Dark Cloud Range Route

@madpom This is from very old memory, but I'm reasonably confident of my recollection because it was one of those trips you relive many times. We landed by float plane at Lake Mike. The purpose was a geology field trip and we made a base on the stream levee at the head of the lake. Excellent spot. From there we did a number of multiday loop trip over the next six weeks. The Dark Cloud trip started from Lake Mike up the main stream and onto the northern end of the range at pt 1109. The vegetation is mainly what we called 'caprosma shit' ... an annoyingly scratchy mix of knee to head high shrubs that are slow going at times, but not nearly as difficult as leatherwood. The range from pt1109 to pt1108 is straightforward in decent conditions. We spent two nights camped above bushline waiting out some rain. The hardest part was finding somewhere to pitch the tent, anything under 30deg is a bog. We soon learned that the best camp spots were to be found tucked in just under bushline. We then dropped south over pt1013 and 1027 and sidled west under pt1149 and then southwest down the big obvious ramp under the bluffs on pt1145. A bit of a scramble but nothing too difficult down to the unnamed lake between pt1145 and pt 1029. Then downstream about 1km to the point directly north of the saddle at pt879. Climb to the saddle at pt879 through reasonable beech forest and then bend due west toward the stream that flows under the south face of Needle Peak pt1167. About 2/3rd of the way up on the true left of this stream there is a big boulder field and one of them has the most secure stunning rock bivvy ever. You could comfortably survive WW3 in there. From there its easy tussock up to the main range again at pt1108. I don't have any particular memories of anything too difficult from there to the southern point of the range at pt975. The map shows some bluffs but I think we didn't have too much trouble sidling them. We were carrying heavy packs with 1970's style gear (and geology packs get heavier with time, not lighter) so I can't imagine we encountered anything too terrifying. From pt975 it was nice pleasant beech forest down to the mouth of the Carrick River. We camped there one night and I still have a pic of Chris sitting in camp with his field notebook and his arms and legs literally black with crawling sandflies. Needless to say we didn't linger in this salubrious spot. Next day was a long and hot climb up onto the Tower Hills range. This was much denser bush with many steps and terraces, it took us all day to cover a mere 3km up to pt1032. The Tower Hills look knarly but sidle easily on the western side. There is a good boulder camp at the lake 692 and another at the unnamed lake north on the range. Travel along these tops required a few steep scrambles down heavily bushed gullies but again nothing desperate. The last day was the best, we covered remarkable ground to get from the last lake on the Tower Range all the way back to Lake Mike in one push. Over pts972,990 and 1120 and then down to the saddle at pt702 and a steep climb up onto pt1228. North over pts1231,1293 and then east down to pt 896 up to pt1252 and sidling along tussock and granite benches under pts1275,1321 and 918 back to Oho Saddle and an easy drop back down to Lake Mike. It looks implausible on the map, but we surprised ourselves that day. The whole loop took 10 days, but keep in mind we were doing geology about half the time. I realise the contour lines don't look encouraging but Chris was using satellite photos to plan (this was well before Google Earth). This route is about as remote and wilderness as you get in NZ, maybe only the head of the Landsborough matches it. South of Dusky is completely trackless, the nearest hut is at least a weeks tramp way and it's absolutely only for the fit and who have strong experience in the NZ mountains. I'm only writing it up because madpom asked; don't read this and think it would be fun to 'give it a go'.