Walking this track is a bit of a mind-bender. Somehow, the country just doesn’t make sense, as a deep, water-filled gorge suddenly becomes a shallow river. It feels like an approximation of nature invented by trainee AI. But then you remember you’re in hydro country.
Deep Stream Track is on the border between Otago and Canterbury, beside Lake Aviemore. The lake swelled into life in the 1960s as part of the Waitaki hydro-electric scheme.
Eight power stations interrupt rivers running between the Southern Alps and the sea. Aviemore Dam is one of the stars, generating electricity each year for about 107,000 houses.
The Deep Stream track starts roadside, where the stream meets the lake. Pre-dam, the meeting spot must have been who-knows-how-many dark watery metres below us. But then the lake, flushed with hydro-electric pride, oozed up to invade the stream’s descent from the hills. What was once a shallow tributary with gravel beds for spawning trout is now a deep gorge covered in swollen lake.
As a result of this human history the gorge-side track traverses land that used to be high up in the hills. It’s rocky. In some places goat hooves would come in handy. Although it’s a short, two-hour return walk, it’s one where you have to watch your feet.
Twenty minutes in is a contender for the South Island’s Most Scenic Picnic Table, on its own flat alcove by a bend in the river. Next is a riverside boardwalk then the mind-warp of realising you’re no longer accompanying a wide, deep river but all of a sudden, a gentle trickling creek, going about its original business. You’ve outwalked the lake edge. Fun times in nature.
Back at the start is a dreamy spot to stop at. On the right day poplar leaves rattle while wind rubs at your ears, topped off by the background sound of the lake’s waves.
