Bonpland basins traverse

Walked by a CTC member

Bonpland basins traverse is a 48.4 km, 5-day tramp in Otago with 3,762 m of climbing and a high point of 1,702 m.

A 5-day trip, shown here as one track: 15–19 February 2017.

User-generated track: recorded on a GPS by a Christchurch Tramping Club member on a past trip. It is not an official or maintained track, and the line, notes and conditions may be out of date or wrong. Check DOC for current track and hazard information, carry a map and plan for your own party.

Track stats

Elevation profile

Trip notes

From the club member's GPS log of the trip (15–19 February 2017), lightly edited, with people's names removed. Conditions may have changed since.

A 5-day solo trip.

Day 1: walked up here in the afternoon after driving down from Christchurch.

Day 2: traversed 4 basins to a campsite under Sleepy Hollow. Some fresh snow on the high points. Probably better to travel on the other side of Pt 1546 in the last basin, which looked grassier.

Day 3: a day trip to visit the tarn. Too much snow to venture further. A fairly lazy day. A great spot except for the continual aircraft noise.

Day 4: travelled down mostly open bush to the Caples and up to the Fraser track. The Fraser track is in poor condition and often hard to follow. Luckily it is accurately mapped, so a GPS is very useful. Track markers are fairly sparse, and looking back there are very few markers for down-valley travellers.

Day 5: started traversing up the slope on the south side of the col to avoid scrub. There seemed to be more scrub than on previous trips here (25+ years ago). Traversed too low into Emily Creek: should have taken a line 40-50 m higher. Emily Creek is also steeper, with more waterfalls than I remembered, but all can be bypassed.

Waypoint notes

• Camping (-44.76198, 168.27654): Reasonable camping around here.
• Track marker (-44.86822, 168.24674): On the main Caples track.
• Water (-44.84154, 168.27111): Plenty of water around here. Not very good camping though.
• Water (-44.80053, 168.26774): Running water here.
• Upper Caples Hut (-44.84367, 168.22223): Now privately owned by NZDA.
• Camp (-44.84776, 168.26960): Camped by a tarn not marked on the map. A large overhanging rock nearby offers shade in the afternoon and somewhere cool to stash food.
• Camp 1 (-44.76272, 168.28982): Great campsite on a dry grassy flat near the stream.
• Camp 4 (-44.77075, 168.20587): Nice campsite on a grassy flat near the stream, near the last trees in the valley. Quite a few sandflies.
• Camping (-44.85044, 168.26869): A slightly larger tarn here and a reasonable place to camp. No rocks though.
• Campsites (-44.79339, 168.27042): Possible camping around here.

GPX file

Download the Bonpland basins traverse GPX file for your GPS or mapping app. The map on this page shows the same route. It is a GPS log of one past trip, not a surveyed track: use it with a map and your own judgement.

Nearby tracks

• North Col - Lake Nerine - Park Pass - Sugarloaf Pass (5.4 km away)
• Routeburn Track (5.4 km away)
• 5 Passes Mt Aspiring (5.5 km away)
• Eanslaw burn (7.8 km away)