Over the 2018 Christmas Holiday, we decided to divide our time between working on the house and heading out to explore some more of the West Coast. Our plan was to tackle The Old Ghost Road, an eighty-five kilometre (53 mile) walking track that links the former gold mining settlement of Lyell with the Mokihinui Valley near the coast.
The West Coast is well know for it’s rain, with December still being considered one of the wetter months, however, as we drove over Lewis Pass, we were pleased to see beautiful clear skies. As it was low tide, we decided to stop off at the beach at Mokihinui to enjoy the weather and stretch our legs.
The tide was incredibly low and we were able to walk all the way out to the sandbar at the mouth of the river. We were also able to get a closer look at the remains of the SS Lawrence, a steamer that wrecked on the sandbar here in April of 1891.
The tide was much lower than on our previous visit and we were able to see the remains of the hull of the ship. It was amazing to see how solid the surviving parts of the structure were, despite having been exposed to the tides and wild West Coast weather for so many years.
From the mouth of the Mokihinui River we were able to look up the valley that we would be walking through at the end of our hike. The low clouds settled over the tops of the mountains in the Glasgow Range behind didn’t bode well for our traverse of the ridges, but with the weather already better than we could have hoped for we were looking forward to getting out to explore The Old Ghost Road.
From the beach, we drove the final few kilometers to the Rough and Tumble Bush Lodge, which is located at the end of the track. We had decided to treat ourselves to a comfy night at the lodge, before we started our walk in the morning. The small building was located just next to the river and from every part of the building you could hear the rush of the Mokihinui River.
We went down to the banks of the river to explore for a while before heading back up to the lodge for dinner. Despite being tucked away deep in the New Zealand bush, we were treated to a delicious pre-hiking feast prepared by a French chef! After chatting for a while with some of the other guests that had just finished the track, and with very full bellies, we went to bed looking forward to starting our adventures in the morning.