Table Of Contents
TR Navigation
Other parts of this trip report:
- Part 1: Australia versus New Zealand
- Part 2: Before the walk [Melbourne photos, Hobart, Launceston]
- Part 3: Overland Track day 1, Cradle Mountain [photos]
- Part 4: Overland Track day 2, Windermere [photos]
- Part 5: Overland Track day 3, Pelion [photos]
- Part 6: Overland Track day 4, Kia Ora [photos]
- Part 7: Overland Track day 5, Bert Nichols [photos]
- Part 8: Overland Track day 6, Narcissus [photos]
- All Overland Track photos
Itinerary for Day 6 from Bert Nichols Hut to Narcissus Hut
One of the hut wardens on the track had mentioned that this was the best day to spot birds. It’s a short walk and I had been lugging my 1kg 100–400mm lens along, so I might as well try to use it. Apart from that, the main thing about today is that it’s the last day for most people (though it is also possible to walk around Lake St. Clair and a couple of people did; there was also a Quebecois woman who hiked to Pine Valley).
Most of this day’s walk is a “gradual, easy descent” in eucalpyt rainforest (hence the birds) and across buttongrass plains. The book gives a distance of 9km, though I measured 10km, with 51m elevation gain and 176m loss. Total time for me 3h58, with 1h19 stopped time. This was too slow for MP, who abandoned me to my (mostly unsuccessful) bird photography halfway and waited for me at the hut. I did, however, get a picture of a green rosella, while she saw some yellow-tailed black cockatoos.
Sunrise was at 7am and we started our walk at the crack of 0800. This isn’t New Zealand and I crossed the single swingbridge of the trip near the end, as well as seeing Mount Olympus. I’ve wanted to climb various Mount Olympuses but have actually been up approximately 0 of them. The one in Greece was inaccessible due to fire when we were there. The one in this mountain range is actually not trivial to get to, especially on a schedule.
I was trying to make up time by running on the duckboards but I took a spill and ended up with holes in my Aarn backpack’s front pouches and also in my hand.
We had actually managed to book our places on the Lake St. Clair ferry before arriving in Australia, though there was some confusion with the staff. (MP forgot that this was Australia and opened her email with “Kia ora”, which thoroughly confused the staff, despite the Overland Track containing a Kia Ora Hut). Others only managed to reserve places at the start of the walk, or even hoped that there would be spaces at the last minute (there were). The booking system isn’t the most passenger-friendly.
I got to Narcissus Hut at noon. The ferry arrived at 1pm and took 30 minutes to get to the other side of the lake, at which point we were driven directly back to our hotel in Hobart for our flight back to Wellington the next day (6am via Melbourne with eventually an excellent view of the Queen Charlotte Sounds). Dinner in Hobart at Bar Wa was quite good. Also I was confused about signs for “Procreate” but a few months later found out that it is a raster graphics editor for Apple devices.
Overall impressions
As I finally write this last part of the Overland Track trip report, the trip was almost 7 months ago. Good thing I’ve written the trip report and taken copious photos.
I’d already written quite a bit in the Australia vs NZ post so I won’t do that again. Maybe the Overland Track is most like a NZ tramp of anything in Australia due to the latitude.
The Overland Track was indeed a Great Walk, and I’m glad we went to Australia and did it. We also got really lucky with the weather. I do like the Overland’s modular nature, with a really accessible base walk, and then add-ons that could make it difficult indeed. If you have done a reasonable amount of hiking, you should also be able to do the Overland Track, and I highly recommend it.