St Arnaud Range Track: Walking Guide, Time & Access

Route overview

Climb onto the St Arnaud Range for spectacular views of the surrounding area.

This DOC directory entry covers St Arnaud Range Track in Tasman, within Nelson Lakes National Park / St Arnaud area. Where DOC groups several walks, times and grades refer to the listed options rather than a single continuous itinerary.

Distance, time and grade

• Distance: 10 km return return via same track
• Walking time: 5 hr return
• DOC grade: Advanced

Access and alerts

Source checked 2026-10-08. This page is a dated snapshot, not a live track-status report. Check current DOC route information immediately before travelling. An absence of listed alerts does not establish that a route is open.

Dog access

No dogs. Other pets on conservation land rules.

Description

This walk climbs steadily through beech forest to a height of over 1650 metres.

Above the bushline (at 1400 metres) after a 2 hour climb, there are spectacular views from Parachute Rocks, which gained their name from a parachute-shaped gravel scree located just to the north.

The track climbs for a further 30 minutes from here to the ridge line, where you are rewarded by spectacular views of the surrounding area: east down the Wairau Valley, north to Mt Richmond Forest Park, west towards Kahurangi National Park and the Buller Valley, and south to the rest of Nelson Lakes National Park.

Return via the same route.

Getting there

The track starts in the eastern corner of Kerr Bay, on the edge of Lake Rotoiti in St Arnaud.

St Arnaud is 88 km from Nelson on SH6, 129 km from Picton on SH63, 157 km from Wesport on SH6 and SH63, and 350 km from Christchurh on SH65 and SH6.

Know before you go

• Be prepared with warm and waterproof clothing. Nelson Lakes National Park is in an alpine area – freezing conditions can occur at any time of year.

• No rubbish facilities are provided – carry out all your rubbish.

• Biting sandflies can detract for your experience at the lakes, especially during the summer months – cover up and apply a good quality insect repellant to exposed skin.

• Wasps are a known hazard and are particularly common from December until April – carry antihistamine if you are allergic to their stings.

Nature and conservation

The lower slopes are dominated by large red beech, with a healthy sub-canopy of other species, such as broadleaf andputaputawētā. Higher up, silver beech and finally the hardy mountain beech take over. Note how the mountain beech becomes progressively stunted as you climb higher to the bushline.

Trees give way to snow tussock, sub-alpine shrubs and, higher still, alpine herb fields. In late spring and early summer, these herbs flower, creating a glorious display of gold and white.

The lower section of the walk crosses moraine terraces deposited by past glaciers. The truncated spurs of St Arnaud Range are evidence of further glacial action at higher altitude. Advancing rivers of icecut off the ends of the ridges and, on the eastern side, gouged out the many small basins where small tarns now fill hollowsleft by the melting ice.

Sources and reuse

Route descriptions and practical information reproduced from the Department of Conservation, Crown copyright, under CC BY 4.0, subject to DOC's copyright policy. Formatting has been adapted, including flattening page sections; follow the original DOC page for maps, section-specific layout, current notices and linked documents. Outdoor Next is independent and is not endorsed by DOC.

The accompanying photograph is a licensed general hiking illustration, not a photograph of this route.