Distance: 4.5 km (2.5 DOC hours) - Unmarked route, clear - Easy-moderate terrain
Altitude: 418m to 1087m. Gain: 29m. Loss: 698m . Gradient: 9 deg (Gentle)
Skills:

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

Secondary, unmapped (4/5)
Route not on maps, an alternative recognised access to hut or along range / catchment

Gentle (difficulty: 2/5)
Gentle slopes

Easy-moderate (difficulty: 2/5)
Tussock / river-gravel / open bush / cut track

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

None (difficulty: 1/6)
No unbridged river crossings

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

A good unmarked route runs down Ridge 666. Slopes are gentle and the bush is good and open.

200m east of Elder along the track, markers on a tree at the northernmost point in the curve of the track mark the start of ridge 666. Simply follow the ridgeline down. Several false spurs in the first 500m tempt you down into the valleys, so careful map and compass work is required. Beyond that it's fairly simple navigation down the obvious ridge past pt666. A rough ground trail exists in places and becomes more obvious lower down. A split in the ridgeline 1.5km north of pt666 is misleading - swing NNE rather than continuing north. Soon after you'll find a tree with 3 pieces of tape on it - the start of a steep route down to the Snowy to the hut. 200m beyond that marker, continuing north along the ridge, is the start of an old logging track which leads all the way to the Waiotauru.

Note: Described in the reverse direction to your journey

From the end of the logging track, an unmarked rough route continues up the ridge towards Elder. The route is not marked, and the ground trail disappears in places, but if in doubt, just follow the ridge up. Slopes are gentle and the bush is good and open.

The ridge hits the Elder track 200m east of the hut.