Routes
Huts / campsites
Roadends
Summits
Passes / crossings
Scenic features
Junctions
DOC Land
Altitude: 577m to 760m. Gain: 288m. Loss: 105m . Gradient: 2 deg (Gentle)
Skills: - Streams (2/6)
Note: this route travels via the Jollie riverbed and requires numerous crossings of various braids while the river runs between steep, narrow banks. The Jollie River is usually low and in normal flows the route would no problem, but after rain it may become impassable.
Near the end of the gravel Braemar-Mt Cook Station Road, find the starting point of the track, which is marked with a sign and a gate. Prior station permission to access the Jollie River and the DOC huts on the conservation land upvalley is not required.
Do not be tempted by the track on the map that starts from the carpark just north of the bridge, and which travels up the TR of the Jollie. While I was walking with my pack and poles from the carpark back to where the TL track begins, a woman in a ute suddenly pulled over and warned me, unprompted, that going to Jollie Hut from the TR track requires crossing station land, and "we have cameras, and you'll be trespassed immediately." What a welcome.
The track initially follows a 4WD farm track that crosses a short section of station land, initially grazing land for cattle and then commercial forestry. It reaches public conservation land after about 2km. Jollie Hut (which is older and still has an open fireplace) lies less than 1km ahead.
The old 4WD track continues on from the hut down a steep embankment until it reaches the riverbed, where the 4WD tracks become faint and eventually disappear. From here on, travel is upriver, mostly in the riverbed, though it is possible to scramble up to narrow flats on either side if the river is high. I stayed on the TL as the river was highish and fast-flowing after recent rain. Scrub and matagouri on the flats makes for tedious travel. The valley progressively narrows as you journey upriver.
Green Point Hut lies about 3.5 hours upriver on a small hill on the TL. It is just past a narrow section of river with steep embankments on both sides. It is a basic, 6-bunk ex-musterers' hut and unfortunately its fireplace has been removed. From the hut book it appears to be mostly used by tahr hunters, but on the night I spent there I shared the accommodations with a party of packrafters who were thrilled by the recent rain, which had made this normally low river raft-able.