Distance: 2.6 km (1.5 DOC hours) - Unmarked route, clear - Easy-moderate terrain
Altitude: 578m to 604m. Gain: 52m. Loss: 36m . Gradient: 2 deg (Flat)
Skills: - Occasional rivers (3/6)

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

Flat (difficulty: 1/5)
Flat

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

At the roadend / park boundary, the Matakuhia is 5-8m wide, ankle deep in low-moderate flows. Some maps show a track on the western bank, but forget it - this is bar-room cartography, the track is the riverbed.

The first 800m is steep-sided and most time is spent in the river. Luckily the riverbed is on small river pebbles, and is flat and easy going, so apart from wet feet it's not too bad. After 800m the valley starts to open up. Gravel banks finally let me out of the water and onto dry land. The going steadily improves, except for 2 short (50-100m) gorges which are passable in the water 800m downriver of the hut, a small A-frame bivvy sits on flats inside a large river bend on the eastern bank. Very basic.

The hut sits at the downstream end of a large clearing, covered by a devastation of driftwood. There are no markers. The most obvious access involved passing the hut to reach the clear area and then cutting back down the flats to the hut. The structure is not visible from the stream, but is where the map says it should be, and at the base of the first large clearing coming upriver, so should be easy enough to find.

Note: Described in the reverse direction to your journey

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