Giveaways
THIS post is about two lengthy trails suitable for trampers and mountain-bikers alike, the Heaphy Track and the Old Ghost Road.
My hero image for this post depicts nīkau palm trees growing at the Kohaihai River mouth at the West Coast end of the Heaphy Track. Such lush terrain is not typical of the Old Ghost Road!
The Heaphy Track follows the approximate route at one time used by old-time Māori from Golden Bay, the great bay around what’s now the town of Collingwood, to get to the West Coast and prospect for pounamu; though by the nineteenth century the route had been abandoned and left to become overgrown.
Then, from about 1860 onwards, the track, which would later be named after the New Zealand back-country explorer Charles Heaphy but was simply known then as ‘the route over the Gouland Downs’, was re-developed as a pack track for prospectors seeking gold in the region.
The pack track was then abandoned and was left to become overgrown for a second time, only to be cleared again after the establishment of the North-West Nelson Forest Park in 1965, forerunner of today’s Kahurangi National Park.
In the 1970s, there was even a plan to put a road for vehicles through on the same route but, fortunately,that never happened. These days, the Heaphy Track is one of New Zealand’s eleven Great Walks. So, I would say that the chances of it being abandoned fora third time, or becoming a motorway, are both now equally slim!
Incidentally, the Heaphy Track is not the only route from west to east across the mountains in this area of New Zealand.
A litle further south but still in the same region, in the large white area in the centre of the map above, between Karamea and Motueka, you can do the Wangapeka Track. This leads from a place called Little Wanganui, just south of Karamea, through to the Siberia Campsite on the Wangapeka River Road, which in its turn leads down to Nelson.
(Why are so many places in upland New Zealand called Siberia, I wonder? No – don't tell me, I can guess.)
Branching off the Wangapeka Track and taking a more northerly route toward the east side is the Leslie-Karamea Track, which finishes up in the Nelson Tablelands at a spot with the even less confidence-inspiring name of Starvation Ridge. From here, a maze of tracks meander in the direction of Motueka.
As for the Old Ghost Road, further south still and entirely confined to the West Coast side of the island, this follows the course of a partly-built nineteenth-century miners’ road that was never completed because the terrain in the middle turned out to be just too difficult, and no doubt because the mines ran out as well. There are several ghost towns in this area including Lyell, the Old Ghost Road’s southern terminus.
After well over a century of abandonment paralleling that of the ghost towns, the Old Ghost Road was finished off as a recreational trail for cyclists and trampers. It was officially opened for that purpose on 12 December 2015.
I have tramped the Heaphy Track, one of New Zealand’s Great Walks, three times now.
The walk stretches through the Kahurangi National Park at the top of the South Island, west of the famous Abel Tasman Track, and winds its way through native bush andtussock downs to the wild Pacific Ocean on the West Coast. The track can be walked in either direction, beginning at the eastern end at Brown Hut, or starting in Karamea on the West Coast by driving fifteen kilometres north to the Kohaihai River campsite.
On my first tramp of the Heaphy Track, I caught the local shuttle bus to Collingwood where I was to begin my tramp. After catching a lift to Brown Hut, to which the bus now runs, I began hiking the seventeen and a half kilometres uphill towards Perry Saddle Hut, which took about five hours. It was a very hot and dry summer, and I was drinking bottle after bottle of water.
The first time I was there, our party made it to Perry Saddle Hut and spent the night there before tramping onwards for six and a half hours through tussock clearings and beech trees towards James Mackay Hut. At a bit over twenty-four kilometres, this was the longest stretch of the track, but I passed a lot of interesting sights along the way, including a famous pole from which trampers have been hanging their old boots for years. From James Mackay Hut, I began a six-hour walk of a bit over twenty kilometres to Heaphy Hut. Along the way, you have to cross a new bridge over the Heaphy River.
I spent the night in Heaphy Hut where I discovered the infamous West Coast mosquitoes. I found out that they can get into your sleeping bag even if you’ve got the hood over your head and the string tied up at the top, when one snuck in at 6.00 am and woke me up. I couldn’t believe it! On a previous occasion, I’ve been to the beach at Jackson Bay, which is at the other end of the West Coast, and the mosquitoes there came up under my t-shirt.
The final stretch of the tramp took me just over sixteen kilometres along the beautiful, yet rugged, coastline of the West Coast to the Kohaihai River mouth, a lovely five-hour walk to conclude what had been an incredible tramp. A profusion of nīkau, the world’s most southerly variety of palm tree, growing out of white sand make this area resemble part of an island in the South Pacific – but wait, it is part of an island in the South Pacific!
And yet at the same time, if you are lucky, you might see penguins on the beach. The west coast of the South Island is one of the few places where you might see palm trees and penguins together in the wild. (I am indebted to my friends Nicki and Kevin for some of these photos that follow!)
The angle of the South Island means that it’s not just Nelson that’s sheltered from biting Antarctic winds, but much of the West Coast as well. Whence, the palm trees!
See the New Zealand Department of Conservation (DOC) page on the Heaphy Track. The comparative gentle nature of the Heaphy Track can lull you into a false sense of security as there are actually a number of hazards on the track, which DOC warn of. A newspaper article also warns more specifically of the dangers of getting lost and falling down a hole in an area called The Enchanted Forest. Much as you would expect, I suppose!
UPDATE: I have a follow-up post on my most recent hike through the Heaphy Track, from west to east this time, an update which also talks about the amazing Douglas Range, over which I flew on the way back.
Carrying on south, you get to the towns of Karamea, Granity and Westport. From Westport, you can go inland by road toward the Buller Gorge until you get to Lyell, and then hike or bike the Old Ghost Road, at 85 km in length New Zealand’s longest single track, up to the town of Seddonville.
The Old Ghost Road is quite a bit gnarlier than the Heaphy Track and is in fact the most difficult cycle trail in the official New Zealand Cycle Trail (NZCT) system. It’s recommended that every rider cycle it from Lyell north and not the other way, as there is a section that’s nearly impossible from north to south, and the trail also contains New Zealand’s longest section of ‘single track’, a very narrow section on an exposed hillside.
The terrain and the views in the middle are, apparently, completely epic and I am doing it in September 2021.
Check out oldghostroad.org.nz and also DOC’s page on the Old Ghost Road.
If you liked the post above, check out my new book about the South Island! It's available for purchase from this website.
Subscribe to our mailing list to receive free giveaways!
