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Wilderness Magazine
Nov 13, 2025
High Country Gold
High Country Gold
00:00
15:51
Transcript
0:00
Hi, it's Alistair here from Wilderness. I'm joined by Victoria Bruce, the author of High Country Gold, the off the beaten track story we published in our December twenty twenty-five issue.
0:09
It's about three days she spent tramping in Otiake Conservation Park with her daughter Emily. Victoria will read her story for us, and at the end, we'll have a short Q&A about the trip. Kia ora, Victoria, over to you.
0:22
Kia ora, Alistair. Thank you. So here goes. This is the historic heart of Otiake Conservation Park.
0:32
In the high hills above Central Otago, there's a moment when the world seems to fall away and time unfolds. The wind scours the golden tussock as shadows from a shifting sky ripple across an undulating sweep of land.
0:50
In Otiake Conservation Park, you can almost hear the ring of shovels, the creak of timber carts, and the muffled voices of gold miners chasing fortune on windblown ridges.
1:04
We came seeking solitude, stories, and the stark beauty of Otago's High Country.
1:11
On the three-day circuit, we traced a roughly fifty-kilometer loop through old gold workings and passed three characterful backcountry huts.
1:23
The sixty-seven thousand hectare Otiake Conservation Park is a sprawling mountainous area incorporating the Saint Bathans, Yew, Hawkton, Ida, and Saint Mary's Ranges.
1:37
Gold was found in the eighteen sixties at Guffey's Creek and at twelve hundred meters on Mount Buster. The claims grew into Buster Diggings, New Zealand's highest altitude gold workings.
1:52
At its peak, the area supported a population of more than seven hundred, all scratching a living from quartz gravels. Today, the diggers are long gone, but their legacy is etched into the hills.
2:06
Bleached tailings snake through the gullies, rusted iron and stone foundations tell of once busy settlements, and the huts stand as quiet memorials to a hardy way of life.
2:20
Our journey began with a steep push up the Mount Kyeburn Track from Dansey's Pass Road. The track climbs more than nine hundred vertical meters, zigzagging up a spur.
2:33
Tussock swayed and tiny white gentians shone in the sun. We turned off before the summit to cross point one five five eight, a rounded high point offering sweeping views across the Otiake Highlands.
2:50
From here, we descended a gentle ridge through a scoured landscape of diggings and tailings to reach Brown Hut after five hours. Built by a miner in nineteen forty-nine from mānuka poles and sheet metal,
3:06
Brown Hut is rough and ready. There's no insulation and the wind whistles through the gaps, but it's rich with atmosphere. Local lore has it the miner's wife and daughters lived here for a time too.
3:21
You can almost picture smoke curling from a stove pipe and hear the sound of laughter carried on the wind.
3:30
The sun dipped below the ranges and the sky changed from orange to deep purple and finally to blackish blue with winking stars.
3:40
The temperature plummeted on the frozen plateau, and we were grateful for the shelter of the hut. During the night, rain started to fall and dripped onto my sleeping bag through holes in the cladding.
3:53
I begged to share my daughter Emily's bunk, which was still dry. Morning dawned to dark and heavy with thick low cloud masking the ranges.
4:06
It began to snow, and we frolicked in it briefly before retreating inside for another round of hot drinks. Eventually, the clouds swept off over the plateau, and sun was back in force.
4:21
We left the bulk of our gear at Brown Hut and took light packs on a day trip to explore other huts in the area.
4:29
From Brown Hut, we dropped into the cool shade of Brown's Creek before climbing again onto a spur leading to Green Gully Hut.
4:39
Also constructed in the late nineteen-forties by the same miner, Green Gully is a small corrugated iron and crumbling stone structure nestled below a shelf of tussock and surrounded by old sluicing scars and rusted relics.
4:56
A collection of tools, shovels, buckets, sluice parts, are propped against the wall or hang inside.
5:05
We spent some time sweeping out the hut and exploring the surroundings, including mounds of tailings and water races carved by hand.
5:16
From Green Gully Hut, we wandered three kilometers down a long spur, then descended steeply to Tailings Hut on the far side of Guffey's Creek.
5:26
The stream sparkled in the sunlight, winding through a land that once thundered with water and gravel during the sluicing days. Tailings Hut is another relic of the gold mining era, though much altered.
5:41
It is an amalgamation of three huts with different histories. The two bunk rooms were once single men's quarters used during the construction of Roxburgh Hydro Dam.
5:53
The larger building, constructed in the nineteen-thirties by farmers who previously held the occupation license for the site, is now the kitchen. The twelve-bunk hut would be a good base for exploring the area
6:09
After lunch, we continued via me- via a meandering route that hugged the true right of Guffey's Creek, startling a group of dirt bike riders who were somewhat forlornly walking their bikes through the icy creek to rejoin the four-wheel drive track.
6:26
We stuck to the bank, smug in our dry boots, before climbing 200 meters up the spur and along the ridge back to Brown Hut.
6:36
The afternoon light threw long shadows across the tussock and gave the landscape a burnished glow.
6:44
But neither of us wanted to spend another cold night in Brown Hut, so after a spur-of-the-moment decision, we set off in the direction of Green Gully Hut, anticipating the warmth of its wood stove and ample supply of firewood.
7:00
Following the spur above Third Gully down into Browns Creek, we pulled our way up the other side through thick clumps of tussock as night fell.
7:11
Green Gully Hut loomed out of the darkness, and its stove was a welcome companion that evening as the wind rose outside.
7:20
By the light from the open fire, we made up our beds on the wooden bunks and sank into two small lounge chairs, soaking up the warmth of the flames, waiting for our billy to boil.
7:34
The next morning, thick frost transformed the rolling landscape into a wintry blue wonderland, delicate crystals dancing over the tussock.
7:45
We stomped our feet and blew into our gloves, waiting for the first kiss of the rising sun before we climbed directly up the ridge behind the hut to point 1550,
7:58
then traversed the contour to rejoin the Mount Kyeburn track. The descent was familiar but no less stirring.
8:08
Looking back over the wide expanse of Otiaki, we could see the folds of the land we had traversed, each ridge and gully with its own story.
8:20
As grand as the landscape is, Otiaki's appeal also lies in the park's unique layering of geology, ecology, and history.
8:32
These highlights are alive with light and shadow, a constantly changing canvas of golden hues, distant ranges, and sky. People built huts here by hand, and miners braved bitter winters for the chance of gold.
8:50
We left tired but grateful, boots dusted with white gravel, minds full of images we won't forget.
9:00
A hawk gliding over the ridgeline, the silence of Brown Creek, the spark of a match in a cold hut, a golden swirl of tussock in the wind. This place offers memory, myth, and meaning.
9:17
All you have to do is walk. Thanks, Victoria. That's a great story. So, um, I've got some questions that might help listeners plan their own trip to this area.
9:29
Can you start by talking us through the planning for the trip and why you chose this route? Yeah, absolutely.
9:36
This was a beautiful option, um, on the eastern side of the divide at a time when we'd actually planned a much longer trip, um, on the western side, and ultimately our plan A got rained out of action.
9:52
And so, um, with the weather forecast what it is, what it was, um, we found that this, um, eastern side of the divide, slightly lower down the South Island has promised, um, the best weather window.
10:07
Nate, um, the Mount, Mount Kyeburn track gains 900 meters on that first day, and you mentioned there's some off-track navigation at other times.
10:15
Can you talk us through the most challenging parts and the skills someone might need to, um, attempt this trip if they, you know, wanted to follow your footsteps?
10:25
Yeah, knowing how to read your topo map and, um, correspond that to the landscape, um, in front of you, um, would be an important skill.
10:34
And also ensuring even though in good weather these are beautiful, wide open rolling tops, um, you know, ensuring that you've got, um, that good weather and good visibility because otherwise, you know, off-track navigation does become, uh, a lot more challenging if you can't see where you're going.
10:53
For me, this route was not particularly challenging, um, by way of off-track navigation.
10:59
Um, however, just being mindful that in the colder months, you know, it can be covered in snow and obstacles can become obscured, landmarks can be harder to read, and, um, some of the points, um, like point five five oh and point eight, um, obviously go up quite high
11:17
and, um, can become icy on their southern slopes. Yeah, great advice. Thank you. Um, the huts sound pretty atmos- atmospheric but, um, also quite basic.
11:30
If you returned, would you take anything special to make nights more comfortable, or would you change your route to avoid or fav- favor certain huts? Yeah. Um, ultimately they were all fairly basic huts.
11:45
I mean, Tailings Hut was probably the, um, most comfortable in terms of, you know, having bunks and having, uh, tables and chairs and, and so on inside.
11:56
But on the other hand, it was also quite a cold little box [chuckles] with a bunk room that was, um, separate to the main kind of, um, eating and cooking area, which ensured, you know, the bunk room would be quite cold.
12:08
But, um, Tailings Hut, um, might be, might be great for families and people who perhaps aren't as ready to take on the rustic huts.
12:16
But As, uh, you saw in the story, while Brown Hut was a, you know, a really welcome shelter while it was, um, snowing outside, uh, none of us really wanted to take on a second night there when we knew that, um, Green Gully Hut, um, just on the next ridgeline had a fireplace.
12:34
And not just a fireplace, but a little supply of firewood. So that was a no-brainer to, um, to head back over there.
12:41
But yeah, these are definitely, you know, beautiful, historic, rustic huts, so people need to keep that in mind and keep their expectations in line. Yeah. They sound fabulous. Um,
12:54
is there any gear that you took that you were especially glad to have, or is there anything that, um, you wish you had brought with you? Hmm. I think we were a bit low on the dessert.
13:03
We really love to take a little Real Meals chocolate cake pudding with us when we go, and I think we were all out this time, so we had to make do with some [laughs]... I think we'd like...
13:12
The next one is, you know, Milky Mush biscuits. Milky Mush chocolate biscuits are always a welcome one.
13:17
Um, gear-wise, it was a, a pretty cold night, so I took, uh, the luxury of upping the weight to my winter weight sleeping bag for this trip, which was obviously a bit heavier, but, you know, two really cozy nights, so worth, worth the carry.
13:34
Were there any particular sights or moments or discoveries that made this trip stand out for you? Yeah, I really loved, um, the diggings up around the, the Brown Hut.
13:44
You know, just those amazing colors and swirls, especially the time of afternoon that we got there when the light was really long and soft with those kind of pinks and reds and fading purple of the sky.
13:56
Um, that was really beautiful. And spotting the wildflowers the next day on the ridgeline.
14:02
And it was a really lovely day kind of weaving our way up Guffey's Creek and, um, choosing to stick to the, the true right, all that, um, amazingly beautiful clear water and little bits of ice forming in places.
14:18
So yeah, a lovely opportunity just to be in a great, big, wide-open country where it felt like, apart from the encountering the motorcyclists, we felt like the only people around.
14:31
Um, so what's your key advice, do you think, for anyone looking to tackle this route, Victoria? Um, I think if possible, give yourself a bit more time so you can go a bit further.
14:41
I mean, by the time you get, um, up to, um, Brown Hut, you know, you've got Mount Buster and those beautiful diggings not so far away if you have time to take a detour to them.
14:52
If you're, you know, feeling up to it, I think it would be a wonderful place to go, uh, do some mountain biking and some, some bike packing to some of these areas and be able to cover, cover the ground more quickly.
15:07
And, um, from Tailings Hut, that's a wonderful jumping-off point to explore, yeah, other huts and tracks in the region. And for people, you know, not to be...
15:18
Don't be afraid if it's your first time maybe trialing some off-track navigation.
15:22
I mean, in the right conditions, this would be a lovely place to, you know, to try, uh, going off track perhaps between spurs and linking things up.
15:32
It can definitely, um, lead to a much wilder experience and something a bit less prescriptive and more magical. Yeah. Neat. Mm-hmm. Uh, well, thanks so much, Victoria. Um, we really appreciate your time and your reading.
15:44
You, you brought that story to life. It, it just sounds like a marvelous trip. Thank you. Oh, thank you, Alastair. Thank you so much for having me.
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