An Adventure in Gold Country – Victoria Forest Park
For our next tramping/fishing mission we chose to visit the Victoria Ranges. We based ourselves in the old gold mining town of Reefton for a few days. It felt like stepping back in time to the American mid-west. Steeped in history from the gold mining era, we chose to spend a few nights in the surrounding mountains. Tunnels and swingbridges Packing our gear up at the road end wasn’t as straight forward as usual. We discovered signs of a mouse raid in our van food supplies which, confounded by the extreme sandfly and bumblebee attacks, led to frayed tempers…the walk almost never began! In the end we decided the best course of action was to ignore our mouse woes and sort it out on our return to the van down the line. The first day was a steady 1000m climb from the road end up to the magnificently situated Kirwans Hut. Although it took a while, it was a pleasant walk to the hut through several distinct forest layers as we gained elevation. At points the forest was so dense it
