Distance: 6.5 km (3.0 DOC hours) - Tramping track - Moderate terrain
Altitude: 595m to 1076m. Gain: 649m. Loss: 454m . Gradient: 10 deg (Moderate)
Skills: - Occasional rivers (3/6)

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

Moderate (difficulty: 3/5)
Occasional moderate climbs

Moderate (difficulty: 3/5)
Low scrub in open or bush / river rocks

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

Occasional rivers (difficulty: 3/6)
Occasional rivers - impassible after heavy rain

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

From the Waipawa roadend, drop to the river, and cross it on the road-bridge. Follow the road as it cuts SE up the far valleyside for 50m to where a more basic 4WD track cuts west through a gate. This is the start of the Smiths Stream Track.

Follow the 4WD track up the park-side of the deer fencing onto the flat tops to the south, joining another track from the east, then dropping into the northern fork of Middle Stream - where the 4WD track ends and a cut, marked tramping track commences. The north fork of Middle Stream is small (under 2m wide) and can normally be crossed with dry feet.

Over the stream the tramping track continues over the next spur, and drops towards the southern fork of Middle Stream. On the terrace 20m above the creek, an old track junction is reached. Head briefly downstream on the terraces and pick up the cut track again as it drops to the stream.

Middle Creek must be crossed, but is small (knee deep and under 4m wide) in normal flows.

Beyond, the cut, marked track zigzags its way up the steep, scrubby face to the south, emerging into clearings on the ridge. A vaguely poled route (cut 2014) heads south through these clearings, climbing onto the crest of the spur as it heads further south. Once in the bush a good marked tramping track begins again, sidling the face north of pt114 and swinging west to the saddle above Smiths Stream. At the saddle, the track cuts sharply south off the ridge to the stream below (an old ground-trail continues straight ahead, once leading to the former Middle Creek Hut)

Once in the creek, head downriver for 1km. 200m before the forks, look out of a roughly cut track on the true right, which climbs over a slip and onto the spur north of the hut, where it meets the track coming down from the main range to the west. Smiths Stream Hut is just below, following the track back down the south side of the spur.

(If you miss the sidle track, just head downriver to the forks, then west up the southern fork of Smiths Stream. You soon reach some grassy flats on the northern side of the stream, and nosing around there you will pick up the track climbing north to Smiths Stream Hut).

Note: Described in the reverse direction to your journey

From Smiths Stream Hut, head up the track behind the hut onto the spur, and then 50m or so up the spur to the track junction. A rough track has been cut north around the head of a slip dropping into the northern branch of Smiths Stream 100m upriver.

Follow the stream upriver, in the riverbed, or on banks where possible. The stream is small - ankle-to-knee deep and less than 3m wide, and should be ok in most conditions - but as with all rivers it can flood after rain.

After about 1km the forks shown on the map are reached. Continue up the northern fork - the valley becoming narrower and steeper and windfall becoming an issue. About 200m beyond, as the valley swings NW, several small DOC triangles on the northern bank mark the start of the track.

The track climbs steeply to the ridge to the north, but is well marked and cut and reasonable going. Once there it swings east round the head of the creek to the north, sidling north of pt1104, before rejoining the ridgeline and dropping north with it. About 1km after leaving the creek, the track enters large clearings with manuka scrub. A sparsely poled route (cut in 2014) continues north through these before reentering the bush and zigzagging steeply down into Middle Creek.

Middle Creek must be crossed, but is small (knee deep and under 4m wide) in normal flows.

On the north side, the track sidles briefly downstream before climbing steeply onto flats above. This is ex-farmland, regenerating into low scrub. The intermittently marked track cuts west to what appears to be an old track junction, then climbs north over the next spur before dropping into the next branch of Middle Creek. This fork is small (under 2m wide) and can normally be crossed with dry feet.

From here you soon join an old farm track, which you follow onto the flat tops to the NE. The farm track swings east into farmland, and a tramping track continues straight on running up the park-side of the deer fencing and dropping to the Waipawa River. The Waipawa Carpark is over the river, 200m up the track on the far side. The river is bridged.