Jude and I (well Jude anyway) decided to walk a section of the Long Hilly Walking Track located in the Longwood Forest at the base of the Longwood Range in Southland, the Long Hilly Walking Track, also known as the, the Round Hill Walking Track, is a glimpse into New Zealand’s goldmining history. The short, easy rainforest loop walk takes you along paths once used for gold mining, however over time it has been slowly reclaimed by native shrubs and trees.
The walk is a short, easy loop of approximately 2.3 km and takes around 45 minutes at an easy pace. The track is mostly gravelled and well-formed, with gentle undulations and a total elevation gain of about 80 metres. It winds through native forest and is comfortable walk for most people.
As you walk, you’ll encounter remnants of this era, including a historic logging tramline, hand-dug waterways and earth dams of which only in our minds could we imagine such a tough thankless job it was. One particularly interesting section of the track follows a deep channel through the forest, where ferns and trees are gradually reclaiming the channel’s.
The Round Hill Walking Track is part of Te Araroa Trail. Today Jude had decided we extend our hike by continuing on Te Araroa to attempt a visit the historic Turnbull Hut, ascend to the high point of the ranges at 764 metres definitely was not on our plan as was the Ports Water Race Track which travels along the east side of the range, it was so overgrown we missed it anyway.
Damn Mud!
We never made to the Turnbull Hut as the track was wet and full calf deep sections of mud making going tough as we sort collateral routes up the climb to the top. On the way we met three young women who had walked the Te Araroa Trail and were heading down to Colac Bay and although it appeared obvious they had been in knee deep bog along the trail they seemed in good spirit and not long after we crossed paths with another couple who had endured and struggled through thigh deep mud poor buggers. At an hour and a half of slogging it out we stopped for our lunch, of cheese sandwiches and a stove top espresso coffee.
After a lovely well earned break we continued on for another half hour completing 4kms before turning for the return trip down hill.
The return trip back was downhill, however as we tried to maintain dry feet we sort out similar collateral routes to avoid the boggy sections. It was a good 4 hour hike up and down the short section a 8km round trip we did and were very pleased that at no time did we feel it taxed our fitness and determination, the only thing was we had limited time and the track conditions put the hut outside the available time limit we set for the walk.
We will attempt this walk again next summer and hopefully the track will be in better condition for us to get to the Turnbull hut, after all it was only 2.5 kilometre’s further up the hill approximately another hours slog.