The massif, which includes the Pisa and Criffel Ranges, is deeply dissected by Luggate Creek to the north and the Roaring Meg to the south, both of which have seen historical alluvial gold mining.

From land settlement to goldrushes, from orchards to the rising of Lake Dunstan and now to the coming of the grapes, the area has seen massive change in the past 150 years.

[3] The Pisa Range is the highest of the fault-block mountains characteristic of the Central Otago region, and one of the most distinctive land forms and ecological systems in New Zealand.

[4] The summit landscape is a broad, gently sloping undulatory dome, in places up to 8 km (5.0 mi) wide, falling steeply to the Clutha Valley floor.

Numerous alpine tarns occupy cirque basins, the largest of which is Lake McKay[4] at 0.03 km2 (0.012 sq mi) and 1,692 m (5,551 ft) elevation.

Tertiary sediments of the Manuherikia Group and Maori Bottom Formation were deposited by fluvial systems across the erosion surface.

Once covering most or all of the Central Otago region,[5] these sediments have been stripped off the rising mountain ranges and are now preserved only in the basins.

The first settlers in the region were the Māori as they travelled through Central Otago en route to the West Coast on pounamu expeditions, as well as in search of seasonal food resources.

[13] Gold mining occurred along a line of gold-bearing gravel deposits stretching from the Criffel Range up to Mt Pisa.

Key remnants can be found on the Criffel Range, Lower Luggate Creek, the Kawerau Gorge, Gentle Annie, Roaring Meg, Tuohys Gully and the Cardrona Valley.

As well as the two major gold-bearing creeks there are terraces of stranded materials all round the skirts of the Pisa Range, in the Kawarau Gorge, along the Cardrona Valley (notably the Criffel Edge), Mid Run on the north face of the Criffel Range and along the Clutha terraces, especially at Gravelly Gully and around Lowburn.

[18][19] Trails are typically 4-wheel drive only, but offer hiking and mountain biking opportunities linking the Crown Range, Cardrona, Luggate and Cromwell.

Mid-slopes generally support short tussockland which, with increasing altitude, yield to a discontinuous band of snow tussock.

[4] High alpine cushionfields, fell fields, blue tussocklands and scree pavements cover much of the broad summit plateau.

[4]In 1994 the New Zealand Government sought to determine the extent of degradation of high-country pastoral leases[21] which subsequently lead to a tenure review.

Those pastoral high-country ranges with more vulnerable ecology, suffering from extensive degradation and with significant ecosystem services were exchanged with more productive, generally lower-elevation lands.

[4] The long-term monitoring within the GLORIA network revealed just how slow recovery rates of degraded upland ecosystems on the Pisa Range has been.

Sydney lived briefly on Mount Pisa Station while he taught at Cromwell District High School in the early 1970s.