Lake Daniell: a great family friendly adventure

Lake Daniell is an easy day-walk or overnighter in Lewis Pass. This flat walk is the perfect introduction to tramping for family or first-timers. And Lake Daniell is a beautiful reward for your effort.

Length: 8.4km one-way, less than 150m elevation gain

Time taken: 2 hrs one-way to Kōhanga Atawhai – Manson Nicholls Memorial Hut

Difficulty: Easy

Facilities: Toilets at the carpark. See below for more details on the hut and campsite. It is $15 per adult to stay at the hut. You must book through the DOC website.

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2020 Update:

Manson Nicholls Hut has been replaced by a brand new hut! Check the DOC website here for more details.

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Roadtrip Stop at Lake Daniell

Despite living in Christchurch for two years, I disappointingly never made it to Lewis Pass or Nelson Lakes. I think the closest I got would have been trips to Hanmer Springs or Kaikoura. However over those two years I’d mentally created a whole list of places that I wanted to explore. But weather, timing and never-ending study meant that my plans sadly only ever remained plans.

My cousin Amy had recommended one of the places on my list – Lake Daniell. On the surface this trip didn’t seem quite as exciting as other tramps like Lake Angelus or Mt Owen. (And tramping-wise it definitely isn’t as complicated). But I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Amy, thanks again for your good tips!

My partner and I spent our first night away from Christchurch, our first night as semi-homeless people, in a tent on the shores of Lake Daniell. We were slowly making our way up to the North Island to begin an exciting adventure of a different kind. My first ever full-time real “adult job” with a salary and everything.

But before getting to that, I’d allocated a bit of time for us to explore Lewis Pass and Nelson Lakes as we drove up the island. (With all of our gear that wasn’t with the movers somehow fitting into our small car, Weasley style). But, you guessed it …

Rain.

Apparently raindrops are my theme song for any planned trips to Nelson Lakes. So Lake Daniell ended up being the only tramp I could cross off my list from this trip. Although I did get to see Lake Rotoiti. I’ll be back! (And I did go back! Check out my write up on Lake Angelus!)

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How to get to Lake Daniell

Lake Daniell & Marble Hill carpark / campsite is signposted off State Highway 7 near Lewis Pass. It’s about a 2.5 – 3 hour drive from Christchurch, or just over an hour from Hanmer Springs. Turn off onto the gravel road with the DOC sign. Take a right at the T-intersection you reach quickly after that. You’ll drive past a few campsites in the trees on your left, as well as toilets and a small shelter before arriving at the carpark. The trailhead for Lake Daniell is back just a few metres from the carpark, by the shelter.

The closest facilities to the trailhead are Springs Junction, just 5km up the road. This has a 24hr service station, a tea-room with limited grocery items available, and some accomodation options. 10km down SH7 the opposite way is Maruia Hot Springs which has hot pools, nice accomodation and a cafe/restaurant. Matt and I were taking the whole semi-homeless thing seriously. We decided not to stay here, but to tent in the rain instead. We’re still working on the adulting.

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IF YOU’RE LOOKING FOR OTHER FAMILY FRIENDLY HIKES, CHECK OUT THESE TRIPS:

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Tramping in to Lake Daniell

Lake Daniell is the perfect tramp for beginners or families. It is relatively flat, with less than 150m elevation gain, and only 2-3hrs one-way. Enough that you feel like you’ve done some walking and are out in the wilderness, but not enough that your feet are sore and your kids (or fellow adults) are crying.

I hadn’t heard about this walk before my cousin mentioned it, but judging from the size of the hut and the entries in the log-book, it looks like it might be a favourite with locals, family/school groups and fishermen. Plus there’s an actual troll bridge(!).

Evison’s Wall

There is an interesting historical site near the carpark itself before you even set out on the walk, although it doesn’t look like much. Evison’s Wall, created by renowned Kiwi geophysicist Frank Evison. This concrete wall in the middle of nowhere was built in 1964 on part of the alpine fault-line in an attempt to study the slow creep of the fault. As well as to help Evison gather data towards his goal of creating a reliable method of predicting earthquakes. This is the same fault-line that has created the next interesting stop on the walk – the Sluice Box.

Sluice Box

The Sluice Box is a small gorge with beautiful blue hues of the Maruia River. The bridge over the gorge is only a five minute walk from the Marble Hill Carpark, if that. If the weather was nicer, I would have been tempted to take a dip, particularly on the way back. The water was so clear! The Alfred River joins Maruia just upstream of the Sluice Box. You follow Alfred (and then Frazer Stream) most of the way to Lake Daniell.

Maruia Valley

Once over the Maruia River, the track follows the Alfred River through beech forest and small meadows. It’s a beautiful walk through the bush, with lots of birds to keep you company.

The Maruia Valley is quite special. It was the inspiration for the Maruia Declaration. This started in 1975 as a petition, trying to establish legal recognition of native forests and an end to their logging. It also played a role in the Department of Conservation’s establishment in 1987.

The Mariua Valley is also the location of Te Maruia Waka Huia programme. This aims to protect the biodiversity of both plants and animals in the area through pest control. You’ll likely see a lot of numbered traps from the track. Whio, New Zealand’s endangered blue duck, are also present in the valley. They were rediscovered in the Alfred River in 2003, with more whio being released into the area by Te Mariua Waka Huia in 2013. So keep your eyes and ears open!

Troll Bridge

After walking through the forest for about an hour, you’ll reach the second bridge. This is the (not quite, but almost) half-way point to the hut and lake. This is the “Troll Bridge”, which made me smile with memories of tramps where my parents would tell my sister and I to watch out for trolls or orcs hiding under bridges.

The next rest stop, two bridges later at the Pell Stream sign, actually has a seat to sit down on. The sign is pointing down the riverbank towards what on the map is a route upstream to Pell Stream Hut. I couldn’t see any signs of recent passage on the route. But my eyes had probably just become used to the very wide and obvious Lake Daniell track. From here it’s about 30-40 minutes and six bridges to the lake and the hut.

You’ll know you’re getting close when you cross bridge number ten and start climbing up away from Alfred River. From here it’s only about 20 minutes to the hut following (the not always visible) Frazer Stream on your left.

The ground could probably get a big boggy here in wet weather, although there are numerous board walks to help keep your boots dry. It was on this walk that I made the conscious decision to really try and make this blog happen. It was an idea I’d had spinning around in my head for a while. So Matt and I passed the time on this last section of the track by coming up with progressively more hideous names for it. Luckily it wasn’t long though before we had our first glimpse of the glistening water shining through the trees. And just a few minutes after seeing the lake we’d reached the hut.

Kōhanga Atawhai – Manson Nicholls Hut

The Christchurch Tramping Club and Lake Daniells Fishing Club constructed the (now old) Manson Nicholls Memorial Hut. It was built in memory of three trampers who were killed by a landslide in 1974, while sheltering from horrific weather in a hut on the other side of the lake. The hut had some informative panels about the trampers (the fourth member, Bonna Beattie, survived the landslide and rowed/crawled to get help despite her injuries), as well as information about the local area.

The hut was over 40 years old before it was replaced in 2020. There are some good photos of the inside of the old hut here.

When Matt and I arrived, we thought a school group was greeting us (much to our dismay). Luckily it was just three adults with a zillion exuberant kids. They kept trying to invite us to play What’s the time Mr Wolf?, Candlesticks or Tag. (Luckily, or unluckily depending if you like kids or not, the parents had ruled out Hide and Seek – never a good idea while tramping).

The kids weren’t too bad. It was actually really nice seeing young ones out enjoying nature or learning how to lose gracefully to their parents at Last Card. (Yes, apparently I’ve reached an age where it’s natural to start saying things like “young ones”.) The family even kindly lent us their sandfly spray, which saved our sanity, as we’d left ours in the car.

We pitched our tent on a high bit of the lawn outside the hut, slightly sheltered by the trees. Just afterwards it started to spit. I’ve seen photos of the lawn in really wet weather and it turns into a bit of a swamp – so if it’s really going to rain it would be better to find a nice spot to camp in the trees further up the lake.

Thompon’s Flat Hut

Also if you don’t have a tent and the hut IS full with a school group, then you can go on to the un-serviced, private Thompson’s Flat Hut. This does add an extra hour one-way to the trip and can apparently be very boggy in wet weather (plus it doesn’t have the beautiful view over the lake), but sometimes you just need to do what you need to do in order to escape those kids and their snoring parents/teachers.

Matt and I had our dinner of crackers, salmon and camembert in the hut kitchen/common room (we might have been semi-homeless, but that’s no excuse to not be fancy), although I’m guessing that at this stage I was wishing for something hot, as the rain had started to set in. Apparently the hut had heard that we were fancy, because the toilets were the fanciest I had ever seen in a hut. And this is counting the Routeburn, which ignores all unspoken rules about camping and magically has flushing toilets. As well as Rangiwahia Hut with its beautiful murals of native birds.

The toilets!

The toilets at Lake Daniell manage to one-up the Routeburn. They’re not flushable, but they do involve a conveyor belt for your poop. A company in France produces them (because the French think of everything) and are the first of their kind in New Zealand. If you’re at all interested, and it is actually quite interesting, poop conveyor belt aside, this website explains more about how they work and why they’re more environmentally friendly/efficient.

Once I got over my excitement at the toilets, we played a few card games, and continued to try and choose a name for this blog, as it started to get fully dark. We retired back to the tent to fall asleep to the sound of raindrops on the tent roof.

Tenting at Lake Daniell

I had thought that falling asleep to the sound of rain on the roof was the most comforting thing, but quickly realised that this only applies when it’s the roof of a house. Not when it’s the roof of your tent. And you remember all the stories from your parents about waking up to buckets of water pouring onto your sleeping bag.

Somehow I’d managed to only ever sleep in a tent in nice weather before this. (Aside from that one time at Year 13 camp at Mavora Lakes where we were flooded out of our tent and someone almost got hypothermic – never do anything in half measures).

But my worries were unfounded. We woke up in the morning not to flooding or our tent roof caving in with rain, but to a beautifully crisp day with almost perfect reflections of the surrounding hills on the lake. It was this sight that made the walk really worth it to me – the walk was nice in the rain, but it was amazing with this view in the morning. I walked out onto the little jetty, breathed in the morning air and breathed out all my worries about the move to a new job, a new city, a new island. It’s hard not to be relaxed when nature puts on such a show for you.

We stayed longer than normal that morning, soaking in the view that we hadn’t got the previous evening, while our tent soaked up the golden morning sunlight. The large family (I’m still not quite sure how three parents physically managed to have that many children, let alone take them tramping) said goodbye and we had the lake to ourselves. Matt went for an adventure further up the lake (the track continues up the east side of the lake a ways) and I wrote in my diary and ate chocolate.

And back again …

Soon though we couldn’t stay any longer to let the tent dry, and had to set off too. The return walk went quicker than the way in, as it often does, and before we knew it we were back at the Sluice Box and then the carpark. It had been an exciting first night away from Christchurch, and I hoped the start of many more adventures to come.

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– Apologies if I haven’t been consistent with the name of this walk – Lake Daniell used to be called Lake Daniells; Land Information NZ/Toitū Te Whenua changed its name in 2008. Instead of making this clearer, the lake now goes by a variety of different names with various spellings – Daniells, Daniels, Daniell and Daniel, although the official name is Lake Daniells.
… Is Daniell starting to look weird to you, or is it just me? –

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Lake Daniell – Safety

As always, please stay safe when you’re out exploring. Although this is a relatively simple walk, that doesn’t mean things can’t go wrong. In 2002, a 14 year-old went missing from the hut and his body was found months later.

So please always follow the Land Safety Code regardless of how simple your walk is:

1. Choose the right trip for you (read my article on tramping safety, talk to DOC)
2. Understand the weather
3. Pack warm clothes and extra food
4. Share your plans and take ways to get help (have an emergency beacon on your person)
5. Take care of yourself and each other

Even on a short and simple walk in relatively easy terrain, not following just one of the above codes can change even the simplest outing into a misadventure.

If you’re not feeling super confident then you can always get in touch with me here on the blog or on my Instagram. Or take a look at my Tramping 101 series which includes this post about how to stay safe in the outdoors.

Stay safe and get outside!

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Where to next?

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I love hearing from readers and helping them plan their own adventures!

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