The wild west coast of New Zealand. Rugged, dense, steep and beautiful. It was a rude welcome for me into the west coast.
New territory was on the cards for today, Goat Hill (1,656m). After some research online and eyeing up the topo maps I was confident that there was a track to the tops.
It was an early morning wake up to get over Arthur’s Pass and walking by 8:30am.
I parked up in a short dirt road off the main highway and began walking towards the creek bed. After some bush-bashing I was in the creek bed looking for the start of this track.
It was by pure luck that I spotted the DOC orange triangle. It was a small moss covered triangle located 3 meters high, off the creek on a small tree.
Just when I thought I had found my track, I was reminded that this is the west coast and what may be marked on maps as tracks may not always ring true! This track could be compared to a glorified game trail! And I loved it! It was overgrown, steep, covered in roots and rocks and at one point had me climbing under a root bed of a massive beech tree.
The climb was steep and definitely made me work up a sweat. It wasn’t long until I was breaching out of the bushline and into the open tops. Once cresting a minor plateau just over 1000 meters up, there was no set track and it was back to basics of picking your way through some high dracophyllum and large boulders.
After reaching the main leading ridge, vegetation became sparse and the ground became a bed of large boulders. Less than ideal as every foot placement had to be calculated.
After an hour and half of open tops walking I had reached the crux of this walk, the final 500 meters.
The ridge which on maps displayed some steep exposure was a bit more so upon arrival.
To be fair I have traveled on worse but it was definitely one of those times where you make sure of your footing.
Nearly 4 hours after leaving the car I had reached the top.
I was greeted with a stunning 360° panorama taking you from steep jagged mountains of the Southern Alps round to the Tasman Sea.
Lunch was enjoyed basking in the sun and before I knew it it was time to head back down.
The ridge was safely traversed and I was making good time back down the main leading ridge.
As I crested around a smaller spur running off the ridge, I froze mid stride as my eyes came across a mob of stags meandering their way to a small tarn. I back tracked slowly, grabbed my camera then snuck back around to grab some photos.
The next 10 minutes were spent watching and taking photos of these majestic animals.
They dropped into a small gut so I quickly grabbed my gear and ran down after them. I then startled myself by descending over a small rise and emerging 40 meters away from the mob! It was epic being this close to these animals.
After taking some great photos I left them be, and headed back up to the ridge. Turns out this camo stuff does a bloody good job as not at any point did the stags see me.
The way back down was very uneventful and I was back at the car before 3pm.
A pie had been well earnt back in Arthur’s Pass.
#30 Goat Hill – 1,656m, 10.3km, 6 hours 21 minutes.
Epic summer day out. One that will be remembered.
Till next time,
Cam.