Blue Lake Hut

Blue Lake Hut is a serviced, 16-bunk backcountry hut at 1,190 m in a high basin above West Sabine Valley. Rotomairewhenua / Blue Lake is a separate, short walk away, and the water's remarkable clarity is the reason many trampers stay. Keep this for a multi-day trip: from St Arnaud, allow at least four days return. It is not a day trip to the lake.

The shortest route uses a water taxi from Lake Rotoroa Jetty to Sabine Hut, then a five-hour tramp to West Sabine Hut and another 3.5 hours to Blue Lake Hut. The final climb rises steeply in two stages. The Travers-Sabine Circuit is an advanced, four-to-seven-day route, and freezing conditions or heavy rain can happen in any season.

Book your bunk ahead; no walk-in spaces are held when the hut is full. The hut has toilets and a water supply. Treat the water before drinking, and plan to carry your own food for this remote overnight stay. Campers within 200 m may use the hut's water supply and toilets only.

The trail from West Sabine crosses forest damaged in a 1980 avalanche before climbing steeply into the basin. That two-stage finish is the hard part of the approach, especially if the track is wet, so leave time for the climb rather than treating the hut as a quick detour.

Rotomairewhenua / Blue Lake and nearby Rotopōhueroa / Lake Constance are tapu and hold high cultural significance to Māori, particularly Ngāti Apa ki te Rā Tō. Leave both lakes completely alone: don't touch or swim in the water, wash in it, take water, or put equipment in it. If boots, clothes, towels or bottles are wet or damp from other lakes or rivers, clean them at the Sabine Hut biosecurity station before coming up to help prevent lindavia spreading.

Measurements over six visits in 2010 and 2011 recorded underwater visibility above 70 m each time, reaching 81.4 m. Water flows underground from Lake Constance and emerges from springs above Blue Lake; the exact filtering process remains uncertain. The lake's clarity is easy to appreciate from shore.

Blue Lake Hut was built in 1970. The crew's hut-history notes recall a helicopter sling load carrying the bunks being lost in deep bush over Howard Valley during turbulence. It is a vivid reminder of the work involved in building an overnight shelter this far into the ranges.