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You will pass side tracks up to Yates Hut, Adventure Ridge Bivvy, Crystal Bivvy and to Mullins Hut. Next day tramp to Top Toaroha Hut, about 3.5 hours up the Toaroha valley. Enjoy the hot springs in the Toaroha riverbed, about five minutes upstream from Cedar Flat Hut. Tramp from your car to Cedar Flat Hut, about two hours. The trip starts at the Toaroha River, and ends in the Hokitika Valley. Two vehicles would be ideal for this trip as two tramping parties could pass each other along the route and then use each other's vehicles at the end of the trip. Be sure to take topographical maps and to ask DOC if all bridges and huts are still in operation. If the weather is fine you should enjoy the trip very much.Īssuming the tracks and huts have been maintained, here is a starter tramping trip. Stay on the tracks, do your homework properly, and you'll be safe enough. The upper Whitcombe Valley for example is rough. You will not find rougher than in this Westland area. Having hunted and tramped remote parts of Fiordland, and remote parts of the Paparoa Range, among other areas, I believe I have experienced the roughest that New Zealand's mountains has to offer. DOC's policy is generally to keep everything maintained, but check before you plan your trip. Tracks may be overgrown, and huts and bridges non-existant, since I was last there during the 1980s. Let's establish something before we start: This area is remote and rugged. No wonder the new swingbridge NZFS erected across Rapid Creek in 1982 completely disappeared during a flood a few months after it was built. Rapid Creek, in the Hokitika Valley, held the New Zealand record for rainfall: 21 inches in 24 hours! (I doubt that this record has been broken). This is challenging country, in a heavy rainfall area. I was in the hut-and-bridge crew for a summer, then transferred to the track crew.ĭuring our work we tramped some of the most exciting, remote, rugged and least-visited terrain in New Zealand including the Styx, Arahura, Kakapotahi, Mikonui, Mungo, Tuke, Hokitika, Whitcombe, Toaroha, and Taipo valleys. Our NZFS teams of four cleared tracks, repaired huts, and serviced wire swingbridges. My job during 19 was to clear tracks for the New Zealand Forest Service, in the Westland Conservancy, New Zealand. Following is information that will serve you as a rough guide to tramping some of New Zealand's classic alpine country in Westland.