Just 30 minutes drive from Dunedin sits the Silver forest
In this forest there are many tracks going up and down the mountains creating a beautiful location for hiking, backpacking and camping.
We walked on those mountains and absolutely loved it

We started our walk on the Old Possum hut track which leads to an old hut that is no longer in use.
Going into the forest felt magical with a lot of mushrooms all around us, we felt like we were in a fairytale.
The track is very steep and at some places narrow, it is very easy to miss a step and fall down a hole or a ledge, we both fell into holes on this track so be warned.
From the old hut we climbed up on a steep slope that connects to the silver peak track, from this point we crossed the tree line and walked on the ridge, climbing up and down, again the path is narrow and has holes in it, so watch out.
The walk on the ridge is steep but not as steep as the walk on the old possum hut track, the views from the ridge are just breathtaking, leaving us speechless to the awe of nature.
From the ridge we descended back into the forest and branched off the track after a few river crossings, we started climbing up towards Jubilee hut, the hut is located above the tree line looking upon the mountains.
We got the hut completely to ourselves, it was awesome!

The next day we retraced our steps back to the track, from now on we would walk on the Silver peaks route, the reason it changes names is because from this point on the track is even less maintained then it was before, the vegetation over grows on the path and in some points you kind of need to make your own path through the trees and gorse.
The day starts with a river crossing and a big climb up back to the ridge line, it's a tiring climb but it's definitely worth it, when you get to the ridge line you suddenly can breathe and see the mountains and forests from above.
The track continues from here on the ridge line leaving you to walk with fantastic views of the mountains and forests, at some point we started to go down the hill and back into the forest on a slippery section, here we found a branch in the path leading to a cave called ABC cave, in it there's a bed, bench and a fireplace, so if you want it's totally possible to stay the night in it, I can only imagine what a special experience that would be.
After going back to the path we continued going down and back to the forest, we walked in the forest for a few kilometers until we reached a clearing with our next hut, Philip J Cox Memorial hut, this hut is a tiny hut with only 4 beds in it, outside there's also a helicopter landing area in case of an emergency.
To this hut came another guy that during the night made a lot of noise making it harder to sleep, especially to me, as I was outside up to a late hour shooting the stars.
At night in the forest clearing it was pitch black, all I could hear were night sounds, and then, a loud scree sound flying over my head, it was blood freezing, I was so scared! it was most probably just a morepork (a New Zealand native owl), I kept at my photography and then a roar sound from the bushes, what could that be? I was startled, there are no predators in New Zealand, so it's probably a deer or a hog. I finished my photography and got back inside, this was one of the scariest nights I had shooting the stars.

The last day was an easy day. We kept going down the hill up to a river, we crossed it and climbed back up to the dirt road we left our car at, on the way up we met a little Robin who became our friend and sat on our legs as we were resting.
Once we got to the dirt road we said goodbye to the Robin and the forest and walked about 4km back to the car.
It was an awesome and challenging experience out on the mountains next to Dunedin and I highly recommend it.