Lake Mavis

Lake Mavis is an alpine lake in Arthur’s Pass National Park.  It lies below the summit of Mt Oates. For me, it was a bucket list hike that I had been keen to do for a while.  The idea of camping next to this body of water at 1600m surrounded by mountains sounded like a dream come true. The trip isn’t the easiest, however.  There is a well-marked track that follows right the way from the start to Goat Pass. From this point on it becomes a different game as you scale scree slopes, following only your instincts to reach Lake Mavis.  Experience in off-route navigation coupled with a good level of fitness is essential to comfortably complete this trip.

In Detail

The walk into Lake Mavis covers a variety of terrain and is best accessed in the summer and Autumn months when the snow has disappeared from the surroundings. The days are longer and warmer during this period making the lake more accessible. It is a challenging overnight hike but is well worth the reward once you make it to your camp for the night. There are plenty of campsites that can be located around the edge of the lake. Ensure that if you are planning to camp on the rocky edges of the lake that you bring a ground sheet or a tarpaulin to protect the underside of your tent to stop the rocks from piercing holes.

Getting There

The track to Lake Mavis starts from the Greneys Shelter Campsite just before Arthur’s Pass township. From Christchurch take Old West Coast Road from just after Yaldhurst right the way through to Waddington then follow State Highway 73 right the way through to Arthur’s Pass National Park. There is a long bridge that crosses over the Waimakariri River to look out for just before you begin travelling north. Soon after the bridge keep an eye out on your left for Greyney’s Shelter marked by a khaki green and yellow DOC sign.

Route

Lake Mavis is located in the heart of  Arthur’s Pass 1600m above sea level. To get to the start of the track, follow SH73 until you reach Greyney’s shelter, located just off from the highway before Arthur’s Pass township.  There are toilets and plenty of space to camp. It is an ideal place to rest and get prepared for your big adventure out into the wild. If you are short of time and you are travelling through Arthur’s Pass be sure to check out Avalanche Peak marked by the orange trail on the map below.

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Weather

ARTHUR’S PASS WEATHER

Journey to Lake Mavis

The track starts after crossing SH73, following a long stopbank, later diverging up the Mingha valley.  A few of the crew decided to walk the start of the track in sandals, saving their dry boots for the latter part of the journey.  Looking back, the stones in our sandals and the numerous river crossings flagged this idea as not to be repeated if we were to come back to do this walk again.

There is a well-marked track along the river-bed and crosses many rivers before it regains a trail in the bush. This is where you reach a climb to Dudley Knob. By the time we reached the climb to the knob, our stomachs were giving a growl (at least mine definitely was). We decided to push on thinking that it wouldn’t be too much farther before we reached a good spot for lunch. This turned out to be quite a bit further than we had anticipated.

The track first lurches up after heading into the bush and we had to use roots and branches to help with this section the haul up the hill.  The highest point along this part of the track is marked by a little space to the side, where there is plenty of room to let you and the rest of your crew rest up.

Forest climbs for warming the legs

There is a well-marked track along the river-bed and crosses many rivers before it regains a trail in the bush. This is where you reach a climb to Dudley Knob. By the time we reached the climb to the knob, our stomachs were giving a growl (at least mine definitely was). We decided to push on thinking that it wouldn’t be too much farther before we reached a good spot for lunch. This turned out to be quite a bit further than we had anticipated.

The track first lurches up after heading into the bush and we had to use roots and branches to help with this section the haul up the hill.  The highest point along this part of the track is marked by a little space to the side, where there is plenty of room to let you and the rest of your crew rest up.

Mingha Bivouac

Since posting about this hike Mingha Bivvy has been rebuilt by a group of volunteers. You can see the latest photos of the hut on Hut Bagger. The hut has a woodshed at the ready and a fireplace to warm the hut. There are not any mattresses in the hut so bring your own sleeping mat for a comfier nights sleep. When we were passing by we did feel a few sandflies bite. Ensure you pack some insect repellent if you are going to spend the night here.

It wasn’t far to Kennedy Falls from the hut.  Standing at 150m high they were spectacular! We stood there for a few moments and gawked at how high the water plunged down.  A steady uphill gradient came on as we climbed to the top of Goat Pass.  The Coast-to-Coast race runs along this track, it has had a lot of infrastructure work done to stop it from deteriorating so fast (such as boardwalks) which makes it a lot more accessible and safer for people.

An Unmarked Route to Paradise

Just before reaching Goat Pass there are two cairns that mark the start of an undefined route up to the top of Lake Mavis.  The first 100m involves scrub bashing to get to the tail of the scree slope. The scree slope is not marked on the map but is visible from the start track.  As you ascend, stick to the right of the scree slope, grabbing hold of the tussock as an anchor.

The head of the scree slope takes a right turn as the chute opens up.  Take a right and then follow the ridge for a few hundred meters. From here there is a more distinctive ridge that follows the way up to the lake as seen in the map below.  If you follow the ridge then you can’t go too wrong. Once you pass the outlet of Lake Mavis it is time to travel eastbound until you reach the lake.

The head of the scree slope takes a right turn as the chute opens up.  Take a right and then follow the ridge for a few hundred meters. From here there is a more distinctive ridge that follows the way up to the lake as seen in the map below.  If you follow the ridge then you can’t go too wrong. Once you pass the outlet of Lake Mavis it is time to travel eastbound until you reach the lake. The image below gives a visual explanation of our route travelled.

Lake Mavis

By the time we reached Lake Mavis, there was a couple that had set camp on the South Western end of the lake, however, there was another quite reasonable camping spot at the Nor western end of the lake.  Next, to the inlet of Lake Mavis, we were able to see right out over the mountains to Blimit and Mt Cassidy. It was an incredible spot to camp. The lake water was cool and refreshing, though only two of us took a quick dip in the water.

Sunrise was absolutely popping the next morning, the clouds had come in the previous night and left a few gaps in the clouds that turned a bright colour of pink.  It took us a while to roll out of bed and tidy breakfast up along with all our gear. The clouds kept rolling in while we woke, dropping visibility.

Return Journey

The walk down didn’t go as planned. The cloud came down thick so it wasn’t the easiest to make out the route that we had taken yesterday.  There are no markers that show the exact track that leads up to Lake Mavis, however, there are a number of cairns that mark a route to the lake.

We managed to descend to the same scree slope that we had come up.  From that point, we knew were on track and on our way home. It’s difficult to describe this part of the journey much more as it was hardly visible so it was difficult to guide the crew down the slope back to Goat Pass.

The scree slope was not the easiest to descend. Ensuring that we didn’t slide too far and take a fall proved a challenge.  Descending down the scree slope like a skier, making sideways turns helped. In hindsight I think going down through the scrub alongside the scree would have been a safer idea.  It was a hobble to Goat Pass Hut trying to get the stones out of our shoes.

Goat Pass – Greyneys Shelter

Goat Pass hut is the midpoint on the Mingha/Deception track that many people complete as part of Coast to Coast.  The cloud continued to roll in and would leash itself around the mountains. It was a spectacular sight as we waited for a mate to come back from taking a few shots up on the saddle.  Goat Pass Hut has 20 bunks and provides plenty of comfort for the fellow traveler. We sat, ate some tasty snacks Gonative apple and mango fruit bites and headed down the track to find our supposedly lost team-mate. The man of the moment was found taking a few more shots coming down Goat Pass hut.

The walkout was a hard and fast trek, as we attempted to make it back before the rain came in.   We skipped lunch and were motivated to make it out from the valley and have a big feed at the car.  A number of times we stopped and ate more snacks from GoNative, muesli bars and scroggin to keep the spirits high.  Getting under the train track, through the tunnel and back to Greyney’s Shelter was like coming home.  Seemed like a week ago.

Would like to make a special mention of Matt Harvey for taking the cover photo of this blog post, definitely go check out his Instagram profile and his Facebook page.