Last month I visited this historic trig beacon and cleared the scrub and small trees that were growing up through it. This trig is an early pipe and wrought iron one that likely dates from the C19th. I'd been there before so carried a "silky saw" this visit.

Constitution Hill is located in the Westland front country between the Totara River and the Falls Creek tributary of the Hokitika River. It sits on a range known as Ford Ridge that runs southward from the Hokitika River linking to the Bald Hill Range.

There are no tracks up Constitution Hill and it is heavily bush clad from all directions. It can be visited from north or south along Ford Ridge or via spurs adjacent Totara River or Falls Creek tributaries. There are good podocarp trees to be seen on the lower slopes of this hill, mainly rimu, but also miro, matai and halls totara. Deer, goats and wild pigs are present.

Beware of occasional mine shafts on the western slopes of Constitution Hill right up to Ford Ridge.