Lakeside walk at St Arnaud
Date: 19 Oct 1999, The Press, Christchurch, page 22

The Lakehead track at St Arnaud -- one of the easiest and most accessible in Nelson Lakes National Park -- is a delight, writes PAT BARRETT.

FACT FILE This three-hour walk begins at Kerr Bay camping/picnic area St Arnaud and traverses the eastern shore to Lakehead hut (20 bunks). A water taxi can be hired for the 12-minute dash to the lake head (minimum price of $40 for one to four passengers and packs). You can return via Coldwater hut (six bunks) on the western shore which entails crossing the Travers River. If the river is too high to cross, there is a swingbridge one hour upriver. Tracks on the western shore end on the Mount Robert Road, leaving a 4km road walk to West Bay, joining with the Peninsula walk to return to St Arnaud. The walk is graded easy.

The high-pitched yowl of the outboard motor recedes in the wake of the water taxi that had just delivered us to the lake-head jetty at Lake Rotoiti in Nelson Lakes National Park. Now the sound of silence pervades, punctuated only by birdsong and the distant roar of the river, as we enter the cool and shade of the beech forest and a short visit to Lakehead Hut.

Anna-Marie, our 18-month-old daughter, who had been reluctant to board the water taxi and to don a lifevest, is now enraptured by the rough track, trees, stones, small streams, and flitting birdlife we encounter enroute to the hut.

A still, sparkling lake, and high mountains bold and beautiful above the valley make it a joy to be out along the trail.

Lakehead hut provides a brief rest amid the tussock flats of the lower Travers valley. We are venturing out from St Arnaud village on the short and easy walk along the eastern shore of the lake. Commonly known as the Lakehead Track, this three-hour walk is a delight, as well as one of the easiest and most accessible in the park. Many visitors choose to walk it both ways from the village or link it to the western shore track, at Coldwater Hut, to make a full-day tramp around the lake. We chosen a boat option, allowing us an easy meander back to St Arnaud with plenty of time to enjoy the changing views at lakeside.

The track itself winds around and above the many small bays and coves of the lake shore, sometimes climbing three metres or so above the water on an alternately muddy, leafy, and stony path.