From Smiths Stream Hut to Waipawa Roadend via river / track
View
Distance: 6.5 km (3.0 DOC hours) - Tramping track - Moderate terrain
Altitude: 595m to 1076m. Gain: 454m. Loss: 649m . Gradient: 10 deg (Moderate)
Skills: - Occasional rivers (3/6)
GPX info source: Drawn on map

From Smiths Stream Hut, head up the track behind the hut onto the spur, and then 50m or so up the spur to the track junction. A rough track has been cut north around the head of a slip dropping into the northern branch of Smiths Stream 100m upriver.

Follow the stream upriver, in the riverbed, or on banks where possible. The stream is small - ankle-to-knee deep and less than 3m wide, and should be ok in most conditions - but as with all rivers it can flood after rain.

After about 1km the forks shown on the map are reached. Continue up the northern fork - the valley becoming narrower and steeper and windfall becoming an issue. About 200m beyond, as the valley swings NW, several small DOC triangles on the northern bank mark the start of the track.

The track climbs steeply to the ridge to the north, but is well marked and cut and reasonable going. Once there it swings east round the head of the creek to the north, sidling north of pt1104, before rejoining the ridgeline and dropping north with it. About 1km after leaving the creek, the track enters large clearings with manuka scrub. A sparsely poled route (cut in 2014) continues north through these before reentering the bush and zigzagging steeply down into Middle Creek.

Middle Creek must be crossed, but is small (knee deep and under 4m wide) in normal flows.

On the north side, the track sidles briefly downstream before climbing steeply onto flats above. This is ex-farmland, regenerating into low scrub. The intermittently marked track cuts west to what appears to be an old track junction, then climbs north over the next spur before dropping into the next branch of Middle Creek. This fork is small (under 2m wide) and can normally be crossed with dry feet.

From here you soon join an old farm track, which you follow onto the flat tops to the NE. The farm track swings east into farmland, and a tramping track continues straight on running up the park-side of the deer fencing and dropping to the Waipawa River. The Waipawa Carpark is over the river, 200m up the track on the far side. The river is bridged.

Last updated by: Madpom at 2014-12-21 23:05:49. Experienced: 2013-01-19
Comments: Add
You are not currently signed in. Please register to comment