Child friendly rating: 4 stars

Distance: 8km approx. from 4wd carpark. 12km from 2wd carpark along coastline or 15km approx from 2wd carpark along road.

Signposted time: 3 hours from 4wd carpark, or 4 hours from 2wd carpark.

Bookings Required? No

Suitable for Winter? Yes

Camping? Plenty of space

4WD Required? Optional

Parking: Park at the Anatori Campsite along Cowin Road in a 2WD, or continue to the end of the road in a 4WD.

The Track:

This is one of my favourite overnight trips. The beach and coastline is just stunning. Windswept, and gorgeous.

It's not suitable for swimming, as the coastline is too rough, however upstream at Big River would be a great spot for a dip as long as the river is not in flood. - But if the river is in flood, you wouldn't be able to cross it to get to the hut anyway.

There are 4 rivers to cross along the way, and these are all approximately equal distance apart from each other.

Anaweka is the first river. This is at the 2wd carpark. The river is not difficult to cross, however if following the coastline, you'll have to make sure the tide is below half-tide. (ie. 3 hours either side of low tide)

This is because the first section of the track after Anaweka follows a beach under a cliff with many large boulders. At high tide when the powerful waves are crashing near here, it's extremely dangerous to be walking this way.

If you time your visit wrong, or don't want to walk along the coastline, you can also walk via the 4wd road. This is however a much more boring walk. You need to climb up and over around 140m above sea level. It can get hot and exposed. Plus the distance is around 3-4km longer than along the coastline. It is however safer in that you don't need to walk below the cliff or time the tide at this end of the walk.

Walking this section along the coastline took us 1.5 hours with a 3yo in tow who was walking around half the time.

Turimawiwi is the next river. This is where you start walking if you have a 4wd. There is no more cliff face past here.

Turimawiwi to Anaweka took us 1 hour.

Anaweka river has soft sinking sand. It's best to cross this near the beach.

Anaweka to Big River took us just under 1 hour.

Big River is important to cross 2 hours either side of low tide. If you carried a packraft, you could cross this on a packraft too. Or without kids you could walk over with packs above heads. But with children it is definitely best to cross 2 hours either side of low tide.

This means if you don't have a 4wd and you're taking the coastal route the whole way, you will need to time the tide both at Anatori and at Big River.

Big River is easiest to cross slightly upstream (around 200m) of the beach. At low tide it will only be up to your ankles, but at high tide can be up to your head. If there's been a lot of rain and the river is in flood, you won't be able to cross the river. Follow regular river crossing safety advice around this.

From Big River it's 30-45 minutes to the hut - with a 3yo stopping to play it took us an hour.

There is a sign on the beach indicating where to turn off the beach to the hut. If you can see the lighthouse, you've walked too far.

The Hut:

The hut even has a flushing toilet!

It's 4wd and quad bike accessible if you're tough, which means it can be busy with quad bikers hooning around during low tide, especially on long weekends. Overnight visitors are normally only the odd tramper, so you're likely to have most of the 26 beds to yourself.

From here, you can explore the sand dunes behind the hut, follow the stream next to the hut upstream, and make your way to the lighthouse.

Recommendations:

I'd recommend staying for 2 nights as there is so much space to explore around here!

An easy trip for kids of all ages if you have a 4wd, or if you know you can make it between the tide times along the coastline (walking 4wd road does make this a much harder trip). With a 4WD I'd give this a child-friendly rating of 5 stars, and without it's a 3-4 stars just because you are limited on time by the tide so need to beat it, or need to take the less family friendly route over the hill.