Boo Boo Hut
Whakarira Gorge
Maintenance status
Boo Boo Hut was designated as a minimal maintenance structure by DOC in a review they carried out in 2004. There were plans afoot back then to replace it at the end of its shelf life, but I'd say that's unlikely to happen. To their credit the Department has continued to carry out periodic maintenance including replacing the original open fire with an efficient woodburner which is above and beyond what I'd consider to be minimal maintenance. The latest lot of repairs took place in June of this year. The Boo Boo and Pinnacle Biv tracks and the tracked and sections on the mid valley route to Crawford Junction Hut have been maintained by volunteers for a considerable time now. In June a DOC track cutting crew who were working on the DOC maintained upper Kokatahi-Crawford circuit were kind enough to do a chainsaw run on their way out from Crawford Junction to the Kokatahi roadend.
Location
Kokatahi catchment. Map BV19. GPS Ref: E1452973/ N5245567 (BV19 530 456). Altitude 615m. Boo Boo Hut is located in the rata belt on the TL bush faces of the Kokatahi valley. It was rumoured that it got its name from a cocked-up food drop at a deer cullers' camp there in the 1950's, however the NZMS13 map from 1919 already has the creek next to the Hut named as Booboo Creek. Boo Boo Hut has historically been a low-use facility and frequency of visits dropped even more between 1990's and 2000 due to deteriorating track conditions. It started to get significantly more traffic after volunteers took up route maintenance in the lower and mid valley in the early 2000's, and it was profiled on this website. Boo Boo currently gets around 30 visits a year. A fair proportion of these are by folk doing the increasingly popular Toaroha Range traverse from Pinnacle Biv to Adventure Biv. A smaller number is braving the once notorious mid valley route up to Crawford Junction. Boo Boo's sunny aspect and woodburner make it a great all-season spot for an overnight trip as well.
Access
Access to the Boo Boo route is up a farm trail that turns off Middlebranch Road just before the Kokatahi Bridge. The farm owner needs to be contacted before crossing his land. The farm track peters out just before the site of an old cableway at a bend in the Kokatahi River. The river is followed from here for 15 minutes to a large grassy flat further upstream. A track enters the bush at the top of the flat and follows the TR of the Kokatahi to the Whakarira Gorge The view of the Gorge from the bridge is stunning and worth a visit in its own right. Flood debris is occasionally found jammed under the bridge and gives an indication of how high the river can get after heavy rain. After crossing the bridge, the track sidles above the TL of the gorge and drops back to the riverbed at Adamson Creek. There is a 200m stretch of river travel before the track re-enters the bush and climb/ sidles up around the bush faces to the Hut. A fit party should be able to get from the track start to Boo Boo in 3.5 to 4 hours. The track should still be in pretty good condition. There is a bit of seedling regen coming back in a few places which will need tidying up in the medium term.
A clearing at the Pinnacle Biv turnoff five minutes before the Hut provides helicopter access.
Boo Boo Hut was designated as a minimal maintenance structure by DOC in a review they carried out in 2004. There were plans afoot back then to replace it at the end of its shelf life, but I'd say that's unlikely to happen. To their credit the Department has continued to carry out periodic maintenance including replacing the original open fire with an efficient woodburner which is above and beyond what I'd consider to be minimal maintenance. The latest lot of repairs took place in June of this year. The Boo Boo and Pinnacle Biv tracks and the tracked and sections on the mid valley route to Crawford Junction Hut have been maintained by volunteers for a considerable time now. In June a DOC track cutting crew who were working on the DOC maintained upper Kokatahi-Crawford circuit were kind enough to do a chainsaw run on their way out from Crawford Junction to the Kokatahi roadend.
Location
Kokatahi catchment. Map BV19. GPS Ref: E1452973/ N5245567 (BV19 530 456). Altitude 615m. Boo Boo Hut is located in the rata belt on the TL bush faces of the Kokatahi valley. It was rumoured that it got its name from a cocked-up food drop at a deer cullers' camp there in the 1950's, however the NZMS13 map from 1919 already has the creek next to the Hut named as Booboo Creek. Boo Boo Hut has historically been a low-use facility and frequency of visits dropped even more between 1990's and 2000 due to deteriorating track conditions. It started to get significantly more traffic after volunteers took up route maintenance in the lower and mid valley in the early 2000's, and it was profiled on this website. Boo Boo currently gets around 30 visits a year. A fair proportion of these are by folk doing the increasingly popular Toaroha Range traverse from Pinnacle Biv to Adventure Biv. A smaller number is braving the once notorious mid valley route up to Crawford Junction. Boo Boo's sunny aspect and woodburner make it a great all-season spot for an overnight trip as well.
Access
Access to the Boo Boo route is up a farm trail that turns off Middlebranch Road just before the Kokatahi Bridge. The farm owner needs to be contacted before crossing his land. The farm track peters out just before the site of an old cableway at a bend in the Kokatahi River. The river is followed from here for 15 minutes to a large grassy flat further upstream. A track enters the bush at the top of the flat and follows the TR of the Kokatahi to the Whakarira Gorge The view of the Gorge from the bridge is stunning and worth a visit in its own right. Flood debris is occasionally found jammed under the bridge and gives an indication of how high the river can get after heavy rain. After crossing the bridge, the track sidles above the TL of the gorge and drops back to the riverbed at Adamson Creek. There is a 200m stretch of river travel before the track re-enters the bush and climb/ sidles up around the bush faces to the Hut. A fit party should be able to get from the track start to Boo Boo in 3.5 to 4 hours. The track should still be in pretty good condition. There is a bit of seedling regen coming back in a few places which will need tidying up in the medium term.
A clearing at the Pinnacle Biv turnoff five minutes before the Hut provides helicopter access.
Boo Boo Hut 1974
Type
Boo Boo Hut was in the first batch of NZFS 4-bunk S81 designs built in 1959 and had an open fire and perspex windows. A woodshed and covered porch were added, and the Hut lined in the early 1980's when Lands and Survey were looking after the valley. The fireplace was removed by DOC and replaced with a Little Cracker wood burner in 2012. There is a toilet and water is from the creek next to the Hut.
Condition
Boo Boo did have some of its joists bearers and piles replaced at some point, most likely during Lands and Survey's tenure (pre-1987). In 2004 DOC repainted the Hut and cleared a bit of the scrub around it. In 2012 more exterior painting was done, the clearlite on the roof replaced, and the woodburner installed. A broken latch on the North window was replaced in 2017, but there needs to be one on the other side as well to secure the window properly. The sill beneath is rotting and will need replacing at some point. The latest DOC maintenance (June 2023) included replacing some of the piles and replacing the lead head nails on the roof with tech screws. The Hut is still a bit crooked on its foundations but very sound and a lot cosier with the wood burner going. There is a small leak in the centre of the porch roof where the studs meet and a rust patch on the external wall above where the porch meets it. The external iron cladding on the South end is streaked with red algae. There may be a small roof leak around the flue as there was a damp patch on the woodburner last time we visited. Some of the regenerating bush on the NE side of the hut site was cut back recently, but more needs to go. The June DOC team did some work clearing and upgrading the helicopter pad.
Routes
Official maintenance of the route from Boo Boo to Crawford Junction Hut ceased sometime in the 1980's. In the ensuing years this part of the valley achieved considerable notoriety for its roughness, with hut book accounts aplenty of epic trips. Permolat volunteers reopened the track from Boo Boo to the Twins swingbridge in 2005, and some of the bluff detours on the TR from the 3-wire that replaced the bridge to the Junction were cut and marked in 2017. The 3-wire was badly damaged by a slip and removed by DOC in July 2021, so we went back in and opened up an old NZFS route on the TL. This hadn't been maintained since the early 1970's and had pretty much vanished back into the bush. A route was cruise-taped as close as possible to the old trackline which still had the very odd bit of original permolat here and there. In October 2021 a Permolat team went in and recut and marked the bush sections of the route. The re-established track is rough and unformed, but well-marked. It crosses some actively unstable patches and has a few sections of boulder travel. Three short bush detours that allow passage from the Crawford confluence up to the Kokatahi cableway were added a month later. As mentioned above, a DOC track cutting team kindly did a chainsaw run on their way out from some work they were doing in the upper valley in June of this year,
From Boo Boo the track sidles along the bush faces for a half hour or so to some dry rocks, the larger and more weatherproof of which is 20m uphill from the track. A plastic water barrel has been placed there to provide a bit of water. The track drops from here in a series of steps into Pinnacle Creek, then up and over a narrow rib into Alice Creek. It crosses another rib into Meharry Creek and up onto the terrace and clearing where Twins Hut used to be. The re-established route starts here dropping steeply off the terrace and angling down a steep overgrowing slip into the riverbed. There follows an actively unstable section with big boulders and short bush detours to an unmarked side-creek where the track enters the bush, climbs, then sidles across the bush faces above the river. The track drops back to the riverbed at the unnamed creek 500m downriver from Blue Duck Creek. A mix of track and boulder travel takes you to the Blue Duck which is crossed to another short section of track that takes you to where the Kokatahi cuts into a shingle bluff. A short wade is required to get you around the bluff and back onto open riverbed.
The Kokatahi can usually forded here, and a direct line taken up the flats on the TR to the Crawford River which currently runs in three normally easy forded braids opposite the Hut. If a ford above the Blue Duck is not possible, continue up the riverbed on the TL (with one small, tracked bluff detour) to where the Kokatahi splits into two braids just above the Crawford confluence. If a ford is possible here, continue another 20 minutes upriver to the cableway. In addition to the Kokatahi, both Alice and Blue Duck creeks could be dangerous or uncrossable if running high. Allow 4-5 hours for the journey from Boo Boo to Crawford Junction and be prepared for some quintessentially rough West Coast bush and river travel.
The Pinnacle Biv track starts at the top of the helipad, five minutes downvalley from Boo Boo Hut. It was re-cut and marked by volunteers in March and May 2020. The trackline follows the TL of a small creek initially, then heads straight up the montane faces eventually connecting with a broad spur at the tussock line. Poles and cruise-tape lead from here through the tussock and a couple of bands of scrub towards point 1085m. The route sidles east just below point 1085m and crosses a scrubby gully onto a rib with exposed bare rock. The route continues up this rib, over point 1085m, drops into a dip then climbs the last section through another band of alpine scrub towards Crinkletop. Allow around three hours from Boo Boo to Pinnacle Biv currently, or 7-8 from the roadend.
When dropping from Pinnacle Biv down to Boo Boo Hut make sure you don't continue down the exposed rock rib East of point 1085m. The trail drops off the rib around E1452037/ N5244963 (BV19 520 450) and sidles North across a scrubby face to another open area. More than one party continued straight down the rib into the Kokatahi. The top entrance of the track proper is also a bit vague currently. It's at GPS E1452097/ N5245430.
Repairs needed.
Some of the Hut's floorboards and interior framing may need replacing in the medium-term and the floor levelled. The inner western windowsill needs replacing and another fastener latch attached on the right of the frame. The rust patch above the porch needs attention, and more of the regenerating bush around the Hut needs clearing back. The external end wall needs a good scrub, and the flue leak checked out during heavy rain. There is a small tube of sealant in the Hut. The lever on the ash tray door of the wood burner is angled and tends to jam. One of the floorboards in the toilet has broken and needs reattaching or replacing.
Provisions on site
A coal bucket, two brooms, a hearth brush, a fry pan, a medium-sized pot, a billy, two cups, a dish brush, a mouse trap, a plastic basin, a plastic bucket, a bow saw, a shovel, a container of assorted and small flat-head nails, two axes, a grubber, a phillips screwdriver, two small tubes of sealant, a fish slice, a pair of tweezers, a pair of scissors and two saws.
Boo Boo Hut was in the first batch of NZFS 4-bunk S81 designs built in 1959 and had an open fire and perspex windows. A woodshed and covered porch were added, and the Hut lined in the early 1980's when Lands and Survey were looking after the valley. The fireplace was removed by DOC and replaced with a Little Cracker wood burner in 2012. There is a toilet and water is from the creek next to the Hut.
Condition
Boo Boo did have some of its joists bearers and piles replaced at some point, most likely during Lands and Survey's tenure (pre-1987). In 2004 DOC repainted the Hut and cleared a bit of the scrub around it. In 2012 more exterior painting was done, the clearlite on the roof replaced, and the woodburner installed. A broken latch on the North window was replaced in 2017, but there needs to be one on the other side as well to secure the window properly. The sill beneath is rotting and will need replacing at some point. The latest DOC maintenance (June 2023) included replacing some of the piles and replacing the lead head nails on the roof with tech screws. The Hut is still a bit crooked on its foundations but very sound and a lot cosier with the wood burner going. There is a small leak in the centre of the porch roof where the studs meet and a rust patch on the external wall above where the porch meets it. The external iron cladding on the South end is streaked with red algae. There may be a small roof leak around the flue as there was a damp patch on the woodburner last time we visited. Some of the regenerating bush on the NE side of the hut site was cut back recently, but more needs to go. The June DOC team did some work clearing and upgrading the helicopter pad.
Routes
Official maintenance of the route from Boo Boo to Crawford Junction Hut ceased sometime in the 1980's. In the ensuing years this part of the valley achieved considerable notoriety for its roughness, with hut book accounts aplenty of epic trips. Permolat volunteers reopened the track from Boo Boo to the Twins swingbridge in 2005, and some of the bluff detours on the TR from the 3-wire that replaced the bridge to the Junction were cut and marked in 2017. The 3-wire was badly damaged by a slip and removed by DOC in July 2021, so we went back in and opened up an old NZFS route on the TL. This hadn't been maintained since the early 1970's and had pretty much vanished back into the bush. A route was cruise-taped as close as possible to the old trackline which still had the very odd bit of original permolat here and there. In October 2021 a Permolat team went in and recut and marked the bush sections of the route. The re-established track is rough and unformed, but well-marked. It crosses some actively unstable patches and has a few sections of boulder travel. Three short bush detours that allow passage from the Crawford confluence up to the Kokatahi cableway were added a month later. As mentioned above, a DOC track cutting team kindly did a chainsaw run on their way out from some work they were doing in the upper valley in June of this year,
From Boo Boo the track sidles along the bush faces for a half hour or so to some dry rocks, the larger and more weatherproof of which is 20m uphill from the track. A plastic water barrel has been placed there to provide a bit of water. The track drops from here in a series of steps into Pinnacle Creek, then up and over a narrow rib into Alice Creek. It crosses another rib into Meharry Creek and up onto the terrace and clearing where Twins Hut used to be. The re-established route starts here dropping steeply off the terrace and angling down a steep overgrowing slip into the riverbed. There follows an actively unstable section with big boulders and short bush detours to an unmarked side-creek where the track enters the bush, climbs, then sidles across the bush faces above the river. The track drops back to the riverbed at the unnamed creek 500m downriver from Blue Duck Creek. A mix of track and boulder travel takes you to the Blue Duck which is crossed to another short section of track that takes you to where the Kokatahi cuts into a shingle bluff. A short wade is required to get you around the bluff and back onto open riverbed.
The Kokatahi can usually forded here, and a direct line taken up the flats on the TR to the Crawford River which currently runs in three normally easy forded braids opposite the Hut. If a ford above the Blue Duck is not possible, continue up the riverbed on the TL (with one small, tracked bluff detour) to where the Kokatahi splits into two braids just above the Crawford confluence. If a ford is possible here, continue another 20 minutes upriver to the cableway. In addition to the Kokatahi, both Alice and Blue Duck creeks could be dangerous or uncrossable if running high. Allow 4-5 hours for the journey from Boo Boo to Crawford Junction and be prepared for some quintessentially rough West Coast bush and river travel.
The Pinnacle Biv track starts at the top of the helipad, five minutes downvalley from Boo Boo Hut. It was re-cut and marked by volunteers in March and May 2020. The trackline follows the TL of a small creek initially, then heads straight up the montane faces eventually connecting with a broad spur at the tussock line. Poles and cruise-tape lead from here through the tussock and a couple of bands of scrub towards point 1085m. The route sidles east just below point 1085m and crosses a scrubby gully onto a rib with exposed bare rock. The route continues up this rib, over point 1085m, drops into a dip then climbs the last section through another band of alpine scrub towards Crinkletop. Allow around three hours from Boo Boo to Pinnacle Biv currently, or 7-8 from the roadend.
When dropping from Pinnacle Biv down to Boo Boo Hut make sure you don't continue down the exposed rock rib East of point 1085m. The trail drops off the rib around E1452037/ N5244963 (BV19 520 450) and sidles North across a scrubby face to another open area. More than one party continued straight down the rib into the Kokatahi. The top entrance of the track proper is also a bit vague currently. It's at GPS E1452097/ N5245430.
Repairs needed.
Some of the Hut's floorboards and interior framing may need replacing in the medium-term and the floor levelled. The inner western windowsill needs replacing and another fastener latch attached on the right of the frame. The rust patch above the porch needs attention, and more of the regenerating bush around the Hut needs clearing back. The external end wall needs a good scrub, and the flue leak checked out during heavy rain. There is a small tube of sealant in the Hut. The lever on the ash tray door of the wood burner is angled and tends to jam. One of the floorboards in the toilet has broken and needs reattaching or replacing.
Provisions on site
A coal bucket, two brooms, a hearth brush, a fry pan, a medium-sized pot, a billy, two cups, a dish brush, a mouse trap, a plastic basin, a plastic bucket, a bow saw, a shovel, a container of assorted and small flat-head nails, two axes, a grubber, a phillips screwdriver, two small tubes of sealant, a fish slice, a pair of tweezers, a pair of scissors and two saws.
