Timing

Not a walk for a day when the mad dog nor’wester is blowing a hoolie.

Access

From SH77 at Windwhistle follow Coleridge Road for 18 km and turn right into Homestead Road. 2.7 km after, turn left into Algidus Road and a large grassed parking area by a grove of pine trees is on the right after 11 km.

The start of the track is signposted over the stile.

Track

Cross the farmland and follow the marker posts. You are climbing the steep grassy face before arriving at the summit ridge.

Head left and keep climbing the rocky track to the peak.

Return via the same track.

Geology

During episodes of glacial activity, Peak Hill was an isolated island in a sea of ice. The depth of the ice sheets sandwiched the resistant outcrop between the Rakaia and Wilberforce Glaciers.

Many rounded mounds, smoothed by the erosive glaciers are sprinkled over the landscape like giant mole hills. The steep rocky scarred faces on the side of Black Hill are to the south.

Polynesian History

Lake Coleridge (Whakamatau) was a valuable mahinga kai, where early Maori travellers would gather eels, fish and birds.

European History

By 1851, most of the pastoral leases in the Rakaia Valley had been taken up. Farming is still the mainstay of the rural economy.