Mountain biking The Old Ghost Road, New Zealad
Exploring New Zealand articles
One: New Zealand first impressions
Two: Intro to NZ mountain biking
Three: Unhinged—riding a NZ classic
Four: NZ sandflies are an itchy initiation
New Zealand is full of big adventures, and the further you get from seasoned tourist paths the bigger the adventures seem to get. The Old Ghost Road easily qualifies as one of the best big mountain bike rides in New Zealand—and one of the best mountain bike rides I’ve done anywhere.
The Old Ghost Road is New Zealand’s longest single-track and travels 53 miles through the west coast mountains near Seddonville on the South Island. It can be hiked or biked and boasts six huts where backpackers or bike packers who plan in advance can get respite from the elements.
The majority of the Old Ghost Road singletrack isn’t very technical, but sections are, and the trail is appropriately rated as advanced. It’s said to be the toughest of New Zealand’s 22 Great Rides.
Whether you ride it in full or hire a helicopter for a lift to one of the trail’s high points, it’s a strenuous and remote undertaking. Riders and hikers should be physically fit and self-sufficient with ample food, water, and emergency medical supplies.
Why’s it called The Old Ghost Road?
The Old Ghost Road is an old gold miner’s road that’s experienced a renaissance as a mountain biking and hiking trail. It traverses native forests, wind-swept mountain tops, river flats, and a magnificent canyon along the Mokihinui Gorge.
Its origins date to the early 1860s West Coast gold rush when a primitive road was built from the Buller River town of Lyell toward Lyell Saddle in the Glasgow Range to provide mine access.
There are reports of early plans to connect the Lyell Saddle road with another that started near Seddonville along the Mokihinui River. Local knowledge of how much progress was made has faded, and major earthquakes in 1929 and 1968 reclaimed parts of the trail.
The modern trail as we know it resulted from visionary work by a number of dedicated people and organizations in the 2000s, and the name resulted when one of the trail’s modern founders mused that the historic roads constitued a “ghost of a road.” This was amended to “ghost road” and, eventually, “Old Ghost Road.”
Mountain biking The Old Ghost Road
The Old Ghost Road is usually a two or three day backcountry ride (or week-long backpack) that goes into the mountains near Lyell on the Buller River, or Seddonville along the coast.
The Old Ghost Road is reported to ride better south to north and starts and ends near sea level, topping out at 4,200 feet. It’s remote, rugged and long, and deserves preparation.
That said, our group of seven Kiwis and two Americans spoiled ourselves and flew in via helicopter to near the the highest point and rode 35 miles over about seven and a half hours back to civilization.
This mostly downhill route still included about 3,000 feet of climbing and some super technical switchbacks. It was a physically-demanding and rewarding day, but the scariest part for me by far was riding in a helicopter.
I’ll share some of our personal adventure and logistics below as a reference point for people planning a ride on The Old Ghost Road. For on-the-ground information about the trail from Lyell to Ghost Lake Hut, you’ll have to consult additional sources.
Mokihinui, sunset, and Gentle Annie raindrops
We left Nelson on Thursday, March 12, and drove to the West Coast’s sparsely populated and scenic beaches, arriving in Mokihinui and the Gentle Annie Seaside Resort at sunset. Gentle Annie is a worthwhile destination in and of itself. It’s campgrounds, showers, cabins and restaurant are positioned at the Mokihinui River’s estuary, and the beaches are strewn with beautiful driftwood.
Sandflies swarmed while we ran around taking sunset photos, but as we settled in to our cabin the rooftop came alive with the soft pitter-patter of steadily-falling rain, immediately casting our morning helicopter ride in doubt. The sound of the rain was simultaneously peaceful and reflective, and I grabbed a pen to scribble some thoughts for an Instagram post about the Gentle Annie sunset:
It’s such a beautiful world, and New Zealand is just saturated with stunning mountains, beaches, deserts and forests. After four-plus weeks, I’m ready to head home, but we’ve had a really good trip and are reminded that the views and rides and hikes and boating are often the pursuit, but the people are always the best part of the trip.
Heli-biking on New Zealand’s West Coast
Friday, March 13, 2020 was the day U.S. President Donald Trump declared a state of emergency in the U.S. as cases of COVID-19 mounted. It’s when toilet paper and canned goods started vanishing from store shelves, and highways emptied as people nervously hunkered down at home.
We were oblivious to the buzz abroad from our cabin at the Gentle Annie Resort, where we woke with an altogether different kind of concern. The rain had lightened, but it was still drizzling and overcast. Without a weather window, it would be dangerous, if not impossible, for our pilot to fly to 4,200 feet to drop us off at Rocky Tor on The Old Ghost Road.
We ate breakfast and weighed options while the overcast sky broke apart enough to reveal just a few patches of blue. We elected to go to the helicopter landing pad and consult with our pilot. He’d been watching the weather as well and reported the high peaks had been socked in all morning, but there was a current window in which he could fly. It looked like it could close out if we waited very long.
So we hurried and loaded our bikes onto a rack attached to the helicopter’s belly via a long rope that would dangle the bikes as we flew. Our pilot followed the Mokihinui River and The Old Ghost Road upstream, then turned toward the mountains.
The cloud ceiling continued to hang over the high peaks, and we approached from a river valley to stay clear of the weather. We’d eventually had to climb, though.
As we approached the high precipice called Rocky Tor where we planned to land, it became clear the clouds hadn’t parted enough to go that high. Two-hundred feet lower, however, was Ghost Lake Hut and another possible landing pad.
Our pilot lifted the helicopter toward the hut, but clouds hid it from view. He retreated and told us he’d wait a few minutes to see if the weather cleared. The clouds pulsed in and out, and apparently pulsed into a configuration he thought was good enough. He lifted us just barely into the cloud ceiling and put the bikes down next to the landing pad, then touched down. A few minutes later, he was flying back to the coast to retrieve our second load of bikes and bikers.
Ghost Lake Hut to Mokihunui
The Old Ghost Road can be broken into several distinct between-hut sections. By starting at Ghost Lake Hut, we would only miss Lyle Saddle Hut and two of the ride’s standard sections, but they’re also the sections that gain the most elevation. (For a short description of each hut, scroll to the bottom of this article.)
From Ghost Lake Hut, the trail descends steeply to Ghost Lake and then drops further into the trees where there are numerous challenging, technical switchbacks followed by a short, also-technical climb to Skyline Ridge.
Skyline Ridge has sweeping views and moderately technical riding that leads to Skyline Steps, a series of hundreds of unique man-made steps that descend a steep ridge 200 feet into the bush.
Once at the bottom, the entire ecosystem seems to change. You transition from rocky mountainside to a mossy forest that climbs and drops over several ridges before picking up Stern Creek, which it follows upstream. After a few miles, you arrive at the infamous Boneyard where the side of the mountain fell away in the 1929 Murchison earthquake, an estimated 7.3 tremor that killed 17 people and drastically rearranged the topography along The Old Ghost Road’s route.
After crossing another saddle, we descended along Goat Creek, eventually arriving at the Mokihinui Forks, where the south and north forks of the Mokihinui join before tumbling into a steep-walled gorge. At this point in our ride, the clouds had long broken up, and the meadow at the forks was muggy and hot.
The final 14 miles from Mokihinui Forks to Seddonville were a wild, fast rip of a ride. The trail is blasted from sheer cliff faces in spots, and numerous single-lane suspension bridges cross rocky side canyons. The bridges genuinely feel like an adventure of their own.
As dramatic as the first part of the ride was because of its high-elevation rocky views, the final stretch through the canyon was an exciting crescendo because of the imposing canyon walls, intimidating suspension bridges and roiling river.
All told, the 35-mile ride from Ghost Lake Hut to Seddonville covered just short of 3,000 vertical feet of climbing and took us 7.5 hours of elapsed time and 5.5 hours of riding time.
Old Ghost Road huts and bookings
The Old Ghost Road includes four huts that must be booked in advance, as well as two less refined huts that are first-come, first served.
Bookings are required for the huts managed by Mokihinui Lyell Backcountry Trust: Lyell Saddle, Ghost Lake, Stern Valley and Specimen Point huts. Bookings aren’t required for the Goat Creek and Mokihinui Forks huts, which are managed by the New Zealand Department of Conservation (DOC) and are available on a first-come, first-served basis.
For an overview of information about huts and sections along The Old Ghost Road, check out this app for all of New Zealand’s Great Rides: www.greatridesapp.com/theoldghostroad
More about The Old Ghost Road from the Mokihinui-Lyell Backcountry Trust.
More about The Old Ghost Road from the Department of Conservation.
Order a mountain bike trail guide from the MTB Trails Trust. It features rides in the Buller, Marlborough and Nelson areas, including The Old Ghost Road.