Bikers, botanists, birders, butterfly buffs; a multi-day tramp on a popular track reveals more than beautiful landscapes.

Some people prefer tents to huts in order to avoid the crowds. Fair enough, but on a recent walk along the Old Ghost Road, the diversity of people in the huts added to our trip experience.

Obviously there were bikers, some relishing and others challenged by this 85km, single-track mountain ride. The first were of the 60-plus set, courteous and puffing a bit when overtaking us. In Lyell Saddle Hut we spent the evening discussing community traplines we were involved with around the country.

Also at Lyell Saddle were The Botanists, three knowledgeable women with a host of plant photos they would share on iNaturalist when they returned home. My companion was a botanist, and she was in her element discussing the potential rarities they’d found. A large-leafed plant beside the Mokihinui had them all mystified. It’s since been confirmed as Brachyglottis hectorii, named after geologist James Hector and endemic to this region – which explains the mystification.

These women also shared excellent bird photos: a tomtit, korimako bellbird, elusive titipounamu rifleman, and the shy mātātā fernbird they’d heard and waited 40 minutes for it to show itself. They didn’t rest after dinner but were out with headlamps on red beam searching for the kiwi screeching metres from the hut. In fact, following a 1080 drop last year, the birdsong on this trip was possibly the best I’ve heard in decades of tramping. 

At Ghost Lake Hut we met The Engineers, 10 biking friends who had sent a helicopter ahead with boxes of booze and food. Their rule was: take all their rubbish out. As they gathered on the veranda with their many beers, we feared this could get messy. It didn’t. They were lovely blokes. They shared their beers, cheeses and homemade quince jelly, didn’t stay up late, and carried out every single can, bottle and bit of left-over food on their bikes.

We didn’t expect The Butterfly Buffs. We’d spotted two people standing beside Ghost Lake for ages, and wondered what they were doing. Turns out they were Roger and Sarah Frost, entomologists from Murchison. 

“The Lyell Tops are interesting for native butterflies,” Roger told us. “We saw a Butler’s ringlet today, an alpine species with a restricted distribution. This is its northernmost known location.”

But they were really looking for signs of the much rarer forest ringlet that had been spotted on the track last year. “They are on the wing for less than a month so are most easily confirmed by locating caterpillars,” he said. It was not to be. After a day of checking more than 100 larval host plants they found no fresh notches on leaves that would indicate caterpillars and a resident breeding population.

Stern Hut was action-packed. Canadian ‘Wwoofers’ (Worldwide opportunities on organic farms), Taya and Christine, were enjoying the OGR as an introduction to multi-day bike-packing. They were staying two nights on the track. Newbie biker Christine was feeling challenged, but Taya thought they could have “crushed it out” faster. We thought they were moving quite fast enough. 

And then The Runners arrived. Three sweaty blokes. From Lyell. Yes, that’s a marathon. They jumped in the river. They lit the fire to dry their undies, played cards with the Canadians and said they were running out the next day to Seddonville. Another marathon. 

At 5pm a lone biker rolled up. He’d come from Lyell. “I rode the Paparoa Track this morning,” he said. That was a conversation stopper. He cycled on into the evening gloom. We assume he made it out. 

At Specimen Point, eight women from Wānaka wheeled in. They’d come 50km from Lyell Saddle and for one night the gender balance tipped: we were 13 women in the hut and just one bloke. 

It wasn’t only me enjoying the diversity of fellow travellers. Canadian Christine loved the connections she made in the huts. “I’m a people person, so although the trail was gorgeous, the people I met along the way were what made the trip more meaningful. It was crazy to run into another Canadian guy biking who knew someone I went to high school with from my small mountain town; wonderful to meet the hilarious Kiwi trail runners saving our cheeks with their homemade chafing cream; and so cool to meet that badass group of confidence-building women at Specimen Point.” 

Bikers, botanists, birders, butterfly buffs, badasses and trail runners – it takes all sorts.