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About Mt. Guy & Lake Clearwater
The Difficulty Rating: ★★☆☆☆
Lake Clearwater is one of the lakes in Ashburton Lakes District, mid-Canterbury. If you are driving toward Mt. Sunday Track (the filming location for Edoras in the movie, “The Lord of the Rings”) via the unsealed Hakatere Potts Road, you will pass the southern side of this tranquil lake first.
In comparison to the “Edoras”, the hike to the peak by the lake, Mt. Guy, is less popular. But it is the best place to have a bird’s eye view over the region if you are willing to spend some hours on the track and ascend around 650 m (the net elevation gain) to its summit. So basically it is a challenging task that you need to be prepared for it.
I have been Mt. Guy in July 2018 and August 2019. My partner was with me on the second visit while some snow had covered the track and the top.
We started from the small community which is also called Lake Clearwater. The first section was to walk along Lake Clearwater Circuit Track toward the trail junction of Mt. Guy. We took the eastern section of the track, the shorter route to access Mt. Guy Track. This part was a high-speed walk along the shore and thanks to the scenes, it was not too boring. Mt. Guy Track is steep. Luckily the snowy track did not cause any trouble when we climbed it. The snow was reasonably deep and soft which allowed us to walk with just two poles without any other gears.
If the weather and the visibility is fine, I think the hike on this marked trail is not hard. The chilly and strong wind along the lakeside was the thing that kept us restless. Mt. Guy and Lake Clearwater may look dreamy in winter but please be aware of the risky and harsh winter condition.
Here is the track information from DOC.
