Distance: 5.1 km (3.0 DOC hours) - Tramping track - Easy-moderate terrain
Altitude: 255m to 1187m. Gain: 4m. Loss: 936m . Gradient: 11 deg (Moderate)
Skills: - Occasional rivers (3/6) Winter - Snow/ice underfoot (2/7)

Tramping track (4/9)
Cut, marked tramping track: natural, rough ground surface

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

Moderate (difficulty: 3/5)
Occasional moderate climbs

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

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

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

Snow/ice underfoot (difficulty: 2/7)
Snow/ice likely on track

A signposted track drops north from Starveall Hut, zigzagging down the face and paralleling the stream north. After about 4.5km the track drops into the Hacket Creek riverbed and ends. A further kilometer walking down the riverbed follows with 8-or-so mandatory crossings. Crossings were knee-deep with moderate snow-melt, but hut book reports the creek flooding in rain,

100m above Hacket Hut, a fixed bridge is reached, crossing the creek. A track runs down the true-right of the river from here to Hacket Hut, which stands in a large clearing on the eastern bank.

Note: Described in the reverse direction to your journey

From Hacket Hut, head upriver to the bridge, cross, and then drop into the riverbed. A kilometer of riverbed walking follows upriver, with 8-or-so mandatory crossings. Crossings were knee-deep with moderate snow-melt, but hut book reports the creek flooding in rain,

After 1km, DOC trianlges on the true left (western) bank mark the start of the Starveall Track. The track climbs onto a spur, and then follows it, and later a branch of the creek up to Starveall Hut. The last section is moderately steep, but the track is well marked and cut.