What better way to finish off a busy term one than a walk in the hills? An intrepid group of year 12/13 trampers set off to conquer Gillespie Pass as part of their circuit of the Wilkin and Young river valleys from start point at Makarora. Two of these young men were completing the expedition section of their Gold level Duke of Edinburgh’s Award.

Heading into the area just after some heavy rain meant that a jet-boat assisted crossing of the Makarora river was necessary to reach our start point. We still had a long way to walk up the Wilkin Valley and set up camp just before dark at Kerin Forks. Our second day started with a steep climb up into the Siberia Valley through beautiful beech forest in a narrow gorge. We paused to fill out intentions in the Siberia Hut log book then continued on to set up camp beside the Gillespie Stream. After lunch we set out on a side trip to visit the picturesque Crucible Lake – a very steep 600 metre vertical climb above the valley floor, before returning to our campsite for a well-deserved meal and sleep. With barely any time to recover from the exertions of the day before, our third day was another steep climb of just over 1000 vertical metres to reach the impressive Gillespie Pass. At 1600 metres above sea level on a calm sunny day, we were able to enjoy stunning views of all the surrounding peaks while we ate lunch. What goes up must come down, so we had the opportunity to test an entirely different set of muscles as we descended the 1000 metres again into the head of the Young Valley. We by-passed the Young Hut and continued on down the valley to the Young Forks campsite where again it was just on dark as we set up the tents and had dinner. Day 4 was our easiest day, with just 8km of gentle descent to reach the Makarora River. The track was made even more interesting in places by several washouts from the recent West Coast flooding. The river had cleared but was still quite high, and the boys made the sensible call that trying to cross was not the best option even though it meant an extra 7km hike downstream to the bridge at the Blue Pools track.

There were some tired legs getting back into the van (mine included) after clocking up a distance of 68 km over the 4 days in some challenging terrain. This was another highly successful trip with a great bunch of young men – sadly for some their final adventure with our tramping group.