Kakapo Hut
(Kakapo Hut: Photo Phillip Collyns 2009)
Maintenance Status
In 2004 DOC announced that they were ceasing any official maintenance of Kakapo Hut.
The access tracks into the Kakapo valley haven't been maintained for some years and
are overgrown, and visits to the
Hut were becoming few and far between. Karamea locals got up in arms about this decision
and protested, resulting the Department
back-tracking and making a concession to
carry out two-yearly maintenance on the Hut.
The extent of this maintenance is unclear, but it is unlikely to be anything beyond minimal,
and doesn't include any trackwork.
Location
Karamea Catchment. Grid Ref: E1541722/ N5424106. Topo Map BQ23. Altitude 360m. Kakapo Hut is located
midway on the TL of the Kakapo valley, a major tributary of the Karamea River.
It has averaged around one visit per
year over the past couple of decades, probably due to the lack of extant tracks,
however there has been
an encouraging resurgence in
recent times, with six parties visting in 2009.
Access
Access to the Kakapo valley from the Little Wanganui catchment
is a mixed bag of reasonably well marked sections,
and heavily overgrown bits that are only marginally followable. In a few places the trail
has disappeared completely, notably around Lawrence Saddle, and the lower Kakapo below the
saddle over to Bellbird Stream.
The track up Drain Creek is still negotiable and marked and taped
to within a couple of hundred metres of the Lawrence Saddle. It
vanishes on the Bellbird Stream side, but there is a reasonably good
route down from the
ridge running NE from spot height 535m, just
along from the Saddle.
Once in the TL branch of the Bellbird follow it down to where a track exits on the TR
and cuts over to the TR branch. Head up this to
where it veers South around E1538502, then climb out. Head due East
alongside a strip of mature
forest separating two scrubby areas, and up a gully to the saddle at E1539435.
There are permolat markers here leading from here to a bench, after which
the track peters out.
Sidle East from the bench at around the 500m contour to the next ridge where more
more markers can be picked up a short distance down. These sidle East
across a old earthquake slip, which is cairned in places, into a gut.
Cross the gut and drop 60-80 vertical metres in an easterly direction.
A route marked with pink tape and lightly cut by possumer Mike T. can be picked up
on the 420m contour,
around E1540239/ N5425951. This drop/ sidles to the valley floor and continues upriver
to the Hut. Allow 7-9 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.
This starts behind the Herbert Creek sign, is in pretty good condition,
and has been re-permolatted by some kind person.
Getting down from the Saddle down into the Kakapo is a scrub bash
and care needs to be taken negotiating a waterfall and bluffs in the
creek that drains it. An option is to swing NW along a sloping bench above the bluffs
and descend that way.
Once these are skirted it is relatively easy access down to the
upper Kakapo River. Travel downriver is also fairly easy,
boulderhopping intially, with more
terrace travel further down. A taped route on the TL starting from
about 1.5km
above the Hut becomes a cut track for the last 600m. Allow 7+ hours 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 was one of the first
built North West Nelson Forest Park and had its materials flown in. The Hut 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
The tracks in the Kakapo valley area marked on the Topo and earlier inch-to-the-mile maps
have not been maintained since the NZFS days, and will have effectively vanished by now.
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.
