Child friendly rating: 4 stars

Distance: 6.2km

Signposted time: 2 hours

Bookings Required? No

Suitable in Winter? Yes

Camping? Yes, but see below.

Parking:

Park as far as you can along Te Waiti Stream Road. A 4wd is really best for this road. The road isn't maintained by the council, and has a few river crossings, but if you have a higher clearance 2wd, you'll likely be fine.

Bushhaven used to allow you to safely park on their premises for a fee - they didn't let us when we went as said they were in process of selling their property. But worth trying your luck if you wanted.

The Track:

The walk to this hut is spectacular, and really child friendly. The hut however, is not. And talking to locals, it sounds like it is an ongoing issue unfortunately.

If it wasn’t for the poor condition of the hut, this would be a 5 star child friendly rated trip.

The grass outside the hut is full of rubbish - old empty cans, animal bones. The deck was covered in animal blood when we visited. Inside looked like mice would be likely to get inside. And the fireplace was full of rubbish, including nappies. The toilet was filthy too. It wasn't the kind of place I would want kids running around exploring at all.

The track however, was perfect. Slightly overgrowing with big tussock, but very easy to see the track, and almost no elevation change the whole way. It was built as a bike trail, and is very lovely to walk.

It took us almost 3 hours to walk in, but this was with a 1 year old walking decent chunks.

If wanting to come here, I'd recommend doing this trip as a day walk, or camping instead of staying in the hut. I wouldn't camp near the hut, but the river flats below the hut are a good location, or there are some grassy clearings past the hut too.

You need to cross the river just before the hut. It is a very small crossing, but you will likely get wet boots. One thing to be aware of is when you cross the river, it can be easy to loose the track on the other side. Google maps shows the track as remaining on the other side of the river, and the marker after the crossing is easy to miss. As long as you're aware of this and don't keep following the river down, you'll be fine.

Recommendations:

Walk, but don't stay in this hut. Camp on the river flats, not near the hut. It is definitely best to take a 4WD to the carpark. The walk is fantastic and great for all ages as long as you don't sleep in the hut. Older kids who are old enough to not get into the rubbish at the hut could stay inside but honestly camping would be much more pleasant and give more running around space.