Kakapo Hut
(Kakapo Hut: Photo Phillip Collyns 2009)
Maintenance Status
DOC was originally not intending to maintain Kakapo Hut, but changed its mind after an outcry
from Karamea locals and agreed to carry out two-yearly maintenance. We don't have any information
at this stage regarding the level of maintenance.
Location
Grid Ref: E1541722/ N5424106. Topo Map BQ23. Altitude 360m. Kakapo Hut is located
in the Kakapo valley, which is a tributary of the Karamea. It is rarely visited
due to a lack of extant tracks and currently gets around one visit a year. It is located in
midway up the TL of the valley.
Access
What used to be a 6-hour tramp to Kakapo Hut from Belltown Hut
in the Little Wanganui has now become something of
a more difficult order.
The track to Lawrence Saddle up Drain Creek is still negotiable and marked well, but
vanishes on the Bellbird Stream side. Cruise tape can be found on the ridge
leading down into the Bellbird. Once in the Stream head downriver to where it forks
and go back up the TR fork.
Where it veers South (around E1538502), climb out and head due East
along a strip of mature
forest separating two scrubby areas. Head from here up a gully to the saddle at E1539435.
There are permolat markers here leading to a bench, after which
the track peters out.
Sidle East from the bench at roughly the 500m line to the next ridge.
More markers can be picked up a short distance down this. These sidle East
across some faces with slips (cairned in places) into a gut where the trail peters out
again. Drop down the gut to the Kakapo river terraces and head upvalley.
The old track is followable in places, aided by the odd bit of cruise tape, to the Hut.
Allow 8-12 hours for the trip from Belltown Hut to Kakapo Hut.
The other main route to Kakapo Hut is via old track up to Kakapo Saddle
from the Wangapeka Track.
The track starts behind the Herbert Creek sign
and is reasonably well marked.
From the Saddle down into the Kakapo it's a scrub bash and care needs to be taken as the
creek draining the Saddle
has a waterfall and there are bluffs to skirt on the way down.
The upper Kakapo valley is relatively easy travel,
boulderhopping intially, with more
terrace travel further down. The last section of terrace to the Hut is cruise taped.
Allow a full day to Kakapo from
either Taipo Hut, Helicopter Flat, or the mid-Karamea huts.
There is a helipad near the Hut.
Type
Kakapo is an NZFS four-bunk design with an open fire built in 1958. It one of the first
flown into the then North West Nelson Forest Park. Kakapo
is unlined. The door dates from 1962 and has
the names and dates of cullers past carved on it. The bunks are sprung with mattresses.
Condition
There are some rotten floorboards around fireplace,
and the iron cladding slightly rusted in places. There is one rotten wall beam which is sagging.
Routes
Many of the tracks in the area marked on the 1990 series Topo and earlier inch-to-the-mile maps
have not been maintained since the NZFS days, and will have effectively vanished by now.
Some kind person has re-permolatted the track up to Kakapo Saddle from the Wangapeka.
Repairs needed
Repainting and or replacement of some of the wall cladding,
sealing round fireplace, and replacement of the wall beam and rotting floorboards is required.
Provisions
on site
A broom, a dust pan and shovel, and maybe an axe.