Climbing Lindis Peak (1226m) in Central Otago is a lesser known up and down walk with 360 degree views of the area, including the distinctive St Bathans Range, and distant snowy peaks of the Main Divide.
Sophia and I had driven through the Lindis Valley on our way to Mt Cook at Christmas time in 2015. After doing most of the regular day walks around Queenstown, I decided to drive out this way again in winter 2016 for the walk up Lindis Peak, and it did not disappoint. There are 360 degree views of the surrounding Central Otago countryside, (and over the border into Canterbury), including the impressive St Bathans Range, and distant snowy peaks of the Southern Alps.
In 2016 there were cloud inversions in the Lindis Valley and other distant valleys all day, making it a particularly photogenic affair. Not so attractive when I took Sophia up in 2017, but I’ve included a few pics from then also.
An obvious track/route the whole way.
Here’s a DOC link to walks in the area, including this one. Starts off in pasture, but on the occasions we did it there was relatively little animal dung. The upper sections are a reserve with typical tussock grass and the dangerously spiky spear grass (or Spaniards). A good walk for cooler weather as there’s no shade. About 800m change in elevation; of moderate difficulty. The track starts roughly at the marked spot in the map below (there are signs and just a little space for parking)…
Lindis Peak Track: The Scenery
24th June 2016
To prevent a mountainous cold sore, my wife Sophia stayed at home on the day I first did this walk in 2016. It was a shame because there were excellent cloud inversions all day, making the already good views even better.
The drive in . Big fruit by the road side means this is Cromwell. A misty start. I had to drive through this for ages. Looking up at Lindis Peak from just above the mist. The distinctively shaped St Bathans Range peaks at about 2098m of elevation. Taken from the summit of Lindis Peak (1226m). The Lindis Valley remained a cloud sink all day.
The distant snow clad peaks of the Main Divide visible in this zoomed, and so slightly blurry shot. These far off shots look better in real life. Looking west.
Roughly midway between the bottom of the photo and the horizon, there is a tiny plane looking like a speck of dust, dwarfed by the scale of the scenery. This just slightly below the summit taken on the way down, when the cloud was in fact moving more into the valley. It looks like a soup. Me on the summit; taken by a friendly German couple, Lukas and Anika, the only others on the mountain today. On the way down. Fluffy clouds. Approaching the wall of cloud. One of my wife’s favourite shots. In the mist of things. Back down under the cloud. Near the end. Sustenance before driving home. An “eegg”, since this is NZ. Pisa Range and Lake Dunstan, taken on the drive home from Lindis Peak. An excellent Kiwi black IPA (actually I like all black IPAs), and a beer from Fullers, one of my favourite brewers ever (from London as the name suggests).
14th May 2017
From the summit looking back down the route up. Distant snowy peaks. From the summit looking north. Not sure what this was, but it looked like one of those rock-like succulents. Fungus perhaps. The cloud capped Saint Bathans Range in the distance. Spaniards. They’re evil. The plants. Not the people.
