Distance: 2.8 km (1.5 DOC hours) - Unmarked route, clear - Moderate terrain
Altitude: 262m to 332m. Gain: 86m. Loss: 37m . Gradient: 3 deg (Gentle)
Skills: - Occasional rivers (3/6)

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

Primary, unmapped (2/5)
Route not on maps, but is 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

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

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

From Apiti Hut, drop down the track to the Opaewai Stream and follow it upriver. The river is of moderate size, but less than knee deep in normal flows and has good river-rock banks to walk on. Several crossings are required, but going is generally easy until 300m below the Opaewai-Purenga confluence. Here a brief rapid/gorge requires a scramble up boulders to pass it. Once past this the valley flattens again and the confluence of the Opaewai and Purenga is soon reached.

A track joins here from the ridgeline to the west (this track can be used to bypass this lower section of the river, but given that the hard part of the river is further upstream, it makes little sense to use this track. For a wet-weather route, head instead to Saddle Hut, and take the route along the ridge heading north to join the Twain-Waikokopu track east of Te Whakaumu).

Note: Described in the reverse direction to your journey

From the Opaewai-Purenga confluence, continue down the river. A short boulder-rapid is reached after a couple of hundred meters, and required a scramble on the true right to pass. Once beyond this, travel is easy along river banks of slipper river rocks, and in the flat riverbed. The river is generally knee deep in normal flows, and crossings easy - though it could easily flood after rain.

Look out for DOC markers 100m upriver of the Mangawai confluence, on the eastern bank. These mark a short track climbing some 60m to Apiti Hut on a terrace above the forks.