Southern sojourn Oct 2020

We had been invited to spend the weekend in Luggate celebrating the first wedding anniversary of our son and daughter in law. An extended family and friends gathering, I was a little under the weather on Saturday morning so was glad I had only alerted for Mt Iron, a 1 pointer in Wanaka!

The day dawned fine but with a predicted lunchtime change. The climb is an easy one, about 20 minutes up a popular public track to a large activation zone with spectacular views over Wanaka and the surrounding mountains. I set up away from the busy summit with a convenient fence-post supporting the pole and worked a steady string of contacts around VK and ZL using the KX2 and 41 foot EFRW. 

View towards Chris on Isthmus Peak. QRPGuys UNUNtenna in foreground

One interested Mountain Biker stopped and chatted about what I was doing. I headed down once the rain started to settle in. I hadn't heard from Chris ZL4RA on Isthmus Peak - of course he was spotted once I was about 10 minutes into the descent!

Relaxing (over a couple more drinks!) afterwards I figured I should do Mt John on the way home on Monday. Mark ZL3AB and Rick ZL3RIK provided the email address for the onsite UC Superintendent who was good enough to confirm access a couple of hours later.

 

After a pleasant 2 hour drive from Luggate, the Mt John turnoff is reached (just before Tekapo). You follow the public road and then reach the UC tollbooth (operates 10.30am to 2.30pm) where your $8 toll is paid (Eftpos). It's a pleasant 10 minute drive to the summit and a large carpark which is within the AZ.

Panorama from the operating site.

  I found a spot on the Western edge of the carpark where you can sit on railway sleeper edging (or down on the grass out of the wind). A couple of concrete blocks made an excellent pole support and so I decided to use the 66 foot (60-15m) open wire fed doublet. 

Tip of Lake Alexandrina and the Southern Alps. Open wire feeders and balun in foreground

 

 Good signals from all around the country meant I comfortably activated the hill on 60m prior to UTC rollover. 2m was tried with Rick ZL3RIK and Robin ZL3REW but no contacts resulted. After rollover I worked the ZLs again along with a good number of VKs including Gerard VK2IO mobile! At this point the wind changed and it started to rain quite heavily. A hasty pack up ensued due to the thunderstorm threat.

Operating spot showing the antenna support and SOTA-Dog Skye keeping an eye on me.

 

These are both very easy summits with incredible views - well worth doing if you are down that way. 

As always, thanks to the Chasers, especially the weekday ones!

Ladbrooks Hill ZL3/CB-618 Oct 2020

 This is a re-visit to a very nice summit in the North Canterbury foothills, located between Mt Oxford and Mt Richardson. At 1041m it's a bit more than a "hill"! The views are expansive, back to the alps, across into Lees Valley and across the plains.

 

Across into Lees Valley

 I had planned to do this in the last weekend of the winter bonus period and had carefully planned a route that was on Conservation land from the Lees Valley Road and would avoid having to seek permission to cross farmland. I headed up off the road and straight into thick bush - genuine bush-bashing and, after 1/2 hour of climbing, i stopped to check the GPS and wondered why it was blurry. Went to adjust my glasses which were gone.... Lost somewhere in the bush. With risk factors mounting, i abandoned the attempt and followed the breadcrumb GPS trail back down. No sign of my glasses but I did find a nice Silva compass! Home early, chased everyone else and went to Specsavers!

A week later, I decided to have another crack - this time via the farmers land and nice track!! I rang him on Friday and permission was readily granted. David ZL3DRN decided I couldn't be trusted on my own so came along to keep an eye on me ;-)

Gale force Nor Westers were forecast for the afternoon so we headed up fairly early and found the start of the track. You need to scramble up a bank about 10m around Ladbrooks Corner where your car (preferably SUV, the road is pretty rough) is parked (don't block the gate!) See the GPX track on the SOTA Maps site. The start of the track has several warning signs about being private land - do not ignore these, make sure you have rung and asked for permission to cross (he is very sensitive about trespassers but very accommodating if you ask). The track heads up the ridge through gorse initially but soon opens out into a nice track, sporadically marked. It's a straight-forward climb to the first summit at point 1030, marked Ladbrooks Hill on the topomap. This is not the SOTA summit, you need to continue South East to the next summit at 1041m.

East with the Port Hills on the horizon

West to the Southern Alps

Panorama showing a nice flat summit and spectacular views

 The summit is a large flat area, marked with a rock cairn. Plenty of room for big antennas if you are so inclined. The weather was great, a light NW breeze and warm. We found a spot that would be sheltered if wind came up and set up the HF antenna before working the locals on 2m FM. Mark ZL3AB called in to let us know he was about 30 min away from the summit of Mt Alford.

Looking South towards Mark ZL3AB on Mt Alford (on horizon). Mt Oxford on right

 

HF was tough with the A index at 13. I worked the ZL HF chasers on CW including Jacky ZL1WA, John ZL1BYZ and Wynne ZL2ATH and a couple of VKs. Mark called on 2m for an S2S and then David took over on HF SSB, working a string of ZL and VK stations and really enjoying himself.

David hard at work

 The Nor Wester was starting to build so we decided to pack up and adjourn back to the first summit for lunch in the sun (and shelter) and then headed back down the track with an uneventful descent.

Permission required: The first 300m is across private land. Ring Tim 029 2359909 the day before and request access. He'll ask you to txt your car registration number and your approx entry and exit times.

Directions: Drive to Lees Valley Road (just North of Oxford) and head towards Lees Valley. It's about a 1/2 hour drive along a rough road. Over the Middle Bridge, past a set of yards and you come to Ladbrooks Corner where two power lines meet at the road. Park on the corner (away from the gate!) and walk about 10m further along the road and you'll find the access point.

Spark and Vodafone 4G coverage at the summit (but not along the valley road)

All Canterbury repeaters accessible.

Walking Time: 1 hour 20 to the summit, about the same on descent. 540m elevation gain.

 

An unusual day of SOTA and long distance driving - Peak Hill ZL3/CB-542 Sept 2020

 The weather forecast for the weekend was for strong Westerlies however I identified that Mt Alford ZL3/CB-568 would be somewhat sheltered and worth climbing. I did my usual planning and checked that the easement would be open by using my photographs from last year - 20 Sep to 20 Oct the sign said...

Saturday saw an early start, leaving home at 6:45am to get there for an 8:30am start and QRV by 11:30am. Upon arrival I was greeted with a new sign on the gate proclaiming the easement closed, despite the permanent signage still showing the later dates

After fuming for a bit, I re-planned to head back North West and try Peak Hill ZL3/CB-542. The wind seemed to be OK, steady but not too strong. I followed the usual road through the Lake Coleridge village and was greeted by a closed road...

This day is not going well! I reasoned there must be another road so backtracked and found it, Homestead Road then Algidus Road. Soon I was at the base of Peak Hill and ready to start the hike at 9:45am. Quite windy but warm enough and only a light dusting of snow visible.

The climb was uneventful until I stopped at about 60 vertical meters from the summit to update the locals on my progress. Geoff ZL3QR passed on a message that I was to ring home ASAP... Ominous. Hmm, no cell coverage until I get to the top of this one so off I set, hustling to the summit. Mark ZL3AB called in from his Banks Peninsula summit with more information that my daughter had had a blowout in Otago but was OK. I pushed on to the summit and sure enough - cell coverage! Caught up with the full info - the car was badly damaged and being towed to Dunedin but they'd need a lift home due to have a dog with them, they couldn't fly! I made 4 quick 2m simplex contacts and hustled down the slippery (from snow melt) hill. Only fell over once (and took it a little slower after that). The wind was gusting 40 kmh which made the ridge traverse interesting but not dangerous.

 

Looking West to the Alps - note Nor West Arch above

Once I reached the car, a quick snack and then I set off South via SH72, the Inland Scenic Route (beautiful road, lots of SOTA summits!) and made it to Dunedin about 5pm. Packed up their gear and we were off back to Christchurch! I arrived home at 10:25pm. Google tells me it was a 15 hour/860 km day!

Lessons learnt/reinforced:

1. Don't rely on last year's notes - check the DOC website for current closures etc...

2. Make sure your partners, kids etc have contact details for your SOTA buddies, in this case my daughter contacted David ZL3DRN who alerted the rest of the troops and the message was passed as soon as I was reachable. Fantastic work, thanks guys.

What a day! Very thankful it all worked out as well as it did. For interest, the rear tyre of their Landcruiser Prado blew out at 100 kmh causing them to clip a power pole and come to rest in a ditch. Passenger side window broken, wing mirror destroyed and multiple front suspension components bent/broken. Skillful driving by my daughter's partner as there was oncoming traffic - it could have been so much worse...

Here's how Google saw my day:

Mt Richardson - ZL3/CB-612 Winter Bonus and Shortest Day - 21 June 2020

I don't normally write a blog for subsequent activations but this one was special in a few ways.

After a rough week of weather (Westerlies and 20 Deg immediately followed by Southerlies and snow to low levels) and just about resigned to a weekend without SOTA, Chris ZL4RA and I were chatting on Saturday afternoon and both commented that actually, Sunday weather wasn't looking too bad! We selected a couple of hills and alerted - we were committed! We agreed an early activation time was best so aimed for 10:30am QRV. I decided on Mt Richardson as it's the nearest to me (40 min drive) and a very nice hill - becoming one of my favourites. At 1047m it's just 53m short of being worth 4 points but it's not all about the points...

I set sail at just after 7am on a cold morning with low cloud in Kaiapoi. By the time I got to the Glentui picnic area and set off at start of the track it was 8am - sunrise on the Shortest Day. 4 degrees and high cloud. The DOC sign says 2 hour 15 to the summit so I was right on target.

I ran into the first patches of snow at the 800m point and added another layer.

Pushed on and got into fairly solid snow cover around 870m. I was surprised to see boot prints coming down the hill but think they must have been from the day before. Either that or someone (and their dog) had made a very early start!

Getting icy

I reached the summit just before 10am . Good covering of snow with high cloud above

Mt Oxford in the background under the cloud

I set up jamming the pole in a convenient bush and sitting on the remains of the old wooden trig. Worked the locals on 2m FM including S2S with Ian on Mt Pleasant ZL3/CB-822 and then got on HF looking for my sked with Chris on 60m CW at 1030am. He was running a little late so I started calling CQ and was called by Mr Reliable - AKA John ZL1BYZ with a great signal. John ZL3MR just about blew me off the hill from his Loburn QTH, about 10km away! It was so loud I was busy winding down the volume and missed his callsign! Recovering quickly I was chuffed to be called by Wynne ZL2ATH. Wellington is a tricky distance from Christchurch so 60m proved it's worth again!

Then came the highlight of my day (in a day full of highlights) - I was called by Jacky ZL1WA - her very first CW SOTA contact!! I bet I was smiling just as much as you were Jacky! Thank you, it made my day!

Next up was Chris ZL4RA from ZL3/OT-354 with a good signal and sure fist. Another very tricky distance but 60m seems to be the answer for Queenstown to Christchurch.

I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself at this point so I QSY to 40m SSB to see if Warren was around and was promptly called by Andrew VK2UH/VK1DA. He said he was also copying me on 60m (c'mon Aussies, keep lobbying for some access, it's a great band!) and then John VK4TJ also called me. Weaker but perfectly readable. Pretty sure it's the first time I have worked VK QRP on SSB in the middle of the day.

The cloud had broken up and the sun was shining out of a clear blue dome. I had several groups of visitors some whom seemed genuinely interested in what I was doing but it was time to pack up and head down. I sent David ZL3DRN a txt to see if he wanted a couple of points towards his Shack Sloth award and blow me down, he says he's just arrived at Saddle Hill summit ZL3/CB-725!! Called him on 2m and another S2S in the bag!

View of Lees Valley and Southern Alps in the background. You can see the antenna wire (41 foot UNUNTenna) sloping down left to right from my beanie.

Given advice from my alpine mentor David ZL3DRN that one should (almost) never descend the same way one ascended, I decided to take the long way home via the aptly named Blowhard Track and then the Bypass Track back to the carpark. Turns out it's the best way down this hill, despite it being a little longer distance-wise, it's a lot gentler on the knees (Mark - take note) and much safer given it's more Northerly aspect. It's actually faster too.

View of the start of the Blowhard Track, as you can see, all my summit visitors had headed down this way too.

Looks like I'm finally getting my layering right too, toasty warm even after spending over 1.5 hours sitting on the summit.

Thanks everybody for a truly memorable day I will remember for a long time.

Kahikatea ZL3/MB-274

This was my second Marlborough summit and is just across the road from MB-286 which I activated at Queens Birthday weekend in 2019. Research on Google maps showed a forestry road network and Topomaps showed a vehicle track nearly to the pre-summit where a large TV and microwave tower is located.

The forestry road is a good one, suitable for 2WD vehicles with care. There is a locked gate but about 100m before this, the public track veers off left and climbs steeply. Don't take your car up here! The road is suitable for high clearance 4WD vehicles and skilled drivers only! Lots of scouring on corners etc. Francie was staying with the car so I parked in the track entrance and set off on foot. If leaving your vehicle, there's an area to park it about 300m back down the road.

View from the track, looking south down Port Underwood

It's a fairly easy walk up the road to the locked gate which prevents public vehicle access to the transmission tower site. Climb over the metal stile at the left end and continue up the road to the tower. It's about 30 minutes to this point.

Gate to the tower and summit

Entrance to the summit track is over the rock in centre of view

Climb up the rock and you'll find the track!

The track up the ridge is unmarked but well used and quite distinct. Soon you come to a clearing and a few meters further reveals the summit with a disused tower base.

As the wind was fairly brisk and cool, I set up on the lee side of the clearing and ran the 41' UnunTenna up with the pole bungeed to a tree. This is another bush-clad summit.

I wanted to work Wynne ZL2ATH who was holed up in his cabin in the Orongorongo Valley across Cook Strait. we tried 2m simplex but no joy. I also put out a general call on the Belmont 2m repeater that I was looking for simplex contacts on 146.5 but no calls. Wynne heard me weakly on 40m CW so we tried 80m which resulted in an easy QSO. That done, I saw Soren ZL1SKL spotted so called him for a nice S2S. Great signals on 40m up and down the country  and across the Tasman on 20m. Also managed a SSB QSO with David ZL3DRN who hastily erected his SOTA gear BYOTA-style.

Mark ZL3AB reported he was running late to his summit so I packed up and headed down. A great day on a nice hill. You could very easily do both Kahikatea and MB-286 in a couple of hours.

Getting there: Use my ZL3/MB-286 instructions and instead of parking, turn left onto dirt road. Follow until you see the road fork and head uphill. Park in the clearing about 200m back (another road heads off South here) and walk up the road, taking the LH fork. Make sure you park in a safe spot, lots of logging trucks through here!

Access permission: None needed Kahikatea Scenic Reserve
Repeater: Belmont 147.1 ok, others not tried.

Time: 40 minutes from the fork.

GPX track uploaded to the SOTA Mapping site.

Cloudy Hill ZL3/CB-474 and ZL3/CB-469 1st March 2020

David ZL3DRN suggested we have a crack at these two 4 pointers - the first day of Autumn turned out to be a fine, calm Sunday. We alerted for 9am local time to the first peak and warned that we wouldn't hang around long there so as to be on the second summit before the heat of the day.

View from the roadside. Spur in the foreground, peak on the left.

Cloudy Hill is within the Korowai/Torlesse Tussocklands Park however to access it from the State Highway, you need to cross private farmland - please make sure you ask for permission first.
The climb (no track, gps advised) takes you up a spur and ridge to the summit, about 1 1/2 hours with a few rest stops to admire the spectacular views.

Antennas set up and ready to go, 2m Slim Jim 1/2 way up pole and HF endfed at the top. Porter Heights skifield in the basin, behind/left.

We had decided that David would operate 2m upon reaching the summit and I would set up the pole and HF gear and then I'd grab 2m while David started HF. For a while we looked in danger of not activating on 2m - Don ZL3DMC was quickly in both our logs but there was no-one else around... I went to 40m and worked John ZL1BYZ and Jacky ZL1WA on their Manukau Heads summit ZL1/AK-014 , that's three in the log...A txt to Rick ZL3RIK and Geoff ZL3QR soon got things moving on 2m and we also worked John ZL3MR who was still climbing Mt Grey ZL3/CB-673. Robin ZL3REW and Gavin ZL3GAV called in and it was time to go.

We packed up and were walking again by 10am, 30 minutes after we'd budgeted for but OK.

Looking East to Christchurch

Looking down to Lake Lyndon and Trig M ZL3/CB-536 behind

We made good time and arrived at the second summit only a few minutes after the alert time of 11am Local. We used the same setup strategy again and this time activated quickly on 2m FM. Moving to HF produced John and Jacky again and also John ZL3MR, now on his Mt Grey summit - a good haul of S2S points. HF CW was disappointing, only producing one VK, Allan VK3ARH, Rick ZL3RIK  and Andre ZL1TM. I called CQ on 30m and 17m with no RBN spots or contacts - very rare. At that point we called it quits, packed up the gear and enjoyed our lunch perched on the edge looking out over at Mt Lyndon.

Red Hill ZL3/CB-411 (Left) and Peak Hill ZL3/CB-542 with Lake Coleridge through the valley.

David has a healthy dislike of returning via the same route so we came out via a couple of excellent scree runs and then bush-bashed our way down the valley. One of the day's highlights was the Chamois that popped up about 20m in front of us, took off up the spur and watched us from the ridge. Magic stuff!

Chamois on the ridge making sure we were leaving!

After bashing/crawling through acres of Matagouri (well it felt like that at the time!) we emerged onto the grazed paddocks and made our way back down to where we'd left the car.
A fantastic adventure full of highlights: 8 points in the bag, great views and company, seeing my first wild Chamois and home in time for family dinner!

Gear - 2m: FT-270R with roll-up Slim Jim 3m up the pole, HF: KX2 with QRPGuys 41' UNUNTenna and 35' counterpoise.

Access: Contact farmer for permission to cross his land into Korowai/Torlesse Tussocklands Park
VHF: good coverage of all CHC repeaters and simplex
Height gain 911 m
Distance 9.5 km
Time: 7:40 total

Mt Richardson ZL3/CB-612 23 Feb 2020

This was my second time up Mt Richardson in North Canterbury.
The night before we had a Southerly change and snow down to 1500m, in mid-February!

View of the mountains from Tram Road - this IS summer right?!

It's a moderately steep climb up an excellent DOC track. There's a diversion after a few minutes which takes you to a nice waterfall viewpoint. The track carries on and rejoins the main track. Native bush shelters you pretty much all the way and then at the summit, you emerge to the sunshine and spectacular views over Lees Valley, Canterbury Plains and of course the Southern Alps. Lots of birdsong from the Bellbirds, flitting from the Fantails and whooshing from the Kereru to keep you company :-)

Nice views - what's that white stuff doing there in February!

I was up there nice and early, got set up and worked the loyal CHC chasers on 2m FM including Geoff ZL3QR who achieved first QSO status again from an equestrian event in the Waimak Gorge.
HF was up and running quickly using the usual 41' endfed and KX2. I was rewarded with S2S contacts with John ZL1BYZ, Jackie ZL1WA and Warren ZL2AJ. I also discovered that doing SOTA on JW Field Day is a mixed blessing... Probably enough said about that! I headed down at noon and visited the ZL3RR Branch 68 site at View Hill. They had a very slick operation running and were very happy having doubled their previous year's score.


Directions: From the Glentui picnic area at the end of Glentui Bush Road, follow the well-marked and well-used walking track to the summit
Time to summit: 2hr 15min
Summit marker: Trig
Land access permission: Not required, Mt. Thomas Forest Conservation Area
Repeater access: good to all Christchurch area repeaters
Cellphone access: Patchy Spark coverage on the summit

Otanewainuku ZL1/BP-193 Feb 2020

Francie's Dad lives in Whakatane and we visit for a few days each year. Last year I had intended to activate Mt Maunganui but it was Easter Sunday and as it is one of the few places in the country open on that day, it was jumping with tourists!

This year was better planned and after a fantastic couple of days fishing, Francie and I set off to Te Puke on Saturday to activate this Bay of Plenty summit.

Warren ZL2AJ and family did all the hard work on the initial activation and documented it well on his blog. Please get the access details and how to find the true summit (it's not the trig) etc from there, I'll just add a few observations and photos.

It's a very nice walk in native bush all the way. One of the best marked tracks I've been on. Lots of native birdsong including Kiwi! A really nice experience hearing them in the wild for the first time.

We arrived at the summit which is densely bush-clad, a strange thing for a Canterbury lad used to alpine tussock and bare rock! I set up the pole with the 41' endfed UNUTenna however it was very tricky to erect far enough away and I ended up doubling back around a branch to the operating site. One learning from this is to take a 25' wire to known bush-clad summits in future, easier to manage. It will mean no 80m or 60m however.

Antenna wire coming towards camera around branch and back up behind to pole!

I found Chris ZL4RA with a good signal on 20m SSB for an S2S and then back to 40m SSB and qualified the summit. I knew getting Warren ZL2AJ and John ZL1BYZ in the log was going to be  a challenge as they were too close. 80m, 60m and 40m were no good, I finally worked John (and Andre ZL1TM) on 20m CW and unfortunately Warren and I couldn't make it. I am sure my compromised antenna setup and being surrounded by bush didn't help. Reports received were consistently low.
I worked Allen VK2ARH S2S (20mCW) and Gerard VK2IO (17mCW) and that was it, 9 QSOs, 2 S2S.

It's a very popular track and we made sure we were off to the side. 6 parties came past and Francie adeptly explained what we were doing. One lady was keen to learn more and we had a good chat.

In summary, it's a nice, relatively easy walk but quite a challenge to activate. A good challenge!

There is a lot of work involved in maintaining this piece of paradise - community and DOC partnership seems to be very effective. Lots of bait stations (pink markers) targeting predators
The giant Kahikateas are magnificent, friendly North Island Robins come right up close and plenty of Kereru (Wood Pidgeon) and Tui around too.

One of NZ's tallest trees, a 40m high Kahikatea (White Pine)

 We visited the trig platform on the way down and took the obligatory panorama photo (the posts are the four corners of the elevated platform)


I'd highly recommend this summit to visitors, it's a great taste of classic Kiwi (literally!) bush.

73
Geoff ZL3GA

Flag Peak ZL3/CB-737 18th January 2020

This is my third activation of Flag Peak but first blog. It's one of those hills that grows on you, I didn't particularly enjoy my first activation of it, I left the track too early (twice!) and ended up covered in scratches from Spaniard and Gorse. This time it was a doddle, great weather and I had Francie along with me.

Looking down at Akaroa and a visiting cruise ship

Mark ZL3AB was activating Mt John (Observatory) and there was a relatively unobstructed path so I decided to take my portable 2m 3 element yagi. Lucky there wasn't many branches overhanging the track!














Upon arriving I set up the yagi and climbed right to the summit to try our luck south, unfortunately nothing heard either way, maybe if we had gain antennas at both ends? I did work David ZL3DRN on Red Hill and Ian ZL3GIG on Lavericks, 59+++ both ways unsurprisingly!

Why is that Madman waving a TV antenna around?!

HF was set up quickly and a quick 40m CW contact with Mark on 40m had us both smiling.

Tactical Mini pole to left (North) of me, nice rock for me to perch on.

 

Usual setup, KX2, QRPGuys UNUNTenna with 41' wire and 35' counterpoise

This is a spectacular summit, thoroughly deserving of a panorama ;-)
It's so good you suddenly realise that you are seeing in real-time what you have seen since childhood on maps of Banks Peninsula.

Francie had her book and was enjoying the sunshine so we stuck around for the 1pm UTC rollover.

Looking East - next landmass is Chile! Francie in right of picture enjoying the view and her book.

An uneventful packup and walk down, followed by a very nice lunch in Akaroa and home!

How to get there:
Drive to Akaroa and head (carefully) up Stony Bay Road to the Misty Peaks Carpark at the top. Walk back down the road 100m to the track start. Walk well past the peak to where the track turns left and at the gate, turn left and walk up the spur to the summit.
Easy 30 minute walk, 190m altitude gain.
Permission, none needed, Armstrong reserve.

Mt William ZL3/WC-573 New Years Day 2020

This is a really nice mountain, close to Westport where we spent our summer holiday. Mt Rochfort is nearby too but has a longer 4WD track to access - next time.
Weather forecast was Ok for the morning and early afternoon with a very light SW but a change to Westerlies and rain forecast for the afternoon.

The mountain is accessed from the historic mining area of Denniston Plateau, a destination worth visiting in it's own right (I took Francie back there the following day). "Myra's track" starts opposite the Coalbrookdale walk entrance and is a marked bush track but you need to keep your wits about you as it is easy to lose.

Track start at Coalbrookdale

Main bit to watch is not far from the start where you emerge onto a MTB road and it is not clear where Myra's track restarts on the opposite side. I cast around for a while before finding it

Track continues up to right of the MTB track to the right of the three boulders (red arrow)

It's a good climb, the sign says 2 hours and that's what it took me with a couple of breaks. The climb is quite technical in places, it's not just a walk up a hill. There are quite steep sections with limited foot/hand holds. Care required as there is a lot of moss around (I slid down a bit on my backside coming down).

A very old trig marks the summit. Activation zone is large with plenty of room to set up.

I chose to use an overhanging boulder as shelter from the sun so ended up with a fairly unique set-up.

Pack used to keep wire off the rock which seemed to help tuning! Yellow wire is counterpoise.

Scenery was spectacular as you expect on the West Coast - Denniston Plateau and Tasman Sea on one side and mountains around the remainder

I fired up the KX2 on 40m SSB and worked a bunch of other activators and NZART activity day stations. Knowing that Mark ZL3AB was going to be tricky on anything but 60m (he was only 90km away but the other side of the alps) I went there and worked some Christchurch chasers and then Mark popped up with an excellent signal! 30m was next and worked Dan ZL4DVG on a neighbouring West Coast summit and then headed to 20m for VK1MCW, VK4TJ and VK2IO/P.
A few more on 40m and at 2330z I noted the cloud rolling in from the Tasman Sea and wind rising.
I decided to have lunch and be ready to work a few after the rollover and then pack up and get down the track. This strategy worked well as by 0008z I had 6 contacts in the log and it was time to go.

Descent was OK apart from the above-mentioned slide and slight worry about losing the track in low cloud, dense bush and with a low cellphone battery... Next purchase will be a dedicated GPS unit!

Mt William is a nice summit and I'd recommend visitors to Westport activate it.

Getting there:
Drive to Denniston (30 mins from Westport) and take the Burnetts Face Road (shingle but OK for 2WD) to the start of Myra's Track (Coalbrookdale Walk is right opposite). Park just before the bridge and walk over it to find the track start. There is another parking area available: instead of taking the hairpin turn, go straight ahead and park. 5 min walk back to trail head - better option for Campervans!
Permission not needed - conservation land but be aware this is still an active mining area, watch for trucks.
4G coverage (Spark) on the summit and Westport National System Node (I could trigger the tail but no-one heard audio from me - maybe faulty)
Time: 2 hours ascent (with breaks), 1 hour descent.