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DOC Land
Altitude: 455m to 821m. Gain: 688m. Loss: 339m . Gradient: 5 deg (Moderate)
Skills: - Streams (2/6)
4hr. After brief flats the track resumes sidling the western valleyside, climbing 100m over a spur before descending nearly to the river. A massive slip has taken out the valleyside, and the route winds and scrambles over the resulting boulderfield, marked with cairns. Back in the bush the track is good up to the East/West (wet/dry) Matiri forks. The track is poled up the dry West Matiri, climbing through a scrubby boulderfield. Woody vegetation has been regularly cut, but the track soon wills with tutu and toetoe and so this section is slow through waist-high scrub. After 2km the track swings north and climbs to the ridgeline. An easy, well cut, well marked ridgeline route follow before dropping to a large grassy clearing. Follow the eastern side of the clearing north (not well marked) and find orange markers on the bushedge beyond. Again, a good cut marked track leads through beech, dropping into a creekhead.
Follow the creek downriver, crossing a few times before ending up on the northern bank. The track soon diverges from the creek, so don’t be tempted to follow the open creekbed. The creek is low (ankle deep) in normal flows, and crossings are not well marked. The track swings north and climbs adjacent to the East (wet) Matiri over a beech-covered boulder dam and into broad marshy flats above. The track follows the western valleyside past a lake, some distance upriver, before crossing to the east just below Hurricane Hut. Parts of this section are not well marked or well defined on the ground and it is easy to loose the track. Hurricane Hut is tucked against beech forest on the eastern valleyside upstream of the major confluence, as shown on maps.