The Call of the Wild

Forest and Bird, Volume 18, Issue 1, 1 February 1987, Page 18

The Call of the Wild

n addition to the spectacular red mass of Red Mountains, the proposal includes some outstanding mountain and valley scenery: @ the rocky spine of the northern Olivine Range between the Retreat Pinnacles and Bald Mountain; @ the wild upper reaches of the Cascade River, including its source in the Limbo Glacier, the Cascade Gorge and the impressive Durward Falls where the entire river plunges 50m over an escarpment formed by the Livingstone Fault; @ the rolling tussocklands of the Gorge Plateau at the northern end of the Red Hills Range; the plateau is covered with tarns and parallel slumps caused by fault movement along the adjacent Alpine Fault which can be seen as a great rent in the landscape running south from the escarpement along the Duncan River. @ the hanging valleys of the Trinity, Sealy, Crescent, Barrier, Diorite and Olivine tributaries of the Pyke River. @ the tall podocarp forest and wetlands of the middle reaches of the Pyke River (including Lake Wilmot).

Olivine Wilderness Area

Most of the area has superb wilderness character and is an integral part of a long-standing proposal for an Olivine Wilderness Area. This wilderness area was first proposed in 1959 by the NZ Alpine Club and FMC, and eventually incorporated into the Mt Aspiring National Park management plan. The full proposal for a 44,000 ha Olivine Wilderness Area (approximately 50:50 inside/outside the current park boundaries) was formally proposed by FMC at the 1981 Wilderness Conference (Molloy, 1983b). The proposal has wide support in recreation, park management, and government circles; it is centred on the Olivine Ice Plateau and is well buffered in the west by the middle reaches of the Cascade and Pyke valleys. The boundaries of the proposed Olivine Wilderness Area are shown on the map. This is one of a small number of wilderness areas which have been proposed to try and keep at least about two percent of New Zealand's landscape in as primaeval a state as possible. People are free to recreate in wilderness areas — but on nature’s terms, without huts, tracks, bridges and mechanised transport.