Distance: 2.6 km (1.0 DOC hours) - Benched track - Easy terrain
Altitude: 617m to 924m. Gain: 356m. Loss: 53m . Gradient: 9 deg (Moderate)
Skills:

Benched track (3/9)
Benched, maintained, marked tramping track or pack-track

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

Moderate (difficulty: 3/5)
Occasional moderate climbs

Easy (difficulty: 1/5)
Grass / prepared surface

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

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

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

From the track junction 100m south of Triplex Hut, a good, popular benched track climbs the spur towards Sunrise Hut on an easy gradient. The broad track zigzags its way up the face on a steady gradient through mature bush., later sidling the northern face After 2.5km (1.5km from Triplex due to all the zigzags) a signposted track junction is reached, with the benched, broad Sunrise Track continuing up the spur, and a more basic tramping track dropping south-west towards Waipawa Forks Hut.

Note: Described in the reverse direction to your journey

From the Waipawa Hut turnoff, the broad, platformed Sunrise Track sidles the northern face of pt952 before dropping to the flats below in a series of graded zigzags. The gradient is gentle, and the track is broad, good and well used.

100m after crossing a small stream, an old 4WD track is reached, and a signposted track junction points to Triplex Hut, 100m to the north off the main Sunrise Track.