Kokatahi River

From a side road off Upper Kokatahi Road, follow a track on the true right of the river up to the swingbridge, as marked on map sheets J33 and BV19. Permission is required to cross the private farmland here (Terry Sheridan, phone 03 755 7967). The bridge spans an impressive gorge of water-worn bedrock and is worth a visit in its own right. A short sidle then leads to the riverbank at Adamson Creek. Within a hundred metres or so the track climbs from the riverbed on the true left and gains height. En route, streams are crossed and in some cases the marked route goes up them a short distance before climbing out again upstream. Boo Boo Hut (DOC, four bunks) is on a small terrace about 100 metres east of its marked location, with the creek about 20 metres away. From Boo Boo Hut, the route sidles as marked for a little over a kilometre and then stays high, not dropping as indicated and only sidling down slowly to meet the spur overlooking Pinnacle Creek at about the 500-metre contour. Marked by tape, it then drops directly down to Pinnacle Creek on an overgrowing old slip face, a good hundred metres up from the river. The marked route then crosses two eroding spurs before climbing up to the site of Twins Hut (now removed). These narrow spurs can be bypassed at river level between Pinnacle and Meharry Creeks before climbing up to the marked route on to Twins. The track leads towards the river and descends to the Twins bridge. Cross the river to the true right. Upstream, the riverbank is slowly subsiding and the original route is now a dog’s breakfast, parts of which are useful and parts of which have long since been buried in gravel and collapsed trees. It’s all doable without climbing too high, and the last kilometre or so is along the gravel riverbed to Crawford Junction. Above Crawford Junction, the Kokatahi Valley is tracked and followable to Zit Saddle. Top Kokatahi Hut (DOC, four bunks) has been relocated further up the valley, close to where the Kokatahi Bivvy once stood, at the 1060-metre contour, about 200 metres up the Kokatahi Valley from the Zit Saddle side creek. To access Zit Saddle, head up the side creek draining the saddle and climb out up to the Toaroha Range following poles onto a bench a couple of hundred metres north of Zit Saddle. Times : Road to Boo Boo Hut, 5 hrs ; Boo Boo Hut to Crawford Junction, 6 hrs ; Crawford Junction to Zit Saddle, 9 hrs

From Crawford Junction, a maintained track leads up the true left of Crawford Creek to Top Crawford Hut (DOC, four bunks) in a small clearing well above the river, and continues on to finish in the stream bed 500 metres downstream from Crawford Bivvy (DOC, two person). Time : Crawford Junction to Crawford Bivvy, 5 hrs