The Ohau Range is located in the Mackenzie Region of New Zealand’s South Island, to the west of Lake Ohau and to the south of Aoraki/Mt Cook National Park. Nestled among the mountains are a variety of small alpine lakes, several of which we strung together in February 2020 to form a four-day journey across this range.
This was undoubtedly my most off-the-beaten-path adventure while I was in New Zealand and pushed me out of my comfort zone while still remaining (mostly) in the Type 1 fun zone.
Here is some beta for you to use while planning your adventure in the Ohau Range.
Route Stats
Distance: ~40km (estimate scaled from map retroactively)
Elevation: +1,350m (max elevation minus starting elevation)
Route Type: Loop
Difficulty: Expert – this route required extensive navigation, river crossings, scrambling across loose boulder fields, and extensive bush-bashing. I would not recommend it unless you are experienced with off-route navigation.
Hiking Season: November – April
Planning Resources
- The Department of Conservation have great digital topo maps – these were our primary resource, along with word of mouth from work pals
Preparing for the Trip
Itinerary
We originally planned to do a five-day trip on the Gillespie Pass circuit, with a side trip to Crucible Lake, and an extension up the Upper Wilkin River to Diana Lake, Lucidius Lake, and Lake Castalia, before catching a jet boat back to Makarora from Siberia Hut. Unfortunately, in the few days before we were planning to embark on that trip, there was significant flooding on the Makarora River, and we decided that it would be unsafe to try crossing the river under those conditions.
A few colleagues had noted an off-track hike that they did to a lake at point 1514 in the Ohau Range, near Twizel. There was another off-track hike that had been recommended in the same range called Dumbbell Lake. We looked at the topographic maps and figured we could check out both if we made a loop of it and stayed for one night at Snowy Gorge Hut, located on an offshoot of the Ahuriri River. It *looked* like there were some reasonable saddles that we could cross near each lake to make that work.
This is what our planned route looked like:
I have included some suggested modifications to this route – see the sections below for further detail.
Transportation to Trailhead
We drove from Twizel and parked at Freehold Creek car park. It was a 20 minute drive.
Sleeping Options
Both lakes required backcountry camping, as there are no facilities. You will need to Leave No Trace when you are staying at either lake.
Snowy Gorge Hut is a five-bunk basic hut, which is free. Note this hut has no toilet facilities, so you will need to practice Leave No Trace here as well.
On the Trail
Day 1: Sawyer Creek Car Park to Lake @ 1514
Distance: ~12km (estimate scaled from map retroactively)
Elevation: +975m
Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, we arrived at the car park and started hiking around 9AM. The trail starts on the Sawyer Creek Trail for a couple of kilometres, before it intercepts with the well-formed Tarnbrae Track, which is part of the multi-sport Alps 2 Ocean trail. We traversed this section of the trail quickly, and after a few kilometres joined the Freehold Creek trail, which quickly turns into the East Ahuriri Valley Trail.
This entire section of trail so far is part of the Te Araroa Trail, a trail that runs from the northernmost tip of New Zealand’s North Island to the very southern point of the South Island. This section climbs at a steady grade through the forested banks of the Ahuriri River east branch, and was surprisingly well formed.
After a couple hours of climbing at a moderate grade, we broke through into the alpine tussocks, and got some views of Lake Ohau below.
We continued climbing upwards through the tussocks, following the poled route, for a few more hours. The trail reached a saddle and flattened out considerably, which made for quick walking. Once we reached a prominent rocky outcrop, we officially diverged from the TA and began our bushwhacking adventure. We stopped for a quick lunch overlooking a lovely waterfall before we began to climb alongside a small stream.
This segment of the climb was pretty straightforward. It was marshy in some places, tussocky in others, but a fairly moderate grade overall.
After about 30 minutes of climbing, we arrived at our destination for the evening: the unnamed lake!
Once we had set up the tent, we lounged around in the tussocks and took in the view. After a bit of a rest, we decided to check out another small tarn that was located about 1km south from our tent.
After a quick dip in this tarn, we wandered back over to our campsite, where we made dinner, enjoyed a stunning sunset, and stayed out late enough to see some stars before curling up into our sleeping bags.
Day 2: Lake @ 1514 to Snowy Gorge Hut
Distance: ~8km (estimate scaled from map retroactively)
Elevation: +375m, -765m
I woke up quite early to use the bathroom, but ended up grabbing my camera and taking photos as the sun rose above our campsite.
The frost on the tussocks was melting and turning to dew, and the sun was rising on the peaks above the lake, illuminating them in pink light. Once the sun had risen a bit further, we made breakfast, packed up our things, and began a big day of climbing.
The route that we chose followed a small stream up the slope, which would eventually lead to another small tarn. It was immediately a steeper grade than the day before, and the tussocks beneath our feet quickly disappeared and were replaced with loose rocks. Generally, these were quite stable.
After about an hour of climbing, we reached the bowl beneath the saddle that we were aiming to cross.
We had two options: stay left, and clamber through some larger boulders to gain elevation, or stay right, and climb through loose scree. We opted to try climbing through the boulders, as this would probably be quicker and more stable than the scree.
This may have been our first tactical mistake. At first, the boulders seemed solid, but the further up we got, the looser they got. I was extremely worried about setting off a rockslide, and we ended up bailing out of this route and returning to where we had started from. We continued along a ridge to keep our elevation high before attempting to climb up the scree on the right side of the slope.
From our original vantage point, this looked like scree, but it wasn’t as deep as we had anticipated. While we didn’t end up taking two steps forward and one step back, it was extremely slippery. My mind was very focused on where each of my feet went as we switchbacked up this slope slowly.
Finally, we reached the saddle we were aiming for, and celebrated with a lunch break overlooking the Barrier Range. As we ate our delicious tuna we consulted our maps and discussed the afternoon’s route. Again, we had two options. We could take a valley to the left, or we could take a valley to the right, to get to Snowy Gorge Creek. The valley to the left was slightly steeper, but was a more direct route to Snowy Gorge Hut. It looked like mostly a scree slope which meant it would be quick to get down because we could just slide. The valley on the right was more mellow but would require some backtracking along the river valley to get to Snowy Gorge Hut.
Blood sugar back to a reasonable range, we opted for the route on the left, and set off along the ridgeline. This was another tactical mistake. We traversed across another set of volcanic boulders, which were not as loose as the boulders earlier that morning, but which still required a great deal of focus. Finally, we arrived at the scree slope, which we essentially skied down, trying not to bail. At the base of the bowl was the start of a small river, which we traced down towards Snowy Gorge Hut.
The terrain beside the river was surprisingly lush, with several varieties of green plants. I welcomed this change of scenery until one of my legs gently brushed one of the leaves on one particular plant, and I winced, a visible scrape beginning to bleed on my leg. That was a particularly sharp leaf! I thought to myself. Then my leg brushed another sharp leaf, leaving another scrape.
This was my first encounter with Spaniards. Not the nationality, but the plant.
I tried to dodge these plants, but they were so dense along this small stream that I couldn’t avoid them. Every second step I cried out as if my legs were getting paper cuts. I fell on the slippery tussocks frequently, resulting in even more scrapes and cuts all over my arms and legs.
After what felt like FOREVER, we saw Snowy Gorge Hut in the valley below us. We found a rocky outcrop and began to clamber down it to avoid any further encounters with the Spaniards. Soon after, we leaped over a small stream, and arrived at our final destination after 9 hours of bushwhacking. I don’t think I have EVER been as relieved to arrive at my destination as I was on this day.
Once we had claimed our bunks, we returned back to the glacial stream we had leaped over to wash the blood off of our legs and to soak our aching feet. My legs burned as I submerged them in the stream. I swear there was not a square inch of skin that had not somehow been damaged by those bloody spiky plants.
After cleaning ourselves off somewhat, we made a hearty pot of lentil daal, which we demolished, and after watching the sunset across the ridge we had traversed that day, we fell asleep very quickly.
Day 3: Snowy Gorge Hut to Dumbbell Lake
Distance: ~10km (estimate scaled from map retroactively)
Elevation: +432m
I awoke many times that night to nightmares of rogue Spaniards.
Just kidding! After that day I was absolutely knackered and slept like a rock.
We were up and at it fairly early, and after some breakfast, headed northwards up Snowy Creek. This section of the track was marked with poles and a bit more trodden down than yesterday’s route, which made for quick walking along the valley floor. The route quickly climbs to a saddle, and then descends into the valley, where it enters the Ohau Forest and eventually reached Maitland Hut.
We followed this same route to the saddle, but stayed high at the saddle and traversed around the bottom of an unnamed peak, and turned right, where we followed another lush riverbed full of Spaniards up towards Dumbbell Lake. As with yesterday, I found myself falling over frequently, further aggravating the remaining skin on my legs.
We continued upwards along the creek at a moderate grade, and after one last steep push, we arrived at Dumbbell Lake, where we set up camp for the night.
We cooked our final dinner in the tent as the sun set over Mount St. Mary and Mt. Stafford across the valley. I found this extremely novel as it would never be bear-safe to cook in your tent back in Canada! After some delicious ramen we curled up and went to sleep, tired after another long day, with our biggest day of elevation gain still ahead of us.
Day 4: Dumbbell Lake to Sawyer Creek Car Park
Distance: ~10km
Elevation: +233m, -1,250m
After three days in the backcountry, our packs were much lighter, and we were looking forward to a hot shower and a hamburger, not necessarily in that order. Once we had packed up our campsite and eaten some breakfast, we began to climb to another saddle, which we would cross before descending back to our vehicle via Parsons Creek. This was fairly smooth sailing, and we reached the saddle after only a couple of hours. From here, we continued downwards through a steep tussocky section, before we caught a ridge and began to follow it downwards, downwards into the creek. Once the creek started in full, we entered back into a sub-alpine beech forest, and were able to make fairly good time following the creek downwards until we hit the Alps to Ocean Trail again.
From here we backtracked to the car along this well-formed trail, and once we reached the parking lot and dropped off our bags we gave our feet one well-earned soak in the creek before heading back to Twizel for a large burger, fries, and some beer.
Summary
I’ll be honest, my biggest takeaway from this trip is a crippling fear of spiky plants. I spent weeks applying Paw Paw cream to my legs, which were completely slashed from the bushwhacking on Days 2 and 3. Next time, I will definitely wear long pants!
Otherwise, this is a stunning area of the country, and it was fun to embark on such an adventure and to feel like we had the alpine to ourselves.
Have you ever been to any of these tarns in and around the Ahuriri Conservation Park?
