Huts

 

Newton Biv

Newton Biv

(Newton Biv looking along the tops to Mt. Newton: Photo Rob Owen 2005)

Maintenance Status

Newton Biv has been designated as minimal maintenance.

Location

Newton Range, between the Styx and Arahura valleys. Map BV19. Altitude 1155m. Grid Ref: E1458757/ N5251170. Newton Biv is incorrectly marked on the Topo Map, around 300m West of its actual position. It is located on a flat tussock bench on the crest of the Range and there are expansive views of the Alps and the coastal plains. Newton Biv has historically had very low levels of use despite being easily accessible in a day from the Styx roadend. The site has a great ambience and tranquility with a number of small, deep tarns providing water. There are subsidences going 3-4 metres into the peat in places and a small troop of local weka provide entertaiment and rubbish patrol. Before the Biv was profiled on the site in 2004 gaps of 2-3 years between visits were common. In 2008 there were 18 visits, mostly hunters, and in 2009 eight visits.

Access

The most direct route to Newton Biv is from the Styx valley via a large side creek 1/2 an hour below Grassy Flat (E1458968/ N5249853, or between stoat traps 87 and 88). The creek is steep and actively eroding in a number of places, but provides open and rapid access to the top portion of an old NZFS track on the ridge on the TR of the catchment (the lower part of the track has been unmaintained for 35 years and is unfollowable). The top section was recut by volunteers and and is currently in good condition. It can be accessed from an open slip in the creek headwaters and takes you through the alpine scrub zone to the tussock.

Follow the creek up from where it crosses the Grassy Flat track, taking the TR fork where it branches 400m upstream. Continue up through a steep section with eroding sides and a few small cataracts. These can be fairly easily scrambled around by the sure-footed. The creek forks again above this section and the TL branch is followed for 10-15 minutes to some cairns and permolat on a stake on the TR. Exit here and follow the cruise tape up and around into a recently blown-out, dry side gut. Follow the gut up to the slips at the head of the creek. A permolat cross marks the connection point with the old tops track which climbs steeply up onto the ridge, then up through the scrub to the tussock.

Sidle from the top entrance of the track in a NE direction to the crest of the Range. Head East from here for 15 minutes to the flat, peaty bench with tarns where the Biv is located. It is tucked in against the bank at the western edge of the bench and is easy to walk past. Allow 4-5 hours to reach Newton Biv from the Styx roadend.

Type

Newton Biv is a standard two-person NZFS design, built in the mid 1960's. It has two wooden sleeping benches with one small thin mattress. Water can be obtained from a tarn 20m away and the more distant ones can be used for washing or swimming. There is no toilet.

Condition

In 2004 DOC repiled the Biv and replaced joists, bearers, some of its framing, and floor. The exterior was painted and resealed, although the contractors were hampered in their work by heavy rain. The Biv's roofing iron has been nailed in the troughs of the corrugations in some places and leaks through some of the nailholes. The roof and wall cladding have rust patches showing through in some places already. Additional sealing was done on the roof in 2008, but it would benefit from being properly renailed at some point. There are air gaps between the roof and top plates that may let water in, and is certainly draughty at other times. The top plate at the NE end of the Biv is rotten and needs replacing, as do some of the rafters and purlins. The paint has flaked off of the window frame and sill, and the brackets holding the glass louvres in place are rusting.

Routes

It is possible to traverse the Newton Range East of the Biv. It dips back into the alpine scrub zone East of spot height 1190m and there are several small ups and downs through scrub and tussock patches. There is a rough trail of sorts through the scrub sections and it takes around 1.5 hours to get to open country.

There is an old NZFS tops track a short distance downriver from Lower Arahura Hut that used to provide access to the eastern end of the Newton Range. It is OK in places lower down, but gets increasingly overgrown with altitude, vanishing completely in the alpine scrub zone. The last steep faces leading to the tussock are are a difficult, unpleasant. Once on the crest of the Range travel become very easy for a while. Drop down to a bench with two large tarns and continue West from here. Allow 8-9 hours from Lower Arahura Hut to Newton Biv, or 5-6 hours if going in the other direction. A cairn in the tussock around E1461828/ N5251973 marks the spot where the track would probably have emerged in its better days. There is no clear sign of it however, for at least 100 vertical metres, and no well-defined ridge for 2-300 vertical metres below this, so picking up the remnants of the track further down may be difficult.

It is possible to access Mudflats Hut from Newton Biv via Mt. Newton and Visitors Creek. There are some nice tarns and camping spots in the top basin of Visitors Creek. A waterfall drops from the basin into a short vertical-sided gorge, and below this the Creek is steep and rough. Drop from the TL lip of the basin down a small steep gut. A small waterfall at the top of this can be negotiated on the TL. The gut becomes a small creek that enters Visitors Creek at the bottom end of the gorge. From here down it's steep, rough and slippery and it's neccessary to wade down the middle of the Creek in places. Expect a wet backside! There may be easier routes off Mt. Newton via one of the side creeks upstream from Mudflats that would be worth checking out. Allow around 6 hours for this trip in good conditions.

West of the Biv the Newton Range is relatively easy travel as far as spot height 1240m. After this it dips down below scrubline, and from here unti the 1200m mark on Mt. Brown is reached, it is a long, unpleasant grovel. This is not a fun route. A Hut located in the montane zone on the southern faces of Mt. Brown was removed by DOC in 2006. The Kokatahi Tramping club is in the process of relocating the old Lower Arahura Hut in the tussock at the southern end of the mountain, creating a possibility for opening a route along the Newton Range to Newton Biv at some point. The track down from Mt. Brown into the Styx past the old Hut site will be overgrown by now. A track at the southern of Mt. Brown down to Geologists Creek on the Lake Kaniere side is in the process of being recut in conjunction with the new Hut project.

Repairs needed

The roofing iron needs to be renailed on the ridges of the corrugations and the holes in the hollows sealed. Replacement of rotten portions of top plates, rafters and purlins is required. Additional wood spacers could be inserted in the gaps between the top plate and roof to make the Biv more weatherproof, and to provide something more substantial to nail the roofing iron to. The roof and window frame sill require repainting. A new louvre frame would be needed in the medium term. A small tube of sealant has been left in the Biv. Please use it on any noticeable leaks.

Provisions on site

The standard DOC hand shovel and brush, one small frypan, a shovel and a small hand saw.

 

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