Otira Valley Track: Arthurs Pass N P: 30th January

In the shadow of Mt Rolleston...

On my way back from my recon of the Otira River I took the opportunity to go for a walk up the Otira Valley. The Otira Valley track can be located just over Arthur's Pass on the West Coast side of the mountains. The track goes up valley to the Northern face of Mt Rolleston and is an easy and very beautiful walk of about 2-2.5 hours duration.

Map of the Otira Valley track and surrounding area

Walking the Otira Valley Track

The track can usually be walked in all seasons but there is extreme avalanche danger over Winter and Spring as there are high, steep mountains on both sides of the valley. The track is easy walking but if you are heading up here in Winter/Spring you absolutely need to know what you are doing.

Otira Valley from the car park on SH73

Otira Valley car park, with Arthur's Pass in background

DOC track sign, start of the Otira Valley Track

Start of Otira Valley Track, Arthurs Pass NP

View to West from the Otira Valley Track

About 5 minutes up the track you can follow a side track to Lake Misery, a medium sized tarn on the saddle at the Pass. It is a 20 minute walk and there is a board-walk and interpretive panels with interesting information about the area.

I visited it when I walked the Arthurs Pass Walking Track in 2015.

Track junction, Otira Valley Track - Lake Misery Track

Otira Valley avalanche warning...oh yes...they are not kidding!

Looking west to SH73 from Otira Valley Track

Rocky section of the Otira Valley Track

View onto alpine tussock land, Otira Valley

There are great views across the to the North West side of SH73. You can see Temple Basin ski-field, one of the last club ski-fields in any New Zealand National Park. It is managed, maintained and for the use of the Club which owns the infrastructure. There is a fine access track to the ski lodge which makes another good day walk. 

View towards Temple Basin Ski field

Close up of Temple Basin from the Otira Valley

View of the massive bluffs, west side of Otira Valley

Pt 1728 from the Otira Valley Track

There are some stupendous bluffs on the western side of this valley. They are easily 250+ metres high...these photos really do not show just how massive they are.

Otira Valley, 250+ meter bluffs around Mt Philistine 

View down to the footbridge in the upper Otira Valley

Numerous waterfalls on Eastern side of Otira Valley Track

I thought the flowers below were Mt Cook Lillies but have been informed that they are in fact
Common Mountain Lilly, Celmisia semicordata which are endemic to the Otira Valley. There are certainly a lot of them growing in this area.

Common Mountain Lilly, Celmisia semicordata

Close up of
Common Mountain Lilly, Celmisia semicordata

You cross a number of small side streams on the track, they do not pose a problem under normal conditions but could flood if there was a lot of rain.

Small stream, Otira Valley Track

Waterfall on the East side of Otira Valley Track

Beautiful pool in the Upper Otira River

There is a foot bridge about an hour up valley, this is the end of the track and the start of the marked mountaineering route to the upper valley. You are relatively safe up to this point, past the bridge is the start of the rock/snow fall area. It is not surprising they have avalanches with the massive cliffs which loom over the track on both sides of the valley. 

You should not go past the bridge in Winter/Spring without some knowledge of avalanche conditions as avalanches are a regular occurrence over those seasons.

Who wants to be squashed by a couple of thousand tonnes of rock and snow? Not me!

Footbridge over the Otira River...start of the mountaineering route!

 The bridge over the upper Otira River gets washed away about every 2-3 years and needs to be replaced, when you get a good old Nor' Wester blowing you can get massive amounts of rainfall over a short time span.

Flood city!

Western side of Otira Valley near bridge...

Warning sign, Otira Valley Track

 After crossing the bridge I continued another 2 km's up the valley before turning back. If you keep walking you eventually reach a mountain cirque just below the rocky northern face of Mt Rolleston. 

I've visited the area before so didn't feel the need to go any further up the valley.

I headed back down to the bridge and stopped for a late lunch before starting back to the trail head.

Heading into the Upper Otira Valley...

Pt 1728  on the far side of SH 73 from the Otira Valley Track

Crossing rock fall path, Otira Valley Track

 Mt Rolleston at the head of the valley is not your classic pyramid shaped peak but rather one of the more common extended high ridges we have in New Zealand.. There are three significant peaks for alpine trampers & climbers to aspire to.

 It can be climbed from the northern side but the common route is up the Crow Face which is on the southern, more gentle side of the mountain.

Mt Rolleston, 2275m  from the Otira Valley Track

Jon Moake, with Mt Rolleston in the background

View from my high point, Otira Valley Track

 Below is a photo of the cirque in the Upper Otira Valley taken from  Annette Woodfords photography website. 

Terminus of Otira Valley Track, from Annette Woodfords site

The foot bridge is a nice possie to eat your lunch, it was warm in the Otira Valley and the sounds of the alpine birds and the river was very tranquil...

Lunch at the bridge, Otira Valley Track

View of Upper Otira Valley from lunch spot

 It's difficult to see in this photo but all of those rocks have fist sized chunks of Pounamu (Greenstone/Jade) embedded in them. Pounamu has always been favoured by the Maori for decorative weapons and ornaments. This whole area is rich in Pounamu deposits but as it is a National Park so they cannot be taken.

It is awesome to see them in their natural setting.

Fist sized chunks of Pounamu embedded in rock in the Otira Valley

This is a very nice day walk, slightly more adventurous than some in the area but certainly not outside most peoples abilities. You could certainly camp in the upper reaches of the valley and in fact I saw a party of three heading up valley for that reason. Just be careful in Winter/Spring because of the avalanche risk.

Access: Track starts just to the west of Arthur's Pass on SH73, there is a small car-park on the left of the road
Track Times: 1.5 hours to the foot bridge over the Otira River, another 1-1.5 hours to the cirque at the base of Mt Rolleston, same to return.
Miscellaneous:Extreme avalanche danger in Spring/Winter along all of this track. Do not enter the valley in heavy rain or after a late Spring snow storm. I'm really not joking...it looks ok but is awesomely dangerous until the snow pack melts.

Peel Forest Park Scenic Reserve II: Fern Walk : 24th January

More adventures in  Peel Forest...

Continuing on from my last post, the other walk in the Peel Forest area we did was the Fern Walk. There was a world of difference between the two tracks: Dennistoun Walk is in an area where logging has previously taken place, whereas the Fern Walk has never been logged. The bush along the Fern Walk was much denser as well as containing many more examples of mature native trees.

My daughter Juliet on the Fern Walk, Peel Forest Reserve

Fern Walk, Peel Forest Reserve:

The primary tree type on the Fern Walk is the Totora, although you still find magnificent examples of Fuchsia, Kahakitea and Matai as well. What is also in residence is a thick ground cover of ferns, they are really prolific along the sides of the track. Makes sense given the name of the track...

Tracks in the Peel Forest Reserve

The Fern Walk can be accessed off the main Mt Peel Road, it is about 2 kilometres past Mt Peel township. It takes 1-1.5 hours to walk all of the track, the terminus is at Lookout Road which joins the far end of Blandswood Road. We walked along the first 45 minutes worth and then returned to the start. 

As is the case with fathers everywhere I take every opportunity to embarrass the girls when we are out in public. Hence the awesome pose!

Yes, I am an embarrassment to the kids!

The bush is really dense alongside the Fern Walk, the forest was more diverse and much thicker.

The advantage of never being logged?

I read somewhere that the area was used for jungle training back in WW2 and the Malaysian Insurgency. I can see why, it is as thick as any jungle I have seen in the Islands. It is obviously popular as we saw 5-6 other people as we travelled along. 

Juliet about 100 meters along the track, Fern Walk

As is the way with teenagers, Georgia was super happy to go for a walk. Thankfully (and as expected) she enjoyed herself and was much happier by the end. 

Ah...feel the teenage love!

Awesomely happy Georgia and dense bush Fern Walk, Peel Forest

There are some large Totara and Kahakitea trees in the area the largest would be a good 6-8 meters around, 500-700 years old. There are some very large Fuchsia trees along the track, some of these would be 2-3 meters around the trunk which is BIG for this type of tree. 

Dense ferns and undergrowth, Fern Walk

Juliet with one of the large tree ferns, Fern Walk

Ferns and young Matai saplings alongside track

Heading up the Fern Walk, about 30 minutes along

The Fuchsia below was big: this is one of the examples with a 2-3 meter round trunk. 

Large Fuchsia tree, Fern Walk

Nice wide track, Fern Walk

I was trying to explain to the kids how easy it is to get lost even on a good track like this (bush lessons # 365 in-situ...) but they were unconvinced.  So I walked about 15 meters into the bush, it was so thick I couldn't see the track at all and I was completely invisible to them.

Vine community on a young Kahakitea tree, Peel Forest

The Big 3: Kahakitea, Fuchsia and Matai on the Fern Walk

Fern Walk, Peel Forest: track side fern

One of the set of steps on the Fern Walk

For the most part the track is flat or on a slight incline. There are a couple of places where you need to climbs some stairways to cross intervening Spurs, especially towards the Blandswood Road end of the track. If you wanted a nice easy walk, just do the first 20-30 minutes as there is only one stairway along this stretch.

At the top of the first stairway, Fern Walk

Descending one of the stairways, Fern Walk

Juliet and I descending some steps on the Fern Walk, Peel Forest

The girls utilised the thick lichen growing on the trees along the track for some quick cosmetic changes to their appearance...

Fern Walk, Peel Forest: Georgia channelling a 70's outlaw biker!

Nice eyebrows Juliet, Fern Walk, Peel Forest

This is a very nice track, it is in excellent condition and beautiful with the mature trees and dense under-story. The track is well signposted on Peel Forest Road and Blandswood Road.

It would have been a wonderful sight to see this area before milling. The forest reached all the way from Peel Forest to Coopers Creek about 12 km's away to the south. The current reserve is about 900 hectares so you are talking 20-30 thousand hectares at least. 

Red outlines historic extent of Peel Forest prior to mid 19th Century timber milling

Great wee track this one, once again highly recommended go have a look if you ever find yourself in Peel Forest.

Access: Fern Walk is clearly signposted on the Peel Forest Road. Go through Peel Forest township, the track is approximately 2.5 km's past the township on the left.
Track Details: Fern Walk is a through track to Blandswood Road. The whole track takes 1.5 hours one way.
Miscellaneous: All weather track, some stairs to negotiate in several places.