Polluck Creek Hut
(Polluck Creek Hut: Photo DOC 2003/ 4)
Maintenance status
Polluck Creek Hut (a.k.a. Little Waitaha,
Kakapotahi, or Happy Valley Hut) was designated as
minimal maintenance in the 2004 High-Country Review. Current Government austerity measures have
led to a reconsideration of this status. Faced with significant medium-term maintenance costs on a low-use facility,
DOC are now looking at removing it. The let us know of this possibilty early on and are open to suggestions
or input from the community at this early stage. We are hoping one of the local interest groups will adopt it
and take over management.
Location
Kakapotahi
catchment. Grid Ref: E1422742/ N5229773.
Map BV18. Altitude 295m. Polluck Creek Hut is located on the TL of Polluck Creek
just up from its confluence with the
Kakapotahi River. It is the only
hut in a small, multi-branched
catchment that drains the Hitchen Range and Dickie Ridge. The various
branches of the Kakapotahi are rough and steep with numerous
waterfalls. Polluck Creek is more benign, running SW along the
Great Alpine Fault from Truran Pass.
Pollock Creek gets fairly regular usage by local hunters, with parties heading up or down from the Tuke/ Waitaha
tops about once every two years.
Access
Access to Polluck Creek is via an old Forestry road
that turns off SH6 just South of
the Kakapotahi River bridge. This road has deteriorated over time and is now getting
marginal for 2WD. There is a locked farm gate around 4km from the Hut and it is necessary
to walk from here. It is another
1/2 hour from where you leave the road up to the Hut. A ford to the TR of the Kakapotahi is required,
not difficult at
normal flows. Allow 1.5 hours from the locked gate to the Hut.
Polluck Hut can also be accessed from the
Tuke catchment of the Mikonui, where the Dickie Spur track turns off at Truran Pass.
This track was recut in March 2007. It starts
in scattered scrub on the grassy flat 200m SE of
Mikonui Flat Hut, enters the bush and climbs steeply
over a bush terrace into the Tuke River.
The route crosses to the TL of the Tuke at a footbridge at the top entrance of the
lower Tuke gorge. It continues upriver for a kilometre or so to
a bluff about 100m downstream
from Truran Creek, where it leaves the River and climbs up onto the terraces
on the TL of Turan Creek. The track sidles at a higher level than marked on
the topo map, around to Truran Pass. The Polluck Creek turnoff quite close to the Pass and not
further down in Pollock Creek as marked on the map. An old NZFS track down Pollock Creek is not officially maintained,
however its top section from the turn-off down into the head of Polluck Creek was given a
trim by volunteers in 2010.
It is mostly creek travel from here down to the Hut. Allow
2-3 hours from Mikonui Flat Hut To Polluck Creek Hut.
Type
Polluck Hut is a standard six-bunk NZFS design built in the 1960's.
It has an open fire and is lined.
Condition
Pollock Creek was repainted and resealed and had
roof repairs done over the Summer of 2003/4.
There is some rot in the frame and floor around the fireplace that
DOC estimates would cost them around $5000 to repair. In other words, volunteers could probably do it for a few hundred.
DOC have felled regrowth kamahi and
scrub to let light in, and built a long-drop toilet.
Routes
Dickie
Spur Hut can be accessed via Polluck Creek and Truran Pass.
A slip has taken out a big bit of the track not
far above Truran Pass but this is easily skirted to the West.
After this the track climbs reasonably steeply up onto
Dickie Spur. There are patches of windthrow at the bottom of the climb
from the winter storms of 2008 that need skirting. The track connects with a side ridge
of the Dickie Range in the alpine zone and flattens somewhat. It
continues up through alpine scrub and open tussock patches to the Hut
turnoff around the 1200m contour. The route to the Hut is
down a side spur and is marked with small wooden
stakes with permolat. The Hut is on a tussock bench just above the scrubline.
Aloow 3.5 to 4.5 hours to get from Polluck Creek to Dickie Spur Hut.
An old Forest Service tops track
behind Polluck Hut up onto Dickie Ridge has not
been maintained for 35+ years and is likely to be extremely overgrown. At
last report had vanished entirely in the alpine scrub zone.
There is a route onto Mt. Allen and the Hitchen Range
via Slip Creek described in the old NZFS guides, but no recent
information on whether it is still viable.
Slip Creek is unnamed on the topo map and enters
the Kakapotahi at E1422497/ N5229332. It would provides access to Swandri Spur and
point 1291m. The lower bushed section of Swandri Spur is not recommended for access. One
group who droped down here from the tops reported a fairly long and grueling scrub-bash.
The Hitchen Range tops provide good travel in most places.
A couple of steep exposed sections between
Mt. Allen and Mt. Hitchin can be avoided by dropping East from the dip between points 1385m and 1585m
to the junction of the two upper forks of Isobel Creek.
Head up the ridge on the TR of the TR fork back onto the crest of the Range,
and continue along to Ridland Saddle.
It is possible, but not particularly easy, to drop from here down Chainman
Creek into the Waitaha. Even if it was you're still faced with a long and
arduous section of river travel up to the Top Waitaha basin and
Top Waitaha Hut.
It's more practical in good conditions to continue along the
Range to the low point at E1424995/ N5224187 and drop into the basin from here.
Once on level ground it is an easy stroll upriver to
the Hut.
Repairs needed
Floor and frame repairs (replacement of rotting timber) are required around the fireplace and
more of the bush around the Hut may need to be cleared back. It may also be possible to get
materials all the way to the Hut with 4-wheel drive, or fairly close in any case.
Provisions on Site:
Three metal candle holders, a broom, hearth brush and hearth shovel, a galvanised bucket, a bow saw, an axe,
an old axe with loose handle, a latticed grill plate with handle, and a bench style stool.
