The St Arnaud Range Track starts at the far end of Kerr Bay, near Hamish’s water taxi caravan office, and zigzags steeply through beech forest to Parachute Rocks at 1400m, just above the bush line.

As we climbed higher, red beech gave way to silver beech and eventually dwarfed mountain beech took over as the forest thinned with altitude gain; and I chuckled when I realized how intrigued I was by these changes in vegetation, and that twenty years ago when we were given the task to record differences in plant cover at changing elevations in biology camp at Lake Rotoiti, it was the most painfully boring task.

Despite these progressive, obvious changes from large trees to dwarfed bush, the transition from bush to sub-alpine shrubs and tussock was still abrupt, owed not least to the gusty winds that surged in from all directions, peppered with hail, as soon as we shrugged off the last row of gnarled mountain beech giving us shelter.

When minutes later, we clambered onto Parachute Rocks, the impressive views of the lake, village, and surrounding mountains came equally as a surprise, for on the climb, the dense tree canopy had rarely allowed a glimpse of the valley. The exposed rocks stand secluded in wind-beaten tussock and cling precariously to the steep mountain face as if aware that the line of spindly beech trunks could not avert their plunge into the abyss.

With the ambient air temperature close to freezing point, my fingers turned white and numb within minutes and as I fumbled with the camera buttons, I silently cursed both myself and the terrible summer that year. The day had been chilly and overcast, but we are in no way prepared for the severe cold and hail at 1400m and would have stupidly disregarded the advice to take gloves and a woollen hat on a hike in high summer anyway.

This is an alpine area and freezing conditions are possible throughout the year– believe the warnings of the DOC!

When we noticed the weather starting to deteriorate further, we decided to turn back at Parachute Rocks, although the trek continues for another 30 min to the top of the ridge at 1600m.

To compensate for missing the ridge, we added the Honeydew Walk at the end with its many blackened tree trunks and glistening honeydew drops.