Nature Tourism - History in the making, hiking tracks; Eldrig Peak, Fiordland or Te Rua-o-Te-Moko National Park hike, Part 1

Content Partner: Central and Western Murihiku Southland Archive. Eldrig Peak (1595m) - Part One. Hunter Mountains. Fiordland or Te Rua-o-Te-Moko National Park, on 22.11.2013. Images above taken by Mark Y Wilson and shared under a CC BY Creative Commons Licence. The text below is also licensed CC BY to Mark Y Wilson. Borland Adventures shared by Mark Y Wilson, NZ Hikes: Mountain weather can go from friendly to fierce very quickly. A small puff of cloud on the western horizon can become a storm faster than expected, and you can find yourself in a tricky situation in a place that has its own dangers and doesn’t need additional risk. After a couple of hairy situations I have learnt the importance of checking the forecast properly the hard way, but the forecast can not predict the movement of the clouds / mist. On this adventure I was going to discover that visibility can go from 100km to 100cm within a couple of minutes. I now happily live in beautiful Te Anau, 'The Gateway to Fiordland or Te Rua-o-Te-Moko National Park'. I also once lived in the south west corner of the inhabited part of the South Island in Tūātapere, which can also be described as a 'Gateway to Fiordland or Te Rua-o-Te-Moko National Park'. I enjoyed the quiet life in this sleepy little town when I was working on the Humpridge Track. The outstanding location of the two little towns means adventure is only a stone's throw away, and I have used this to my advantage many times. Both Te Anau and Tuatapere are less than an hour from the Lake Monowai turn-off on the Blackmount Road (the road between the two towns), as well as the always rewarding Borland Road. I knew I had a spare couple of hours one afternoon, so I decided to head from Tūātapere to climb Eldrig Peak via the Borland Road. After driving across the flats near Borland Lodge I managed to cut down on around an hour of my hike by driving my van up the very rough power-line access road to the start of the marked track. The road is more a 4wd track than road, but somehow my trusty Hiace van climbed the wild terrain with ease (apart from the difficult parts!) I followed the well marked track up through beech forest into the alpine scrub. This is the type of country I dream of! Open tussock-covered tops with views for miles in most directions. Before getting onto the upper reaches of the mountain I had to pass through a couple of boggy plateaus which are so good at hiding mud holes. With a single wet boot from not looking where I was going,