Patrick Lam 
I spent my copious free time in March writing a trip report for our Cascade Saddle tramp in February. It sure is scenic. #NZ #tramping #SouthernAlps
https://patricklam.ca/post/20260331-trip-report-cascade-saddle/
We went from Raspberry Creek to Aspiring Hut and then over the Cascade Saddle to Dart Hut, finishing with the Rees Track and seeing takahē. There are a couple of pictures I've posted before. #SouthernAlps #BirdsNZ
Here are some more views mostly from the Cascade Saddle walk, including Mount Māori (thanks for the id!), a tarn with tufts, and a silty stream. #SouthernAlps #tramping
In good conditions the Cascade Saddle is not that technically difficult, with some moderate scrambling. It can go poorly if you fall, but you wouldn't fall if it was dry and not snowy. It did take us 11 hours from Aspiring Hut to Dart Hut, though, so a pretty long day. The posted time is 9 hours.
There were so many kea! Haven't seen quite so many before. As I posted before, also takahē. Apart from that, here are some silvereye/tauhou. There were one or two fantail/pīwakawaka and South Island robin/toutouwai, but I didn't get good pictures of them. #BirdsNZ
What was also unusual was that the kea were hanging out at the huts. On a previous trip to Aspiring Hut we'd talked to a party who had gone up to Cascade Saddle and seen 6 keas. Here, there were about that number at Aspiring Hut, and also about that number at Dart Hut. It was the kea welcoming committee at Dart Hut: the hut is near a river with a bridge, and then there is a ladder down to the hut. The kea hang out near the ladder and at the hut.
OK, more kea content from Aspiring Hut.
Kea are notorious for eating rubber. They were thinking about eating the bicycles that were parked at the hut.
I also have a picture of a kea trying to steal my inReach, which is posted in my gallery, but not part of the trip report.
It's also reportedly a problem if you camp on the Cascade Saddle itself. It's a beautiful campsite (with a flash toilet), but there might be kea who decide that it's fun to tear apart your tent. Hence our 11 hour walk to Dart Hut.
Some mountain landscapes from the track. There are still glaciers today, at least.
I was doing some research on glacier names. Apparently there was a proposed name change, mostly correcting spelling mistakes, which was rejected by the minister last year. Looks dumb to me, but maybe that's par for the course for Chris Penk.
The shuttle from Muddy Creek is at 2:30PM and it's a 6-8 hour walk from Shelter Rock Hut, so we left pretty early. Maybe the first part would have been more scenic if there had been more light. #BirdsNZ
There's a good section of road at the end of the track and one wonders why the road end is quite so far. People offroad on the last part of the track. But one then sees that the Muddy Creek crossing is pretty serious, and I wouldn't really want to do that in a normal car.
I had also heard about bogs on the way to Muddy Creek (can you tell from the name?) but managed to avoid most of them.
We got to the pickup spot at 12:30 and the sandflies noticed us, so I set up the tent to keep away from the sandflies. The shuttle got there an hour early, though, which was nice.
Flying to Queenstown and renting a car would have been super expensive when we were buying tickets, so we flew to Christchurch instead. I think that saved us $$$$. I don't love the extra driving, but we did get great views of Aoraki both ways. /fin #SouthernAlps
ClareBear 💚 @va2lam STUNNING
exlibrarykris@va2lam thank you for sharing. How incredible!
BigD@va2lam Obviously Burkes Pass divided the weather again. East Coast is murky. Ya gotta love that drive.
Edit spelling Burkes Pass
Edit spelling Burkes Pass
@BigD weather was wild, we were making last-minute guesses about whether Cascade Saddle would be rainy or windy. There was no precip east of Burkes Pass when we were there, but there was 20mm of rain on Cascade Saddle the night before, and huger amounts the days before that.