Routes
Huts / campsites
Roadends
Summits
Passes / crossings
Scenic features
Junctions
DOC Land
Altitude: 630m to 1483m. Gain: 1981m. Loss: 1478m . Gradient: 4 deg (Moderate)
Skills: Alpine weather (2/7) - Streams (2/6) Winter - Snow/ice underfoot (2/7)
Altitude: 630m to 714m. Gain: 155m. Loss: 226m . Gradient: 2 deg
Skills:
No description
Altitude: 634m to 701m. Gain: 96m. Loss: 51m . Gradient: 2 deg (Gentle)
Skills: - Streams (2/6)
The stroll upstream from Oamaru Hut is easy, tussock flats alternating with bands of scrub – a well traveled, poled track. After 3km it reaches the bushedge, where a typical Kaweka 1.5m-wide highway through the bush starts. From the bushedge it’s a further 3km to the confluence with the Otorehinaiti Stream.
The Oamaru River track runs 100m away from the river at the confluence, so if you intend on heading up the Otorehinaiti then keep an eye on your map to pick out the spot you need to drop to the creek and cross.
Altitude: 676m to 1179m. Gain: 503m. Loss: 14m . Gradient: 6 deg (Moderate)
Skills: - Streams (2/6)
The Oamaru is knee deep at the confluence in normal conditions, and easily crossed.
There are good, well-used campsites at the Oamaru/Otore confluence. Ignore old permolat markers heading east at the confluence – they appear to sidle terraces on the south side of the Oamaru, heading downstream. The Otore valley is narrow at first, but soon opens up – good tramping up river flats and terraces, beech leaves and moss underfoot. The river is small and unlikely to pose problems in all but extreme conditions. Navigation is simple – following the main stream to where it swings due south towards the saddle. The gradient increases 1km from the saddle, and the flats disappear, but it is still good open beech forest, and easy walking, sidling the valleyside. 500m from the saddle, there is a final fork, not shown on the map. We climb the mossy slip between the two forks, heading due south towards the saddle, emerging onto a wide plateau of beech which rises gently to the saddle itself. There is some flagging tape here marking the way, but a bearing of due south would suffice.
The Otore clearing is open – a mixture of marsh and tussock. The small Otore Biv is tucked away on the south-west side.
Altitude: 1072m to 1265m. Gain: 179m. Loss: 267m . Gradient: 7 deg (Moderate)
Skills: - Streams (2/6)
From the Otore biv, there is a footpad and, initially, occasional tape marking an alternative route to Tussock Hut that stays high to avoid as much bog as possible. It's mostly open under the beech so you can pick your own route.
Altitude: 979m to 1065m. Gain: 21m. Loss: 106m . Gradient: 3 deg (Gentle)
Skills:
Note: Described in the reverse direction to your journey
A good cut, marked tramping track follows the Makine ridge south west from the hut through mature beech forest. Several mistletoe sites are passed on the way, marked with blue markers. After 2.5km a signpost marks the junction of tracks onwards to Mangaturutu Hut (via the Makino valley to the west) and Ballard Hut / the Kaweka tops to the south.
Altitude: 944m to 1089m. Gain: 73m. Loss: 195m . Gradient: 3 deg (Gentle)
Skills: - Streams (2/6)
The head of the Harkness at Tussock Hut lives up to the hut's name – a broad, gentle, V of a valley, clad in golden tussock. The track crosses the trickle of a stream and sidles the western face. The valley becomes slowly scrubbier as we head downstream – tussock becoming low scrub , later rising to waist height. The poled track changes from a foot-worn slot between tussocks to a full 1.5m-wide, cut Kaweka track. The gentle valleysides become steeper and rocky, and finally the track abandons efforts to sidle and drops to the Harkness River – now a couple of meters wide. Some 20 crossing follow – most of which can be hopped across with dry feet intact, but near the end there’s one which always catches me out. Fill your boots! The route should be navigable in all but extreme rain,
The track junction (on the western bank at the major forks) for the turnoff to Harkness Hut is signposted.
Altitude: 943m to 980m. Gain: 42m. Loss: 5m . Gradient: 4 deg (Gentle)
Skills: - Streams (2/6)
The track junction for the turnoff to Harkness Hut is signposted up the NE fork, and another broad Kaweka track heads up the north-east fork towards the hut, crossing the creek another 4 times. You can see the hut clearing on the northern slopes ahead, where tussock valley transitions back to beech. It’s a brief rocky scramble up the track to the hut, some 40m out of the valleyfloor.
Altitude: 974m to 1483m. Gain: 560m. Loss: 122m . Gradient: 10 deg (Moderate)
Skills: Alpine weather (2/7) - Streams (2/6) Winter - Snow/ice underfoot (2/7)
From Harkness we continue along the central Kaweka highway. To warm-up there’s an easy 800m section along the valley floor, but then the climb starts. The broad track climbs steadily up the meandering ridgeline, reaching exposed tops 1km before the hut. The tops route is poled and clear.
A junction with a well-trodden track, heading north from the summit, is not marked on maps or signposted. However, it appears to lead off along the tops towards Mangatainoka Hut.
Te Puke Hut nestles in a beech-covered basin at the head of a small sidecreek on the southern side of the ridgeline - 100m off the track. The junction is signposted.
Altitude: 1285m to 1443m. Gain: 331m. Loss: 348m . Gradient: 6 deg (Moderate)
Skills: Alpine weather (2/7) Winter - Snow/ice underfoot (2/7)
From Te Puke the track spends a lot of time on an exposed, bare ridgeline, dropping in between to long, flat saddles where stunted beech trees lap over the tops - at the limit of their range. In late summer, the whistles of sika serenade me from the faces below. There are no major climbs, but lots of short ups and downs over each peak. The tops sections are poled, and the bush sections well cut, so it is easy tramping, but exposed.
Finally, the narrow ridgeline broadens to wide, marshy tops – climbing, slowly drying as they rise, to reach the track junction on the flat summit.
Altitude: 1362m to 1400m. Gain: 0m. Loss: 38m . Gradient: 4 deg (Gentle)
Skills: Alpine weather (2/7) Winter - Snow/ice underfoot (2/7)
Mangaturutu Hut is 600m along the NW fork from the track junction – the track dropping 60m through a band of beech as it commences it's descent along another narrow ridge.
Altitude: 979m to 1065m. Gain: 21m. Loss: 106m . Gradient: 3 deg (Gentle)
Skills:
Note: Described in the reverse direction to your journey
A good cut, marked tramping track follows the Makine ridge south west from the hut through mature beech forest. Several mistletoe sites are passed on the way, marked with blue markers. After 2.5km a signpost marks the junction of tracks onwards to Mangaturutu Hut (via the Makino valley to the west) and Ballard Hut / the Kaweka tops to the south.