Distance: 6.8 km (2.5 DOC hours) - Tramping track - Easy-moderate terrain
Altitude: 635m to 699m. Gain: 122m. Loss: 80m . Gradient: 2 deg (Gentle)
Skills:

Tramping track (4/9)
Cut, marked tramping track: natural, rough ground surface

Primary, mapped (1/5)
Formal route, on maps, principal access to hut or along range / catchment

Gentle (difficulty: 2/5)
Gentle slopes

Easy-moderate (difficulty: 2/5)
Tussock / river-gravel / open bush / cut track

None (difficulty: 1/7)
No alpine skills required

None (difficulty: 1/6)
No unbridged river crossings

None (difficulty: 1/7)
No alpine skills required

Following the poled track north from Oamaru Hut, you pass through 500m or so of open scrubby tussock flats before a sudden line on the ground is reached and scrub is replaced by tall, lush, mature bush.

To the Kaipo swingbridge, there’s another 7km of travel along river terraces. For the most part this is a broad track, cool and shaded though mature beech forest. The river meanders nearby: sometimes visible, sometimes not, banks lined with tall toetoe.

The junction at the swingbridge is marked by a suignpost, and there are good, well used camp spots on the southern side.

Note: Described in the reverse direction to your journey

From the Kaipo swingbridge, there’s another 7km of travel along river terraces to reach the Oamaru Hut. For the most part this is a broad track, cool and shaded though mature beech forest. The river meanders nearby: sometimes visible, sometimes not, banks lined with tall toetoe.

Shortly before the hut this comes to a sudden end: the shaded bush stopping on a sharp, ruled line to be replaced by open scrubby tussock flats. 500m further downriver Oamaru Hut sits on a terrace at the confluence of the Oamaru and Kaipo – looking downriver over scrub to distant (felled) pineforest.