Located: Port Hills, Western Valley Road. Park at Port Levy Saddle between Little River and Port Levy. Walk along the Summit Walkway 1.5km to Waipuna Saddle then down a side track to the hut. The side track and hut are not yet marked on the website topomap.co.nz, but the track is well signposted and marked. The hut is at approximately 836593

Access: About 2kms from the carpark at the saddle. Our 24 month old walked from the carpark to the hut in 1 hr 10 minutes.

Hut features: Fantastic newly renovated hut, no sandflies, potbelly stove, sinks with running water. VIP (ventilation improved pit) toilet. Solar powered lighting at night (indoors only, so take a torch for going out to the toilet). Candles are not welcome so don’t bother taking them. 9 bunks (separate bunks, not a sleeping platform). The bunkroom is up a narrow steep flight of stairs from the main area, with a door at the bottom but none at the top, so you need to watch for little ones getting out of bed and tumbling down the stairs.

Nice views over Little River from the hut.

If you follow the driveway down from the hut, it gets to the road (Western Valley Road, on the Little River side of the saddle) after about 300m. Possibly you could use this to get some extra gear in without carrying it along the track, though the walk is so short anyway it is hardly necessary.

NB: Hut must be prebooked on the DOC website.

Under twos are not free ($7.50/night).

There is quite a bit of gorse alongside the last part of the track, it was well cut back when we were there in Feb 2016 but junior still managed to fall into it a number of times!

Not much shade along the track, and it can get very windy.

 

Visited by: McLachlan family, Feb 2016