Paparoa Track

[3] One of the legacies of this early gold mining activity is the Croesus Track, which crosses the Paparoa Range from Blackball in the Grey Valley to Barrytown on the Tasman Sea Coast.

In his role as acting[b] Conservation Minister, Nick Smith and family representatives announced on 29 January 2015 that the track would be built and that the land around the mine would be added to the existing Paparoa National Park.

The Department of Conservation had been tasked with a feasibility study and prior to that work having been completed, it was estimated that a 20 km (12 mi) track would be built.

[6] Some families regard the area as sacred and maintain that people should not cycle or walk across the mine site; they were opposed to the track construction.

It was confirmed that the main track could also be used for year-round mountain biking, which is unusual for National Parks[c] but was favoured by the family group to maximise the tourism potential for the West Coast.

The surveying work needed to identify a suitable route meeting the 6.5 degree slope limit for mountain biking took 72 trips over 8 months.

[21] However, a slip that had occurred two weeks prior made the middle section of the track between the two new huts impassable, hence usage was only possible from either end.

[15][22] The first 10.3 kilometres (6.4 mi) section of the track from the southern end begins at the Smoke-ho car park around 4 km north of Blackball.

The route follows Blackball Creek along the historic Croesus Track, used by gold miners to access mining sites high in the Paparoa Range.

From near the top of the climb, there is a side track to Garden Gully hut and the remains of a quartz stamping battery.

[23] The 19.1 kilometres (11.9 mi) descent from the high ridgelines of the Paparoa ranges begins by traversing 2 km along the top of a large sandstone escarpment with steep cliffs, above the headwaters of the Punakaiki River.