Greys Hut
Maintenance Status
The Department of Conservation at Karamea is responsible for maintaining Greys Hut, although their input has been intermittent over the years. Jason Campbell, Mayer Levy, Bruce Polkinghorn and Geoff Love did some maintenance on the Hut and a bit of trackwork in 2016, then in May 2021 Davey Guppy from DOC Karamea and John Taylor from DOC Takaka went in and fixed up the hearth and fireplace. In February 2024 Ben Piggott and Mike Detlaff from DOC Hokitika did some roof repairs, rodent control and vegetation clearance around the hut site. The track doesn't appear to be officially maintained and has been getting a bit rough and hard to follow in a few places. A local person has been doing a bit of tidying and marking, and Andrew Barker of Permolat has his eye on the route once he's finished his current project in the Johnson valley.
Location
Karamea catchment. Map BQ22. Grid Ref: E1539304/ N5434543 (BQ22 393 345). Altitude 85m. Greys Hut is located on a bush terrace on the TR of the Karamea River, 1-2 hours walk upstream from the Karamea Gorge. Although inside the Kahurangi National Park boundary, it is fairly low-use hut. For the last few years, it has averaged around 15 visits per year, around 50% of which are kayaking parties, many of whom don't stay overnight. Foot parties comprise a mix of fishers, hunters and trampers. The forest around the Hut is predominantly beech and hardwood.
Access
From Karamea township head 10kms up the TR bank of Karamea River along Umere Road to a small car park just before Virgin Stream. A track on the true left of Virgin Stream leads down to the River an follows it up until it crosses the branch of an old pack track just downstream of the cableway. A couple of meters up the pack track it branches off again and heads upriver. The turn-off is not marked and not that obvious but once you're on it, it is fairly well defined. Further up the valley it joins the other branch of the pack track and follows this for several hundred metres to the river's edge. From this point on the route is marked with sporadic orange triangles interspersed with sections of river travel. The section through the gorge can be boulder-hopped when flows are low. The Greys route requires sufficient experience to be able to pick up the transitions between riverbed and tracked sections around bluffs. The track has been getting pretty rough in recent times. A Karamea local has been working on it and has done some flagging and marking pretty much to the Hut, although it is still a bit hard to follow in places. The Hut is concealed in the forest around 30 meters from the riverbank at the top end of a clearing. Andrew Barker has the track in his sights after he finishes work in the Johnson valley. A reasonably fit, experienced party should be able to access the Hut from the road end in around 4-5 hours.
There is river access for kayaks or rafts from the Karamea Bend down to Greys.
Type
Greys is a standard six-bunk NZFS SF70 design with open fire. It has mock weatherboard iron cladding in place of the usual flat iron, a common feature of Nelson Conservancy huts, and an open wood box/ cupboard type alcove outside of the door. There is an external long-drop toilet.
Condition
DOC Westport had already completed some of the urgent remedial maintenance when Mayer and his team went in in February 2016. This comprised resealing the fireplace and patching the hole in floor. The work completed by Mayer and friends was painting of the inside and outside of the Hut, constructing a porch awning, replacing springs on bunk beds with 21mm ply, constructing shelving, a fire mantle, and hut book holder, fixing the toilet lintel, installing coat hooks, and making a new drying rack. In 2021 Davey and John pulled out the old hearth poured a new one. In 2024 Mike and Ben removed the roof and cleared out all the rat nests in the cavity. They then wrapped it in building paper before refastening the iron. Two new sheets of clearlight were put on and the rat entrance in the porch was blocked off. Insect screens were added, and the encroaching regen around the hut was trimmed back. There is a key for the bait dispenser in the cupboard. At last report the bait supply had been used up.
Routes
There are any number of routes to Greys from the Tasman Wilderness area and Kahurangi National Park via the upper Karamea and its numerous tributaries. All require high levels of fitness, bushcraft and navigation skills. Travel upriver from the Hut as far as Greys Creek is relatively easy with one bluff to negotiate on the way. Phillip Collyns mentions a trip over Bald Knob from the Ugly River (so named because of the hordes of sandflies there) and down Greys Stream to the Karamea River. There is a headland just upstream of the Greys Hut that you have to bash over if coming downriver.
There used to be a track from Kakapo Stream up the TR of the valley to Greys, but there is only one account on hand of anyone using it in the past 22 years. It would be interesting to see if there were any useable remnants of this route.
Repairs needed.
The concrete steps could do with repairing. There is a section of track below the Gorge that may need realigning. Contact Jess Curtis at DOC Westport for track marking supplies as it is best to keep this track maintained with orange triangles. More rat baits need to be taken in.
Provisions on site
An aluminium basin, an axe, a hatchet, a billy (without lid), a frypan, a fish slice, two trestle seats, and H3 21mm structural ply sheets under Hut.