Returning to a hut after an energetic day climb feels good: a mixture of relief to be safely home, and euphoria from visiting a remote summit. This group has just climbed Iron Hill and is approaching Sylvester Hut. 

This corner of Kahurangi is layered with colonial history. Surveyor James Mackay first explored these lakes and peaks while on an arduous bush-bash from the Tākaka Valley in search of grazing land for his livestock in 1858. From his campsite at Lake Lockett, he climbed Iron Hill just after sunrise. His companion, John Lockett, initially named this 1695m mountain Mt Peel after his late friend, Captain Peel, and named the three lakes to the east after Peel’s ship, the Diamond. An early map shows this, but since then a hill further south has taken on the name Peel. 

To reach this jewelled, tarn-studded landscape, leave your car near the Cobb Dam. Climb the old bulldozed road, which punches through the bushline before meandering across tussock flats to Sylvester Hut with its grandstand view of the sun cresting the Arthur Range and reflecting off Tasman Bay. 

Many trampers make the visit to Lake Sylvester, named after a geologist who drowned in a 1931 boating accident. However, few venture beyond. An obvious ground trail leads past the outlet of Little Sylvester Lake, then meanders through boulder gardens to Iron Lake, which can freeze during winter. Look for a sizable rock cairn and memorial plaque among the rocky ramparts towering above. This indicates the well-cairned route on the eastern shoulder of Iron Hill, up a gully to the main ridge. Your legs may feel like iron at the summit, but the 360-degree panorama that Mackay described so long ago is worth the climb. 

Due west is Mt Domett; through a gap in the Karamea Gorge is the Tasman Sea; southeast is Mt Arthur; and due north is Taranaki Maunga, a faint mirage floating above the Taranaki Bight. From the hut, it’s a five-hour return trip.