Nelson Lakes - Mt Robert Circuit

Lazy morning before setting out on a day hike.
Today's plan: Mt Robert Circuit.
We drove up to the trail head approx 5kms from the town.
We opted for the anti-clockwise route which turned out to be a good choice.
The first 30 mins of the walk is through beautiful beech forest. the track becoming very steep very quickly, It is aptly named the Pinchgut Track! It zig-zagged up Mt Robert but with several flat lookout areas to use for rest stops. Stunning views of the horseshoe shaped lake. We reached Mt Robert (1421m) in just under an hour - a 600m ascent!





The vista of mountains and ridge tops was magnificent and knowing we had the time, we decided to hike on up the Robert Ridge track towards Lake Angelus. We aimed to get to Julius Summit.

Fantastic walk along the ridge top, slippery scree slopes either side of the track with sparse alpine vegetation and numerous tarns. Fresh and cool winds, but sunny.We managed to get to Julius Summit (1794m) in just under an hour. I could have walked along that ridge for hours! This hike made me realise how beautiful this area is and why so many people rave about the magnificent hiking there is in these parts. Definitely coming back to do some multi-day hiking here! We wished we had started earlier in the day as we probably would have been able to make it to Lake Angelus and back, but we were not prepared to go on any further with limited food and water supplies.



We retraced the path back to the track junction and continued the planned loop circuit, taking Paddy's Track around to Bushline Hut where we stopped for a snack. The track from the Hut back to the car was a long steep descent.
Along the way, we encountered a couple of ladies who were finishing a 5 day hike, one day earlier than planned, so we gave them a lift back into St Arnaud.