Distance: 1.6 km (1.0 DOC hours)
Altitude: 1143m to 1667m. Gain: 4m. Loss: 526m . Gradient: 20 deg
Skills:

Unknown (0/9)
Not specified

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

Unknown (difficulty: 0/5)
Not specified

Unknown (difficulty: 0/5)
Not specified

Unknown (difficulty: 0/7)
Not specified

Unknown (difficulty: 0/6)
Not specified

Unknown (difficulty: 0/7)
Not specified

No scrub-bashing, so all you need is low flows in the river and firm snow. Of course you'll get knee-waist deep snow, so descending is better.

Have ascended a variant of this route in winter, starting in Kawhatau just upstream of the big bend upstream of Tussock Ck. A bit of scrub to get onto the spur mentioned in the route.

Head south from Paemutu for several hundred metres (gravel open tops) to a spur that descends SW. Go down this spur (gravel) for less than 100m, where the scree descent NW into Tussock Ck is less steep than the country you have just passed. Descend scree and light tussock alongside creek, crossing where necessary, and finally some deeper tussock and light scrub to each the Kawhatau River.
(For next route segment: Kawhatau River downstream to Waterfall Hut is wading in small river. Impassable in high flows because this is a confined valley).
Historical notes:
1. This is route 15A in Norman Elder's 1959 book "Route Guide to the Ranges West of Hawke's Bay".
2. On earlier topo maps the main headwaters of the Kawhatau were labelled Tussock Ck. From the main range I descended the next marked creek on true right of Kawhatau south of Tussock Ck (in winter). This is easy (tussock) but once in the Kawhatau after a few hundred metres it becomes a very tight gorge with waterfalls - impassable. Climbed out on true right to the spur mentioned in this route.

Note: Described in the reverse direction to your journey

No description