Distance: 6.7 km (2.5 DOC hours) - Benched track - Easy-moderate terrain
Altitude: 219m to 398m. Gain: 341m. Loss: 199m . Gradient: 5 deg (Gentle)
Skills: - Occasional rivers (3/6)

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

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

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

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

1.5hr+ 3km of walking along a 4WD track from the carpark takes you to the West Matiri. The riverbed is huge, but the river small and easily crossed in normal flows – rock-hopping or knee deep. In flood the river is impassable.

Scramble up the far bank at the forks. An old roadbed continues up the valley, passing the West Matiri Emergency Shelter – for those caught by the flooded river. Interrupted in one spot by a slip where you must detour onto the rivedbed, the roadbed runs all the way to Lake Matiri Hut.

Note: Described in the reverse direction to your journey

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