This tramp to Mt Peel (1743m) is a long extension of the reasonably popular climb up Little Mt Peel, on the edge of the Canterbury Plains in the southwestern corner. I was lucky to do this walk on a day when there was a cloud inversion covering every square inch of the Canterbury Plains, providing a spectacular backdrop to about 9 hours of walking.
The views are already good from Little Mt Peel (1311m), so you’ll be wanting a physical challenge I think if you decide to continue on over Middle Mt Peel (1583m) to the ‘Big’ summit. Despite a fairly early start I met a couple of people climbing Little Mt Peel, but after that I didn’t meet another soul.
Walking above the clouds all day was most certainly memorable, but one problem is I can’t really show you what the area looks like normally. Nevertheless, you can see photos up to the summit of Little Mt Peel in my post for that walk (done in winter). Most of my photos below are from the section after Little Mt Peel.
Track notes at the end.
Mt Peel via Middle & Little Mt Peel: The Scenery
Moving on to Middle Mt Peel…
Arriving at the summit of Mt Peel…
Setting off back…
Track Notes
There’s a constructed track to the summit of Little Mt Peel. This track starts at the end of Lookout Road, however there’s no parking at the trail head, so you must walk up the road from the car park. You can get more information on this route, including a circuit option, in my blog post, and also on the DOC website.
After Little Mt Peel there’s an unmarked impact track for most of the way along the ridge to Mt Peel. There are sometimes options to pass below peaks to avoid a bit of climbing. The last bit towards the summit is rocky but otherwise it’s quite easy walking along this long ridge. The walk may take you 8-10 hours return. (Note: I just found out that the summit of Mt Peel is not actually on public land – this stops a few hundred metres short. The views from nearby the summit are still good, so you don’t have to visit the summit except for peak bagging rights).
Regarding the public land ending a few hundred metres before the summit, I just emailed Mt Peel Station asking for permission. One of the owners said it’s fine to walk to the summit along the tops – which I might do next week (although it’s such a long ridge that I’m not sure I’ll want to go all the way). I assume this permission extends all year, with the possible exception of spring lambing. There are probably very few lambs around 1700m elevation.
Hi Mark. Yes, there’s mostly just rocks and dirt up there. A few alpine plants that probably aren’t very tasty.
Hello Edward,
I just completed the trek to Mount Peel. It was a long, long, tough day. I never saw a single person all day. I did see a couple of deer near the summit. Got some great photos since I was able to get within 2 metres. They obviously had never seen a person before and were quite at ease.
Scenery was stunning the entire day!
Bill Mercer
Canada
Hi Bill. Yeah, that’s quite a hike. With the novelty of a cloud inversion when I did it I was kept bouncing along by the views. Those deer were very tame. You expect that more from NZ’s native animals since they lived for so long without predators. I had a similar experience on the weekend only with a water dragon (lizard) sitting in a patch of sun on the track. Got a shot at point blank range with my phone 🙂