Distance: 5.1 km (4.0 DOC hours) - Tramping track - Easy-moderate terrain
Altitude: 951m to 1225m. Gain: 409m. Loss: 462m . Gradient: 10 deg (Moderate)
Skills: Alpine weather (2/7) Winter - Snow/ice underfoot (2/7)

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

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

Alpine weather (difficulty: 2/7)
Tramp on open tops, exposed to alpine weather

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

Snow/ice underfoot (difficulty: 2/7)
Snow/ice likely on track

Returning to the ridgeline from Nichols Hut, the poled track continues briefly east to Nichols Highpoint before swining north. Dropping quickly into cloud forest the next 4 kilometers are along a cut, marked track over a series of bush-clad saddles interspersed with climbs to scrubby peaks: pt1031, pt1055, Kelleher. Just before Kelleher summit the track emerges onto open tops and swings sharply right, bypassing the summit. A good ground trail also continues straight on to the summit, and it is easy to miss the turn.

From Kelleher a scramble on the eastern face follows before returning to the ridgeline and ascending Puketoro, and finally Dracophyllum Knob, where the damp, 2-bunk biv, Dracophyllum 'Hut' awaits.

Note: Described in the reverse direction to your journey

Leaving Dracophylum Hut, nothing much changes - the well-cut track continues to climb and fall through mossy cloud-forest and occasional scrubby peaks: pt 1033, Puketoi (1152m), Kelleher (1182m), pt1055, and pt1031 - before commencing the long and steep climb to Nichols, where the track swings sharply west. In bad weather (I had mist and horizontal rain) it is very hard to pick up the point where the track turns: a well-trodden track (presumably made by lost trampers) continues south along the ridge which then drops sharply towards the Waiohine. Nothing obvious marks the turning point - so look out for a worn track branching due west.

About 500m after turn at Nichols Peak, a signpost indicates Nichols Hut below on the left (south) side of the ridge.