Explorer Hut
(Explorer Hut: Photo Andrew Buglass 2005)
Maintenance status
Explorer Hut is designated as
minimal maintenance. The tracked sections on the route to it are no longer officially
maintained, however intermittent trimming and marking work by volunteers over the past few years
has helped keep them in useable condition.
Location
Between the Mikonui and Hokitika catchments. Map
BV18. Grid Ref: E1431670/ N5236720. Altitude 460m.
Explorer Hut is located on Douglas Saddle, between
the Mikonui River,
and Doctors Creek in the Hokitika. Doctors Creek and the upper Mikonui River
flow along the Great Alpine Fault and the Hut and Saddle are right on the Fault.
At normal river levels Explorer Hut is an easy 3-4 hour trip up from the Mikonui roadend.
It
is a great little overnighter with remote deep-bush ambience.
Access from the Hokitika side via Doctors Creek is more challenging, but
can be done in a day by a fit experienced party. Two old NZFS
on either side of the Saddle provide access to the tops. The
Fraser Peak track
is still marginally useable, and the Miserable Ridge track was partially recut by a member of permolat a couple of years back.
Access
The route to Explorer Hut from
Mikonui Flat is mostly river travel with two tracked sections. The first is around the TL of a
small gorge
just upstream from the Dickson River confluence. Intermittent trimming and cruise-taping has been done
on it by volunteers over the past few years, most recently in 2011.
The topo map has the track continuing all the way up to Murdoch Creek, when in fact it drops straight back
into River the at the top end of the gorge. Ford here and boulderhop
up the TR for a stretch. Further upstream it is a question of choosing the side
that looks the best to travel on, crossing and recrossing where necessary.
The Mikonui veers sharply
south-east at the junction of Open and Explorer Creek.
Cairns on the TR here lead up a small creek that runs up the Mikonui riverbed parallel to the main River.
A track exits 100 or so meters up on the creek's TR and cuts through a patch of olearia to the foot of
the hill. The entrance to
the track up to the Hut is located on the bush edge at around E1431280/ N5235970.
This section has also had periodiv trims and cruise-tapings by volunteers, the most recently in 2011.
It climbs steeply
initially, then sidles around to Douglas Saddle. There is a band of
of windthrow 300m
before the Hut which has a route cruise-taped through it. The Hut is located in a small clearing
surrounded by podocarp forest
just above the
Saddle.
The route to Explorer from the Hokitika valley via Doctors Creek,
has two points of access, both commencing at the Hokitika Gorge. The shortest is via at track up Minnow Creek
and over Murray Saddle, an hour upriver from the Gorge.
The first steep section
up the TR of Minnow Creek is getting quite overgrown, while the Murray
Saddle section has been kept open to some degree by wild cattle. The track
drops into Surveyors Creek and follows it down to where a small creek
enters on the TL, just before Surveyors does a u-turn
North. Head up the side-creek, over a flat ridge, and down onto
the flat in Doctors Creek at the bottom end of Smith Gorge. There is a track around
the TR of the Gorge. There is a second small gorge upstream of this that can be walked through at normal
river levels. Boulderhop from here up to Bramhall Creek. The
entrance to the track up to Explorer Hut is
cairned and cruise-taped 400m up Bramhall Creek on the TL. The first section
climbs a
steep bank onto the ridge between
Doctors and Bramhall Creeks, and is overgrown. The track continues up the ridge for 5-10 minutes
before levelling and
crossing a flat area of podocarp forest to the Hut. There is a fair bit of
windthrow on this section and it is tricky to follow in places. Some partial blazing and
cruise-taping was done here in 2005, but it needs more work. Allow 4-5 hours from the Hokitika
Gorge to Explorer Hut.
The second, more time consuming route up Doctors Creek is from its confluence with the Hokitika River.
Travel down the TL of the Hokitika from the Hokitika Gorge is via an old bulldozer track and takes
around an hour. From the confluence head up
Doctors Creek to the side creek on the TR just upstream from Shadow
Stream. Follow this up to around the 200m contour line, then
sidle out over a low bush saddle onto the faces above Doctors Creek.
Stay well above the river until you are
past the first gorge, then drop onto the large flat just above it. Boulderhop from
here to a second gorge upstream of Surveyors
Creek. Negotiate this one on the TR and drop back
into Doctors Creek at the flat where the Murray Saddle
track comes in. The route from here is the same as the Murray Saddle route. Allow
a full day to reach Explorer Hut using this route.
Type
Explorer Hut is a standard NZFS 4-bunk design with open fire. It
has a roof-fed water tank and a toilet.
Condition
DOC repainted the hut, resealed the exterior,
did roof repairs, and
replaced the watertank and stand in March 2004. There is a hole
in the floor in the corner
of the cupboard which has been covered to keep rodents out. The
skylight above the fire needs replacing and there is a new sheet of clearlight
under the Hut for this purpose. Some of the scrub surrounding the Hut was cleared in 2011, but more clearing work is needed.
Routes
An old NZFS track up Fraser
Peak from Douglas Saddle was at last report still followable up to around the 750m contour. It vanishes
from here to the ridgetop where it can be picked up again, and followed to the summit
where there are great
views.
Another old FS track behind
Explorer Hut provides access up onto Miserable Ridge. It was very overgrown until recently after 35 years of zero maintenance,
particularly in
the alpine scrub zone. Volunteers did some work on it in 2009 and it is now
taped and cut to within about 100 vertical metres (800 lineal) of the
tussock. The last bit will still be overgrown, but the route is more viable
now for tops access, or even a round trip to Mikonui Biv.
A track up onto Mikonui Spur marked on the early 1970's NZFS route guides that starts on the TL
of the Mikonui opposite to the Douglas Saddle track entrance probably no longer exists in any useable form.
There is no recent data on it.
Repairs
More of the regrowth around the Hut needs trimming. The skylight
needs replacing and the hole in the floor repairing.
Provisions
on Site
One broom, an axe,
two galvanised buckets, a plastic bucket, a small coal shovel, and a hearth brush.
