The Old Ghost Road

The route

South to north, Lyell to Seddonville. The trail asks you to ride it this way and gives a reason rather than a preference.

Four kilometres of trail north of Ghost Lake are easier to come down than to go up, so the recommended direction puts them under your wheels rather than in front of them. Riding south to north also means the climbing is front-loaded: 765 metres up the old dray road to Lyell Saddle Hut at 875 metres, then on to a high point of 1,280 metres on the face of Mount Montgomery, about 1,200 metres of cumulative gain before the trail turns downhill in any committed way. Trampers are told the direction matters less to them.

In order, and this is the map in words: Lyell, with an old cemetery hidden in the bush behind the campground. Irishman's Creek at the four-kilometre mark. Two earthquake slips. Lyell Saddle. A broken anvil, left where the first road builders stopped. Mount Montgomery and the tops. Ghost Lake. The Skyline Ridge. Stern Valley. The Earnest Valley and the Boneyard. Solemn Saddle. Goat Creek. Mōkihinui Forks. Specimen Point. The Suicide Slips. The Mōkihinui Gorge, and out.

The two trailheads are on opposite sides of a mountain range, which is the logistical fact that shapes every trip. Westport is the hub: Lyell sits 62km east of it on State Highway 6, Seddonville 50km north. Both trailheads are roughly forty-five minutes from Westport by road, which the New Zealand Cycle Trail turns into an hour and a half between the two. The trail's own site says two hours. We have not been able to resolve that from published sources, and we would budget the longer figure — you are driving around a range, not over it, and the road is not quick.

There is one more small disagreement worth knowing about, because it decides whether you ride past your accommodation. The northern trailhead sits inland of Seddonville on Mōkihinui Road, next to the Rough and Tumble Bush Lodge. The trail's own site says four kilometres, and so does the New Zealand Cycle Trail in its trail description — but the same page's planning section says three and a half. Four is the better bet. Once you reach Burke Creek, the signage takes you the last 700 metres.

What the riding is like

We have not ridden this one. What follows is built from the trail's own description of itself and from the New Zealand Cycle Trail's, and where it describes a place rather than a fact, we say so.

The first day is the least like the rest of it: a steady climb on the old dray road through beech forest, gaining height gently enough that the work is in the duration rather than the gradient. Relics of the gold days sit beside the trail. Two enormous earthquake slips cross it. Then the forest thins, the bushline arrives, and the trail changes character entirely — out onto the tops, cutting across the face of Mount Montgomery with the ranges opening out on both sides.

The section below Ghost Lake Hut is the one riders talk about. The trail drops off the hut's shoulder into four kilometres the trail's own writers describe as rock gardens, tight turns and slippery ground, with a climb in the middle of it that takes more out of you than its length suggests, before it reaches the Skyline Ridge. After that the run down into Stern Valley is fast and gravity-assisted, which is the trail's way of apologising.

The last two days are gentler and quite different again: podocarp forest with a fern floor and birdsong, the two branches of the Mōkihinui meeting in a hard swirl at the Forks, and then a long final leg hugging the side of the gorge on the old-timers' line, over bridged streams and past mining relics.

The stages

The trail publishes seven legs between trailheads and huts. How you group them into days depends on which beds you can get, not on which distances look neat.

Every leg is Grade 4 except where the table says otherwise. The times are riding times and they do not include the stops you will make on the tops, which are the reason you came.

How long the whole thing takes is the one figure the sources disagree on. The New Zealand Cycle Trail says two to four days. The trail's own site says two to four on its page for cyclists — and two to three on its page about where to start. Two to four is the safer plan and the one we would work to; three nights out is the shape most riders end up with, and it is the one that lets you stop at the places above rather than ride past them.

Walkers are given four to five days for the same ground, and the huts are shared between both.

Bikes, bags and booking

The bed is the constraint, not the bike. Four of the six huts must be booked, they fill months out for the summer, and turning up hopefully is not a plan — the next motel is a long way off.

A high-quality mountain bike in good order is essential, and so are tools and the skill to use them — there is no help coming. The trail's own site sets five questions to test whether you are ready for the ground; they are at the foot of this page, and they are worth answering honestly before you book anything.

The pricing model is unusual and worth understanding before you budget. For through-riders the accommodation fee is a flat rate for the whole trip rather than a nightly charge: NZ$160 per adult and NZ$80 per child of sixteen or under for hut bunks, whether you spend one night on the trail or four. Trips starting in June, July or August drop to NZ$100 and NZ$50. A private sleepout is NZ$360 for up to four people, for the trip. A tent site is NZ$50 for up to two. Those were the rates at the checkout on 6 September 2026, and the checkout notes that rates may vary seasonally.

One caution on that. The tent-site checkout says the fee covers your entire trip and then, in the same sentence, carries wording that reads as per-night — where the bunk and sleepout checkouts both say plainly that it is not per night. We think it is a slip, but it contradicts itself as published, so confirm the figure at the checkout before you rely on it. Shuttle and transfer prices we have deliberately not quoted, because they move — take those from the operators listed on the trail's own site.

If something goes wrong

There is no road in and no way out but forward or back. That is the whole of the risk and the whole of the appeal.

There is no cellphone coverage on the trail, other than patchy reception somewhere between Lyell and Ghost Lake. A personal locator beacon is strongly recommended and can be hired in Westport from Habitat Sports. Tell somebody where you are going and when you expect to be out. Each of the four Trust huts has an emergency telephone inside that connects to the New Zealand Police, which is the only other way of raising anybody once you are past the first day.

Water is the thing most likely to change your plans. Twenty-one bridges carry the trail over the main waterways, but some crossings are unbridged, and the notable one is Irishman's Creek at the four-kilometre mark in the lower Lyell Gorge — early enough that turning round is still easy, which is exactly why you should look at it properly rather than push on. Goat Creek must be forded to reach its hut. Both can flood under heavy or sustained rain, and the West Coast supplies both regularly.

The weather is changeable and the elevated sections can carry snow outside winter as well as in it. The trail is open all year, but that is not the same as being sensible all year: check the forecast, check the trail status page, and carry warm and wet-weather layers whatever the forecast says. In summer the tops have no shade at all, so a helmet visor and sunscreen earn their place. Riders are expected to dismount in some sections, and there is no shame in more of them than that.

Carry more food than the trip should need, on the assumption that it may take longer than you planned. Westport is the last sensible place to stock up. Water is available at the huts and from streams. Dogs and horses are not permitted anywhere on the trail.

Shorter versions, and longer ones

You do not have to commit to the whole thing to see the best of either end, and the return rides solve the transport problem by not creating it.

From the south, Lyell car park to Lyell Saddle and back is 36km and four to five hours, on the steady climb through the beech forest with the relics and the earthquake slips, and a descent that free-wheels most of the way home. Lyell sits directly on State Highway 6, so it is the easiest of all the options to reach with your own bike and your own car. Find the old cemetery in the bush before you set off.

From the north, the trailhead to Specimen Point Hut and back is 34km and four to six hours through the Mōkihinui Gorge, which is the gentlest riding on the trail and arguably the prettiest. Between October and April the Rough and Tumble Bush Lodge at the trailhead is open most days from 11am to 4pm, and does beer and pizza, which is a reasonable target to ride towards.

Both ends also work as an in-and-out overnight, staying at Lyell Saddle or Specimen Point, which is booked separately and priced per booking rather than per trip — NZ$40 a bunk, NZ$90 a sleepout, NZ$25 a tent site at the checkout on 6 September 2026. At the other extreme, some riders do the entire 85km in a single day. The trail acknowledges them without encouraging them, and asks day riders for a voluntary contribution to upkeep — NZ$15 for part of the trail, NZ$30 for all of it.