Sentinel Peak towers out from 'The Neck', a strip of land that separates Lake Wanaka from Lake Hawea. The track starts from the well known Kidds Bush campsite and weaves up through the Beech Forest and before you know it your eyes are opened up by the vivid views down to Lake Hawea.
From here the official track heads right towards the Sawyer Burn Hut and onto Sentinel Peak if you wish but a more direct route can be taken if you stick to the immediate ridge line and following it all the way to the summit. A few of the rock ridges are impassable so a sidle around the back of them is necessary, approach these with caution.
Access up onto Sentinel Peak may seem difficult from a distance but as you draw nearer the first or second gully are the obvious access points. A great route that surprisingly only took 4 hours to reach the summit. Our descent back down via Sawyer Burn Hut took abit longer than expected...we couldn't find the bloody thing! Crew: Lee & Simon. 7-8 hour return. 22nd February 2014