Tripping with (Lake) Mavis

She's a cheeky old bird and she's worth the 3h detour from Goat Pass.

I’d heard of Magical Mavis, a sizeable alpine lake situated above Goat Pass in Arthur’s Pass National Park, and I’d entirely failed to get in there when I did the Goat Pass / Deception-Mingha route (often referred to as the Coast to Coast, as it’s the run portion of that adventure race). My failure occurred when I walked right past the cairn on the pass that indicates the turnoff to a rough track climbing to Lake Mavis, and by the time I’d realised I’d overshot it wildly, I didn’t have the enthusiasm to retrace my steps - so I left the expedition for another day. It’s good to have goals, I suppose (or so I tell myself).

Snow had recently come down and it was a balmy -2 degrees when Tanja and I left the carpark at Greyneys Shelter just after the butt-crack of dawn. We suffered through the first couple of river crossings, some of which were mid-thigh and supremely frosty, and my feet never properly regained consciousness until I reached the hut that afternoon and rubbed them so frantically at one point I thought a genie might have emerged. Such is the nature of NZ winter tramping, I guess - at least that’s what Tanja, being Austrian, concluded. Here she is below crossing the brutal Mingha River and taking no prisoners.

DoC reckons it takes 5 hours to reach Goat Pass Hut from Greyneys Shelter but you’ll likely do it in 4, and proper goats may take even shorter times. I was struggling and puffing as per usual, and was happy to see the cheerful ‘rescue orange’ tones of the Mingha Biv after about two hours. It’s recently been overhauled by the Backcountry Trust and didn’t they do well.

Just before Mingha Biv is Dudley Knob, an excellent snack spot that affords a bit of a view back down the Mingha while you bake in the sun.

Further along, the Mingha River narrows and shows off some stunning blue-green colours, with potential for swimming in summer.

After four hours of puffing, walking and talking (I puffed, Tanja talked and walked without puffing - such is the fitness of the average Austrian mountain goat), we arrived on Goat Pass, where there’s plenty of boardwalk over the pass to protect the alpine area. Then it was a quick (one contour line) drop to Goat Pass Hut, where we ate lunch, soaked up the sun and dumped our gear onto bunks. (Users be warned: Goat Pass Hut has no fireplace or heating of any kind.) The weather was stunningly clear but was forecast to clag in the next day, so I put on my Big Girl Panties and we made off for Lake Mavis.

The turnoff to Mavis is not far from the hut itself. Look for a cairn on the Mavis-side of the boardwalk, which indicates a rough ground trail heading directly upwards to the 1520m point on the ridge. Once you’re on it, you’ll know you’re on it - no mistake. Cairns are visible most of the way and there’s a few steep patches where you need to take care, but otherwise it’s perfectly doable. I did comment to Tanja that if I’d been by myself I might’ve chickened out (or ‘lazied out’) of going up to Mavis, particularly as I was exhausted and cold, but we’d come all that way and the weather window was short but sweet, so I found some sort of inner grit and pushed on. I was glad I did, here’s why:

We managed to avoid the clouds (and crowds) and I even began to enjoy the ridge leading towards the lake, especially once we hit the snowline.

Mavis was utterly still and perfect. Tanja and I snapped way too many photos, stuffed our faces with snacks to ward off the cold (later, an emergency Peanut Slab eaten in my sleeping bag just before I went to sleep did much to quash the shivers) and eventually, reluctantly turned away from the alpine beauty to head back before dark.

The next day we retraced our steps back out to the car. On the way, we met a couple who were contemplating heading up but just wanted to check out the river levels. The crossings were fine, we told them, but as the rain was starting to hammer down we advised they might not have the most fun time up there.

“Thanks, we might head up anyway,” they said. We farewelled them.

“Do you think they realise the hut has no fireplace?” Tanja asked me.

“Oh, possibly not,” I said. “HEY!” I yelled at them. “You know the hut has no fireplace, right?”

I think they turned back, after that.

Trip: Lake Mavis, Arthurs Pass National Park. Grade: Route / routefinding skills needed. Time: 4 hours to Goat Pass Hut; 1.5-2 hours one-way to Lake Mavis or 3 hours return to Goat Pass Hut. Features: Stunning alpine lake, big views, Peanut Slabs (BYO). Good info on the Arthurs Pass website here.