boat you won't be sorry you missed the walk. In the scheme of things that's not a lot of money.
I was lucky enough once to be able to cross the Makarora to start up the Young valley but getting the boat is quicker and more convenient.
My partner and i hitched back to Wanaka once but we waited a couple of hours.

[wayno]

the bridges at Blue pools are due to reopen at some stage this summer.... once they are open DOC will either remove the alert for the bridges being out on the gilespie circuit webpage or post another alert stating they are open.

[wayno]

that part of the country gets rain storms and you can measure the rainfall in hundreds of mm then all of a sudden it can all be over.... because of the valley system and you're relatively close to the headwaters, seldom more than 30km, the rivers rise very fast and very high... depends on your patients because once the rain stops they can drop fast too. go from impassable to passable in an hour or two. it all comes down to how much time you have to wait...

[Drew]

go from impassable to passable in an hour or two. it all comes down to how much time you have to wait...

Not much time unfortunately, so looks like the jetboat is the go. Especially if the walk is long and boring as Aardvark suggest. Thanks!