Fox River to Ballroom Overhang

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Port flora

with 1 trail buddy

4,118 224 970

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Trail stats

Distance: 4.54 mi
Elevation gain: 1,558 ft
Technical difficulty: Difficult
Elevation loss: 1,368 ft
Max elevation: 324 ft
TrailRank: 39
Min elevation: 324 ft
Trail type: One Way

Time: 3 hours 26 minutes
Coordinates: 1215
Uploaded: November 27, 2017
Recorded: October 2017

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near Tiromoana, West Coast (New Zealand)

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Itinerary description

This is a tough hike up the Fox River to an area known as the Ballroom Overhang. Depending on your path, there are 6 or 7 river crossings and with water levels high and the water cold it can make for very uncomfortable conditions. We dried out and warmed up a couple of times on the way to the site and found navigation tricky at times. The path is clear and well marked up to the second crossing point at Dilemma Creek. From there you are pretty much on your own. We had downloaded a wiki track to follow by Kotare but I believe it was hand drawn on a map after he completed the hike and lacked precision (our actual hike statistics came in at 28% longer distance and with almost double the amount of elevation). This path is definitely the one we took and may include some unnecessary walking as we scouted out the shoreline either trying to get our bearings or looking for the best/easiest place to cross the river.

The campsite at the overhang is large enough for several tents, there are some interesting rock formations (including the river's carving away of the stone bank to create the overhang) and on the way there, some nice trail sections through the forest.

Your footwear selection is critical (we opted for two pairs of shoes - 1 wet pair and 1 dry) hiking poles helped a lot for balancing against the rushing water and you do need to be prepared for falling.

A decent hike but I would say the reward to effort/risk ratio was low, especially for New Zealand!