Mount Greenland Track
Ross · West Coast
This walk was suggested by the community and checked against the authority quoted above before it was published. The route line comes from official track data. DOC’s own wording: “Dogs with a DOC permit only. Contact closest DOC office to get a permit. Other pets on conservation land rules. (DOC, Mount Greenland Track page; the mountain is conservation land, Totara - Mikonui Forests, and the permits for this area come through the Hokitika DOC office. DOC codes the dog permits for the surrounding Hokitika hunting area as the hunting-dog kind.)”. Evidence: the rule-setter’s own published wording. How we check dog rules.
Good to know
A DOC dog permit is required before any dog walks here. DOC codes this land for the hunting-dog permit, so it is not a casual dog walk. Ask the DOC office before planning to bring a dog.
About Mount Greenland Track
Mount Greenland Track covers 9.3 km, near Ross in West Coast.
Mount Greenland is the bush covered hump behind Ross, 30 km south of Hokitika, and the track up it is really an old road: park at the carpark by the Ross Goldfields Information and Heritage Centre at the southern end of Aylmer Street, or as Dre does, drive the first stretch of gravel and park up the hill. From town the route joins Mount Greenland Road, a very rough, unmaintained 4WD road that climbs at a steady grade the whole way, mostly following a historic miners' pack track through tall rimu forest to the tussock tops, where a clear day gives views in every direction. DOC calls it 18 km return, about 7 hours, and grades it an advanced tramping track; Dre makes it 7 to 8 hours return with fitness deciding which end of that you land. The dog rule is DOC's permit rule: dogs with a DOC permit only, arranged with the closest DOC office before you go, which for Ross means Hokitika. The whole mountain is conservation land, from the goldfields historic reserve at the bottom to the Totara - Mikonui forests above, and a pet there without written permission is an offence, so make the call before you make the drive. A short way past the summit the road drops to an old miners' hut that the Ross Community Group looks after, about ten minutes on from the top by Dre's reckoning. It is a community hut, not a DOC one, so treat it as shelter luck rather than a booked bunk. Beyond it the road continues steeply downhill to the site of the old mining village at the back of the mountain, which DOC says adds several hours and is not recommended as a day walk. The same carpark also serves the Ross Goldfield Water Race Walkway, the short kid-friendly loop through the goldfields, and the same dog permit rule applies there too.
Graded hard, it climbs about 948 m overall, and takes about 3 hr 25 min to walk.
A DOC dog permit is required before any dog walks here. Arrange it with the managing DOC office ahead of your trip. This walk is on the map because Dre & Hazel suggested it, and we checked it against the source above.
