Secreted in the wild heart of South Westland, the upper Edison River provides epic views of the Strachan Range and its outlying summits. Sheer-sided ridges, gorges, impenetrable subalpine scrub, and fickle weather make such hard-won views ones to savour.

Our party had set up camp here for a week’s exploring and tahr hunting in the Hooker-Landsborough Wilderness Area. We scored two kills and this fantastic campsite below the Edison Glacier snout at 1200m.

South of our camp rose the giants of the region: Mts Strachan, 2561m and Dechen, 2643m. The latter claiming the distinction of having New Zealand’s only icecap glacier. Our location was beyond stunning, but not without its difficulties, including gales, rain and snow.