Distance: 3.1 km (1.5 DOC hours) - Unmarked route, clear - Moderate terrain
Altitude: 351m to 518m. Gain: 212m. Loss: 75m . Gradient: 5 deg (Gentle)
Skills: - Prolonged rivers (4/6)

Unmarked route, clear (7/9)
Unmarked route, follows obvious geography (river, spur, trail, etc)

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

Gentle (difficulty: 2/5)
Gentle slopes

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

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

Prolonged rivers (difficulty: 4/6)
Frequent river travel - impassible after rain, risk of getting trapped

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

From Te Waiotukapiti Hut, a track leads across flats upriver, dumping you back in the riverbed at the head of the flats. From there it is good going on a easy riverbed, with a few crossings - knee-to-thigh deep in normal flows. On the upstream side of the confluence with the Maungangara Stream, a sidle track cuts up the spur to bypass the gorge in the Waiau at Blue Slip. The old sidle track over blue slip is poorly marked, but still followable, climbing steeply to the ridgeline, then swinging west from the summit in an arc above Maungangara Stream.

At the low-point just south of Blue Slip it is easy to drop west into Maungangara stream - if that is where you are headed - or continue along the ridgeline past the slip and drop east back to the Waiau.

Note: Described in the reverse direction to your journey

From the top op Blue Slip, the old track is unmaintained but reasonably marked. It foillows the ridgeline south to pt537, then swings east to the net unnamed point, before dropping east down the spur to the confluence of the Waiau and Maungangara.

From here the route downriver is int he Waiau Riverbed - several crossings, knee to thigh deep in normal flows. Reasonable going on mostly good gravel. A track through mature podocarp bushy flats, to the hut, starts at the head of the hut flats. But don't worry if you miss it as the hut is visible and accessible directly from the riverbed.