Polluck Creek Hut
Maintenance status
Polluck Creek Hut, a.k.a. Little Waitaha, or Happy Valley Hut, is or was a maintain-by-community hut. I don't think anyone really knows its current status. The tracks to it are on the schedule of the agreement Permolat Trust has with the Department of Conservation, but the Hut isn't. DOC was planning to remove it in 2012 due to operational funding cuts, despite it being in relatively good condition. At this point ex-NZFS culler and Permolat member Peter Robins offered to take over maintenance and signed a contract with them to that effect. Pete continued for a bit, then withdrew, and things languished after that. More recently, Roydon Dick of Pukekura started working through a maintenance arrangement with DOC. Not sure where that got to. The Back Country Trust is now interested and does have some funding set aside for its maintenance. When is the question at this stage. The unmaintained farm/ forestry road that provides access from SH6 has deteriorated considerably over the years. There has been some local interest in having it repaired, but the cost of this is hard to justify given the Hut's low use.
Location
Kakapotahi catchment. Grid Ref: E1422742/ N5229773 (BV18 227 298). Map BV18. Altitude 295m. Polluck Creek Hut is located on the TL of Polluck Creek just up from its confluence with the Kakapotahi River. Polluck is the only hut in this 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 the most benign of the tributaries and runs along the Great Alpine Fault to Truran Pass. Polluck Creek Hut is used mostly by local hunters, day trippers, and the rare tramping party. Having such close road access makes it an ideal venue for giving kids, or the less experienced their first taste of the hills, and an old-style open fire experience. The local High School and kayakers are keen to keep the valley open for access to the Hut which currently gets around a dozen visits a year.
Access
Access is via a gravel road that turns off SH6 just South of the Kakapotahi River bridge. The road passes through a Ngai Tahu Forestry Estate for which an access permit is required from PF Olsen Ltd. (037686424). Logging of the old exotic plantations on the block ceased some time back with no activity up there since. There is a block of freehold land at the top end of road and consent from the lessee is required to cross this bit. 4WD is essential to get to the start of the farm where a rough track drops from the road onto the first river flat. There is legal access up the riverbed from here, with private land on both sides as far as Polluck Creek. You can check this on Walking Access NZ's mapping system https://www.herengaanuku.govt.nz/. River travel is straightforward with fords required to get the best line of travel. Crossing shouldn't be an issue at normal flows but would be difficult or dangerous if the River was up. The dotted route from Polluck Creek to the Hut marked on NZ Topmaps doesn't exist. Instead continue up past Polluck Creek for 500m to where the actual track entrance to the Hut is located (E1422742/ N5229851). The track goes up onto a low terrace and grass clearing where the Hut is sited. It's a fairly easy 5km up the River to the Hut that takes around an hour and a half to two hours. With consent from the lessee and a high-stud vehicle you could get to stock pen at the top end of the farm from here is a half hour to the Hut. Roydon has cut a line along an old tractor track on the TL to just opposite Polluck Creek.
Type
Polluck Hut is a standard NZFS S70 six-bunk design built in the 1960's. It has an open fire and was lined at some point. DOC installed a new long-drop toilet a few years back. Water is from the River.
Condition
Pollock Creek is still very sound structurally but in need of some serious TLC. DOC painted it around 2004, and in 2010 felled some of the regenerating bush around it and replaced the toilet. Peter and I painted the external walls and cleaned the Hut in March 2014, and he and his son replaced three piles in Autumn 2015. DOC supplied the paint and cement and got the materials, and new fireproof mattresses dropped in by Electronet. A new interior iron fire surround was recently installed and I'm presuming DOC did this. There is some rot in the frame and floor around the fireplace, which is permanently damp. The front of the hearth has a large depression from folk cutting wood on it, and the external chimney is corroding in a line level with the top of the inner surround. You can now see a bit of daylight through the split. The roof ridging is rusting, and the chimney cowling has come loose. The louvre handle on the northern window is broken. The piles that weren't replaced in 2015 have now passed their best by date. The insect screens on the windows are intact, but mozzies will come down the chimney during the warmer months. Some of the regenerating Kamahi on the north side of the hut clearing was dropped in 2023. The toilet door is too heavy for its hinges and has dropped so that the catch isn't useable. It's currently propped shut with a stick. In 2026 a couple of kind locals came in and gave the place a good spring clean which included giving the mattresses a good scrubbing down.
Routes
There is access to the Mikonui valley from Polluck Hut via Polluck Creek and Truran Pass. It is mostly creek travel up Polluck Creek with a short section of track leading from the head up to the Pass and the junction with the Dickie Spur track. The tracked bit is not officially maintained, was given a trim by volunteers in 2010, but is probably quite overgrown again. From the Pass the Dickie Spur track sidles along the terraces above the TL of Truran Creek then drops steeply down a spur to the Tuke River. It continues down the TL of the Tuke to a swingbridge at the top entrance of the lower Tuke gorge, crosses and climbs steeply for 15 minutes over a bush terrace and down onto Mikonui Flat. Mikonui Flat Hut 200m NW from where the track ends on the scrub boundary. Allow 2-3 hours from Polluck Creek Hut to Mikonui Flat Hut. The Dickie Spur and Tuke sections of the track are fully maintained and were last cut by DOC in 2019.
Dickie Spur Hut can be accessed by continuing uphill from Truran Pass. The track climbs steeply up a side spur onto Dickie Ridge, flattening in the alpine scrub zone and continuing up through open tussock patches to the Hut turnoff at the 1200m contour. The route to the Hut drops NE down a side spur and is marked with small wooden stakes. The Hut is on a tussock bench just above the scrubline. The Dickie Spur section of track was recut by DOC in 2026. Allow 4-5 hours to get from Polluck Creek Hut to Dickie Spur Hut.
There is an old Forest Service track behind Polluck Hut that goes up onto the NW spur of Dickie Ridge that hadn't been maintained for around 40 years. In 2014 I relocated it and cut it in a rudimentary fashion to around 950m. It was re-marked to around 300m but above this it is only sporadically marked. Someone has also given it a rough cut from 950m to the tussock. A recent party that used the route to descent from the tops was still doable. The first couple of hundred metres from the Hut is difficult to locate. In 2024 I found the first visible set of markers at E1422738/ N5229854.
An old route onto Mt Allen and the Hitchen Range via Slip Creek documented in NZFS guides is no longer any good. Slip Creek is unnamed on the map and enters the Kakapotahi at E1422497/ N5229332 (BV18 225 293). The TR fork once used for access, has a waterfall in the lower part with steep eroding sides. Further up the slip faces look vertical. There is no recent intel on Swandri Spur. An account of a descent down it from the 1990s is one of a long and grueling scrub-bash.
The Hitchen Range is good travel in most places except for couple of steep exposed sections between Mt Allen and Mt Hitchin. These can be avoided by dropping from a flat bench with tarns 400m SE of point 1385m into the TR upper fork of Isobel Creek. A steep gut starting around E1421363/ N5225726 (BW18 214 257) provides access from the bench down into the upper basin of this fork. Head up the ridge on the TR of the basin onto the crest of the Range at Ridland Saddle. Access down Chainman Creek into the Waitaha from the Saddle is possible, but not easy. The creek is gorged from the scrub zone down and lengthy sidles through the scrub and lower down bush, are required. Top Waitaha Hut is accessed by continuing along the Range to the low point at E1424995/ N5224187 (BW18 250 242) and dropping into the top basin from here. Once on level ground it is an easy stroll upriver to the Hut. Someone still needs to find a good route onto the Hitchen tops to make this crossing viable from Polluck Hut.
The Kakapotahi River is negotiable above Polluck Creek for around an hour. The first half is easy boulderhopping, but then it becomes progressively rougher and more gorgy. The first couple of gorgy bits can be skirted through the bush on the TR, but around one kilometre below Isobel Creek the valley wall steepens, and river travel is no longer an option.
Repairs Needed and Planned
The louvre handle needs fixing or replacing. BCT are proposing to replace the roof and remaining piles. The leadheads on the roof would be replaced with tech screws. DOC would like the open fire taken out and a wood burner installed. Roydon would like to open up the Dickie Ridge track all the way to the tops. The poor condition of the access road continues to be an issue that will impact on hut use. There is a paper road from the Waitaha valley over to the bottom of the farm flat that could potentially be used for foot access should the exiting road become unusable.
Provisions on Site
A broom, hearth brush and hearth shovel, a galvanised bucket, two plastic buckets, a bow saw, two axes, a large wok-shaped frypan, a hammer, some small staples and a few 4" jolthead nails. 5 litres of Lichen acrylic for the exterior walls left over from the March repaint. Four litres of Karaka coloured Dulux Weathershield acrylic gloss for the roof, and a litre of white for the trim. There are two mixing pails and a plastic scrubbing brush.
Polluck Creek Hut, a.k.a. Little Waitaha, or Happy Valley Hut, is or was a maintain-by-community hut. I don't think anyone really knows its current status. The tracks to it are on the schedule of the agreement Permolat Trust has with the Department of Conservation, but the Hut isn't. DOC was planning to remove it in 2012 due to operational funding cuts, despite it being in relatively good condition. At this point ex-NZFS culler and Permolat member Peter Robins offered to take over maintenance and signed a contract with them to that effect. Pete continued for a bit, then withdrew, and things languished after that. More recently, Roydon Dick of Pukekura started working through a maintenance arrangement with DOC. Not sure where that got to. The Back Country Trust is now interested and does have some funding set aside for its maintenance. When is the question at this stage. The unmaintained farm/ forestry road that provides access from SH6 has deteriorated considerably over the years. There has been some local interest in having it repaired, but the cost of this is hard to justify given the Hut's low use.
Location
Kakapotahi catchment. Grid Ref: E1422742/ N5229773 (BV18 227 298). Map BV18. Altitude 295m. Polluck Creek Hut is located on the TL of Polluck Creek just up from its confluence with the Kakapotahi River. Polluck is the only hut in this 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 the most benign of the tributaries and runs along the Great Alpine Fault to Truran Pass. Polluck Creek Hut is used mostly by local hunters, day trippers, and the rare tramping party. Having such close road access makes it an ideal venue for giving kids, or the less experienced their first taste of the hills, and an old-style open fire experience. The local High School and kayakers are keen to keep the valley open for access to the Hut which currently gets around a dozen visits a year.
Access
Access is via a gravel road that turns off SH6 just South of the Kakapotahi River bridge. The road passes through a Ngai Tahu Forestry Estate for which an access permit is required from PF Olsen Ltd. (037686424). Logging of the old exotic plantations on the block ceased some time back with no activity up there since. There is a block of freehold land at the top end of road and consent from the lessee is required to cross this bit. 4WD is essential to get to the start of the farm where a rough track drops from the road onto the first river flat. There is legal access up the riverbed from here, with private land on both sides as far as Polluck Creek. You can check this on Walking Access NZ's mapping system https://www.herengaanuku.govt.nz/. River travel is straightforward with fords required to get the best line of travel. Crossing shouldn't be an issue at normal flows but would be difficult or dangerous if the River was up. The dotted route from Polluck Creek to the Hut marked on NZ Topmaps doesn't exist. Instead continue up past Polluck Creek for 500m to where the actual track entrance to the Hut is located (E1422742/ N5229851). The track goes up onto a low terrace and grass clearing where the Hut is sited. It's a fairly easy 5km up the River to the Hut that takes around an hour and a half to two hours. With consent from the lessee and a high-stud vehicle you could get to stock pen at the top end of the farm from here is a half hour to the Hut. Roydon has cut a line along an old tractor track on the TL to just opposite Polluck Creek.
Type
Polluck Hut is a standard NZFS S70 six-bunk design built in the 1960's. It has an open fire and was lined at some point. DOC installed a new long-drop toilet a few years back. Water is from the River.
Condition
Pollock Creek is still very sound structurally but in need of some serious TLC. DOC painted it around 2004, and in 2010 felled some of the regenerating bush around it and replaced the toilet. Peter and I painted the external walls and cleaned the Hut in March 2014, and he and his son replaced three piles in Autumn 2015. DOC supplied the paint and cement and got the materials, and new fireproof mattresses dropped in by Electronet. A new interior iron fire surround was recently installed and I'm presuming DOC did this. There is some rot in the frame and floor around the fireplace, which is permanently damp. The front of the hearth has a large depression from folk cutting wood on it, and the external chimney is corroding in a line level with the top of the inner surround. You can now see a bit of daylight through the split. The roof ridging is rusting, and the chimney cowling has come loose. The louvre handle on the northern window is broken. The piles that weren't replaced in 2015 have now passed their best by date. The insect screens on the windows are intact, but mozzies will come down the chimney during the warmer months. Some of the regenerating Kamahi on the north side of the hut clearing was dropped in 2023. The toilet door is too heavy for its hinges and has dropped so that the catch isn't useable. It's currently propped shut with a stick. In 2026 a couple of kind locals came in and gave the place a good spring clean which included giving the mattresses a good scrubbing down.
Routes
There is access to the Mikonui valley from Polluck Hut via Polluck Creek and Truran Pass. It is mostly creek travel up Polluck Creek with a short section of track leading from the head up to the Pass and the junction with the Dickie Spur track. The tracked bit is not officially maintained, was given a trim by volunteers in 2010, but is probably quite overgrown again. From the Pass the Dickie Spur track sidles along the terraces above the TL of Truran Creek then drops steeply down a spur to the Tuke River. It continues down the TL of the Tuke to a swingbridge at the top entrance of the lower Tuke gorge, crosses and climbs steeply for 15 minutes over a bush terrace and down onto Mikonui Flat. Mikonui Flat Hut 200m NW from where the track ends on the scrub boundary. Allow 2-3 hours from Polluck Creek Hut to Mikonui Flat Hut. The Dickie Spur and Tuke sections of the track are fully maintained and were last cut by DOC in 2019.
Dickie Spur Hut can be accessed by continuing uphill from Truran Pass. The track climbs steeply up a side spur onto Dickie Ridge, flattening in the alpine scrub zone and continuing up through open tussock patches to the Hut turnoff at the 1200m contour. The route to the Hut drops NE down a side spur and is marked with small wooden stakes. The Hut is on a tussock bench just above the scrubline. The Dickie Spur section of track was recut by DOC in 2026. Allow 4-5 hours to get from Polluck Creek Hut to Dickie Spur Hut.
There is an old Forest Service track behind Polluck Hut that goes up onto the NW spur of Dickie Ridge that hadn't been maintained for around 40 years. In 2014 I relocated it and cut it in a rudimentary fashion to around 950m. It was re-marked to around 300m but above this it is only sporadically marked. Someone has also given it a rough cut from 950m to the tussock. A recent party that used the route to descent from the tops was still doable. The first couple of hundred metres from the Hut is difficult to locate. In 2024 I found the first visible set of markers at E1422738/ N5229854.
An old route onto Mt Allen and the Hitchen Range via Slip Creek documented in NZFS guides is no longer any good. Slip Creek is unnamed on the map and enters the Kakapotahi at E1422497/ N5229332 (BV18 225 293). The TR fork once used for access, has a waterfall in the lower part with steep eroding sides. Further up the slip faces look vertical. There is no recent intel on Swandri Spur. An account of a descent down it from the 1990s is one of a long and grueling scrub-bash.
The Hitchen Range is good travel in most places except for couple of steep exposed sections between Mt Allen and Mt Hitchin. These can be avoided by dropping from a flat bench with tarns 400m SE of point 1385m into the TR upper fork of Isobel Creek. A steep gut starting around E1421363/ N5225726 (BW18 214 257) provides access from the bench down into the upper basin of this fork. Head up the ridge on the TR of the basin onto the crest of the Range at Ridland Saddle. Access down Chainman Creek into the Waitaha from the Saddle is possible, but not easy. The creek is gorged from the scrub zone down and lengthy sidles through the scrub and lower down bush, are required. Top Waitaha Hut is accessed by continuing along the Range to the low point at E1424995/ N5224187 (BW18 250 242) and dropping into the top basin from here. Once on level ground it is an easy stroll upriver to the Hut. Someone still needs to find a good route onto the Hitchen tops to make this crossing viable from Polluck Hut.
The Kakapotahi River is negotiable above Polluck Creek for around an hour. The first half is easy boulderhopping, but then it becomes progressively rougher and more gorgy. The first couple of gorgy bits can be skirted through the bush on the TR, but around one kilometre below Isobel Creek the valley wall steepens, and river travel is no longer an option.
Repairs Needed and Planned
The louvre handle needs fixing or replacing. BCT are proposing to replace the roof and remaining piles. The leadheads on the roof would be replaced with tech screws. DOC would like the open fire taken out and a wood burner installed. Roydon would like to open up the Dickie Ridge track all the way to the tops. The poor condition of the access road continues to be an issue that will impact on hut use. There is a paper road from the Waitaha valley over to the bottom of the farm flat that could potentially be used for foot access should the exiting road become unusable.
Provisions on Site
A broom, hearth brush and hearth shovel, a galvanised bucket, two plastic buckets, a bow saw, two axes, a large wok-shaped frypan, a hammer, some small staples and a few 4" jolthead nails. 5 litres of Lichen acrylic for the exterior walls left over from the March repaint. Four litres of Karaka coloured Dulux Weathershield acrylic gloss for the roof, and a litre of white for the trim. There are two mixing pails and a plastic scrubbing brush.