Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Rd; sites from $22, cabins $54-79) is small and well maintained. Across the street from the Do-
main is Mt Somers Tavern ( 03-303 9879; Hoods Rd) with meals, a pub and a bottle shop.
Mt Somers is little more than a one-hour drive from Christchurch via Methven. There is no
public transport to the town.
8 Getting to/from the Tramp
The Sharplin Falls car park is 4km northwest of Staveley at the end of Flynns Rd. The
Woodshed Creek car park is closest to Mt Somers: follow Ashburton Gorge Rd for 10.5km
and turn right onto Jig Rd.
Methven Travel ( 03-302 8106, 0800 684 888; www.methventravel.co.nz ) will drop you off
or pick you up at either end of the track from Methven (per person one/two people $55/30).
If you have your own vehicle the best way to arrange transport is a shuttle from Staveley.
Westray Farm ( 03-303 0809) , located only 2km from the Sharplin Falls car park, will
shuttle you to the trailhead and return your car to secure parking while you're tramping (per
car $30).
The Tramp
Day 1: Sharplin Falls Car Park to Woolshed Creek Hut
6-7 HOURS, 12KM
From the car park you begin with the signposted Sharplin Falls Track . Follow it along
Bowyers Stream for five minutes, before departing onto Mt Somers Track and climbing
steeply to Duke Knob (739m), a rhyolite outcrop reached in 45 minutes. A short detour
from the track leads to the knob and its panoramic views of the beech forest below and the
plains further afield.
Beyond Duke Knob, skirt a ridge and then drop steeply to Bowyers Stream . Be careful
sidling around the slip reached just before crossing Pony Stream . On the other side the
track passes through a small flat, and then crosses to the true right (south) bank of Bowyers
Stream via a swing bridge.
Once on the other side you follow Bowyers Stream, staying on the true right bank (south)
while climbing around a number of bluffs. Eventually the track leaves the stream and climbs
One Tree Ridge for one hour before reaching Slaughterhouse Gully and Pinnacles Hut (20
bunks), complete with potbelly stove and water supply. The hut is a three-hour tramp and a
 
 
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