Saturday 11/02/2012
A nice late start to the whole day by not even getting out of bed until near lunchtime. Wandered off to Otaki and visited my parents before heading off up to the Waiotauru Forks and then off up Snowy River. Its a great wander in the fine weather with warm water to wade thru, only one deep pool avoidance on the trip and eventually found the Snowy Hut. For some reason not known to me I assumed it was on the true right so I spent a half hour checking the flats on that side before crossing over and finding it. Really surprised me to find it so quickly, the well worn path to the hut (and helipad) helped. Took a snapshot of the location using GPS. (NB find it for yourself).
Leaving was pretty tricky as its a nice spot and there was no reason to rush as had a spare set of new bateries for my torch. So left Snowy Hut at 1043 anticipating a day of uncertainty and damn fine weather. And Snowy Hut it is; not Snowy River Hut.
Trip Times
11/02/2012
1425 Left car at Otaki Forks Ranger station car park.
1441 At start of Waiotauru track.
1448 Crossed wee slip.
1602 Bridge at Waiotauru forks.
1633 Into the East Branch.
1850 At Snowy Hut.
12/02/2012
1107 Left Snowy Hut.
1122 On way up hill with view of helipad.
1151 On the Ridge leading to 666.
1446 On Elder Track.
1457 At Elder Hut.
1608 Left Elder hut.
1653 Out of bush.
1722 At Junction.
1844 At Mt Hector.
1918 At Kime Hut.
1940 Left Kime Hut.
2022 Penn Creek turnoff.
2041 Field Hut.
2047 Left Field Hut.
2203 At car.
Map View
Waiotauru River trip
Topomap ref for Ridge 666
4 comments:
Great to hear you found it. There's been almost no documentation of this hut around the web, and I was keen to go and find it shortly before being kicked out of the country for a while. I'll have to have a go when I get back again. Hopefully it hasn't been noticed by the accountants before then.
And I do have a grid reference somewhere but I'm not posting it. :)
I was wandering up the Snowy Creek back in the winter of 1966 and stumbled on a NZFS tentcamp there. I stayed overnight and returned the next day. I suppose this hit was built at the same site. Does anyone know about that?
James Jordan
Yes there was a tent camp and then a but with a railway tarp on the other side of the river after that the existing but was built privately and remains there to this day.
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