After a relaxing night at the Rough and Tumble Bush Lodge, it was time to start our hike on The Old Ghost Road. We left our car at the end of the track and got a shuttle the 115 kilometers to the trail head at Lyell.
The Old Ghost Road gets its name from an old map of the area from around 1886 which shows a survey of two old mining dray roads through this area. Although the map shows the two roads connecting, when the track was first imagined, no one knew if the routes had ever actually been connected.
The first part of the track was the dray road from the site of the former mining settlement of Lyell. This part of the original mining road through the area provided access to many of the mines and towns that sprang up in this valley during the gold rush of the late 1860’s.
The track climbed steadily through the forest, passing the sites of former gold mines, mine workings and settlements. At the peak of the mining in this valley, around 2,000 people lived in the area, despite it being known as the most ‘inaccessible goldfield in New Zealand’.
The steady grade meant that we were able to make good progress up through the valley. Having visited many of the mining remains on a previous trip, we continued up through the forest. Although the mining in the Lyell Valley was always marginal, the final blow to the area was the magnitude 7.3 earthquake that struck in June of 1929. Although the so called Murchison earthquake caused limited damage on the South Island, throughout our hike we saw evidence of the impact that it had on this remote area.
The track continued to climb through the trees, and although we passed the regular kilometer markers, it wasn’t until we got to a break in the trees that we were able to appreciate how far we had climbed from the valley bottom.
As we got closer to Lyell Saddle, our destination for the night, we came to an area known as the Big Slips. This section was another reminder of the impact that earthquakes have had on the valley as the original dray road had been buried in a rockfall. Each of the huts had a book describing the building of The Old Ghost Road, and the photographs of the workers abseiling down the cliffs to cut out the bench for the track in this section made it easy to appreciate how much work it was to restore this part of trail.
After another few easy kilometers through the forest we were pleasantly surprised to see the sign pointing us to Lyell Saddle hut, our destination for the night. As The Old Ghost is a run by a trust, rather than the Department of Conservation, we were able to book small sleepouts for our trip. These small, private cabins were tucked away from the main hut facilities and helped make the track feel a little more luxurious.
After getting settled in to our little cabin, we made our way over to the main hut and found a sunny spot for dinner on the deck looking out over the mountains. Sitting in the sunshine, watching the light change over the mountains, we couldn’t believe how lucky we were to have such amazing weather. After a pretty damp spring, even in Christchurch, to have even one clear day, on the West Coast felt like quite a treat!