The Lewis Pass area in Lake Sumner Forest Park is filled with attractive valleys and wonderful tussock tops, but the Nina River, flowing out towards Canterbury, is a standout for me.

Emerald river water, beech forest that reminds me of Fangorn in Lord of the Rings, and an easy introduction on a good track make this a great place to start a trip. From here, we head south, crossing two ranges and end up back on the Lewis Pass Road, about 15 kilometres from where we started, taking about four or five days.

Crossing the tussock ranges gives high, wide views and opportunities to explore the alpine flora. Celmisias, Edelweiss, and later in the season, gentians. Down in the valleys, grass flats, magnificent mature beech forest, and the occasional stunning gorge with deep pools offer places to swim and linger. But not too long, or the sandflies will come looking, looking, biting, biting...

The route

The first day we head up the Nina Valley to the tops and Devils Den biv (hut), but maybe take a tent as the biv only has two bunks and others may be there.

A marked route leads down Devilskin Stream into the Doubtful River. Upstream from here pick up the Kedron River track onto the Doubtful Range, where the second night will be in or around the Lake Man biv.

Leading down Pussy Stream, the track continues to the open Hope Valley. Here, there is a side trip that leads to Hot Spring Stream, where you can soak in a section of the creek, always a welcome extra on a tramping trip. Or you can head down valley, and follow the Hope Kiwi track out to the shelter beside the Lewis Pass Road at Windy Point.

Need to know

For the Southern Alps this is mellow country, and there are tracks and huts along the route.

While this basic trip has lots of interest, there is ample opportunity to add another couple of days and visit Lake Sumner as well. For this, Hope Kiwi Lodge offers handy initial overnight accommodation, and from there a loop via the Hope Kiwi track and Lake Sumner shore, returning along the Three Mile Stream track back to the lodge over a couple of days, is a great option.

This is a rich tramping experience, a little different to the basic trip, where extensive Kowhai groves flower in early spring, and the red beech forest along the lakeshore is nothing short of stately.

In the Hurunui valley opposite Mackenzie Stream there is another hot spring just off the Harper Pass track, but this is a little out of the way for the loop. I’ve always found the return to Hope Kiwi Lodge along the Three Mile Stream track brimming with wonderful birdlife, parakeets, kaka, robins, tomtits, fantails, bellbirds, and many others. Then you are back at Hope Kiwi Lodge, ready to follow the Hope Kiwi track down the Hope Valley to the Windy Point carpark by SH7.