Distance: 15.6 km (7.0 DOC hours) - Unmarked route, clear - Moderate-hard terrain
Altitude: 692m to 1724m. Gain: 1458m. Loss: 603m . Gradient: 8 deg (Steep)
Skills: Alpine weather (2/7) - Occasional rivers (3/6)

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

minor (5/5)
A viable route, not widely used

Steep (difficulty: 5/5)
Steep climbs of >1000m

Moderate-hard (difficulty: 4/5)
Tall, walkable scrub / large rocks, occasional waterfalls or gorges in rivers

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

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

Unknown (difficulty: 0/7)
Not specified

Travelled via the St James Walkway to the footbridge leading to Ada Pass Hut. From the footbridge I travelled in a northerly then north-west direction, across a grassy section, towards what seemed dense scrubby and impassable bush, on the true right of the Maruia River. Other trip reports mention a track marked through this with tape, but I couldn’t find one, not two years ago nor on this occasion. However, I found a steep dry river bed, unmarked on the 1:50,000 topo map, and hopped up over the reddish coloured boulders in this. After about 100 metres of steep ascent I had gained about 40 metres elevation, and judged that it was time to head back towards the Maruia river, traversing the slope away from the dry river bed, pushing through fairly dense bush at times, then in more open terrain of tussock, flowering grassy meadows and occasional dense clumps of trees, finally reaching the stream. Continue up the river, negotiating some beech forest, then open scrub and plenty of speargrass.

By 1,130 metres the track steepens significantly, and reaches the waterfalls on the Maruia visible form the Ada Pass Hut. After another hour of steep terrain I had reached the upper parts of the Maruia and was approaching the turnoff to Three Tarn Pass. I was still on the river’s true right, with large bluffs with waterfalls and grassy banks covered in white and yellow flowering daisies on the true left.

Rather than continue up scree to the tarn, I chose to walk up the steep spur to a rather inhospitable basin with a small tarn surrounded by rock. I rounded a very large mound of rock to the main tarn where I found a nice place to set up camp.

Note: Described in the reverse direction to your journey

No description