Parachute Rocks

Parachute Rocks is a named rocky viewpoint on the St Arnaud Range, about 1,400 metres above the bushline and overlooking Lake Rotoiti. You reach it on foot from Kerr Bay; this is a mountain walk, not a roadside pullout. The rocks make a natural turnaround if the view is your goal, while the track keeps climbing toward the ridge.

The St Arnaud Range Track starts at the eastern corner of Kerr Bay and climbs steadily through beech forest. The rocks are about two hours up. The full out-and-back continues another 30 minutes to the ridge and is 10 km return, about five hours. This is an advanced tramping track, so allow enough time and bring warm, waterproof layers; freezing alpine conditions can happen at any time of year. Dogs aren’t allowed.

For photos, keep Lake Rotoiti below the rocky crest in the frame. The lake and forested slopes show how high you’ve climbed.

The name comes from a parachute-shaped gravel scree just north of the rocks. It’s a small detail to look for after the long climb, and a better story than the name first suggests.

The lower track crosses glacial moraine beneath red beech and broadleaf. Higher up, silver beech gives way to increasingly stunted mountain beech. Above the bushline, the trees open into tussock, subalpine shrubs and alpine herbfields. Many of the herbs flower gold and white in late spring and early summer.

The moraine terraces below the rocks were left by glaciers. Higher on the range, truncated spurs show where ice cut off the ends of ridges, while small tarns sit in basins carved by glaciers and left behind as the ice melted.

If you carry on for another half-hour, the track reaches a ridge above 1,650 metres. From there, the views open east down the Wairau Valley, north to Mount Richmond Forest Park, west toward Kahurangi National Park and the Buller Valley, and south into the rest of Nelson Lakes National Park.