A lovely historic hut (1905) not far from SH6 on the West Coast.
Located: On the Moeraki River, part of the Haast-Paringa Cattle Track. BY13
Grid/NZTM2000 coordinates: E1305997, N5144663. North of Haast, South Westland.
Access: About 3km along a pretty much flat (undulating) track. I was surprised that it took us 2 hours each way, 4 year old leg speed. Some parts of the track are wide and smooth (I could hold hands of 2 tired girls at the same time), whereas other parts are rough, muddy, puddly etc. Good fun for kids of the right age – would be hard work for a 3 year old maybe to walk all the way but fun for littler ones to walk some of it and olders too. Lovely big swing bridge close to the hut. There was a wee wash out when we were there (post the big rains in March 2019) which we had to climb in and out of. Also the track from the bridge to the hut was pretty washed out, probably for the same reason. Had to climb over roots, in and out of ditches for a brief period.
Hut features: A standard DoC, which has been extended to create a kind of kitchen area. Decent fire. Reasonably clean and tidy. 8 bunks. Tap and water in the hut (what a treat!). Area to camp about 30m from hut. A great wee stream right next to hut and the river with a beautiful swimming hole just a bit further.
Negatives: ‘West Coast guinea pigs’ living in the roof (probably rats/mice) – they didn’t bother us and no sign of them in the actual hut but we heard them from time-to-time. Sandflies and mossies – we saw less than 10 sandflies but I suspect this is because of the time of year and they’d be quite bad in summer. I did kill about a dozen mosquitos overnight – they were slow moving and easy to kill although still got to one of our girls. There’s gaps around the door so tricky to stop these guys getting in.
Visited by the Clark whānau, April 2019
trampingforlittlepeople 