Dusky Track & South Coast Track Fiordland NZ

I’ve just arrived back from a few days walking the Dusky & South Coast Tracks in Fiordland NZ.

The South Coast Track, Fiordland NZ: is SO much better than the similarly named South Coast Track in Tasmania. You can have a number of different trips there. What will best suit most is a jet boat ride down the Wairaurahiri River staying either at the Wairaurahiri Hut or at the Waitutu Lodge ($30/night + hot showers). From the Lodge you can spend a few days exploring the bush and the sea, perhaps venturing on to the Waitutu or Big Rivers. Then you can walk back staying perhaps at the Percy Burn Hut (where there is an enormous timber viaduct built from Australian hardwood c1920!) or at the Port Craig Hut, or the (new) Port Craig Village – where you can enjoy hot showers and booze for twin share $100/night.

It is 6 ½ hours walk back to the Rarakau carpark just out of Tuatapere (you can arrange with the jet boat people to be picked up from the car park). It is 5 ½ hours walk along the beach only if the tide is low with some scrambling over rocks. You can break your walk with a camp on the grassy edge of Blowholes Beach (approximately half way). You can (if you are very intrepid) push on along the beach or through the bush after Westies Hut (in a sea cave 1 hour before Big River) all the way to Puysegur Point  lighthouse on Preservation inlet. See report here: http://www.tristanriley.co.nz/blog/archives/149

There is a hut there at Te Oneroa from which you can explore the C19th ruins of the gold mining town of Cromarty. You can fly out by float plane from there (or stay at luxury resort Kisbee Lodge there – if you are exceptionally well-heeled!) After the Waitutu River you can push on up the Waitutu River to the hut on the Slaughter Burn and onwards to Lake Poteriteri, thence to Teal Bay on Lake Hauroko and on to the Lake Hauroko car park where again you can be picked up by the jet boat operators, or you can circle back to Port Craig..

See also:

http://www.theultralighthiker.com/insects-can-ruin-a-camping-trip/

http://www.theultralighthiker.com/dusky-track-canoeing-the-seaforth/

http://www.theultralighthiker.com/dusky-track-adventures-1/

http://www.theultralighthiker.com/eddie-herrick-moose-hunting-at-dusky-sound/

http://www.theultralighthiker.com/eddie-herrick-moose-hunting-at-dusky-sound/

http://www.theultralighthiker.com/a-friend-i-met-on-the-dusky-track-fiordland-nz/

http://www.theultralighthiker.com/dusky-south-coast-tracks/

http://www.theultralighthiker.com/dreaming-of-the-dusky-track/

http://www.theultralighthiker.com/the-dusky/

http://www.theultralighthiker.com/moose-hunting/

http://www.theultralighthiker.com/fiordland-moose/

http://www.theultralighthiker.com/fiordland-moose-2/

http://www.theultralighthiker.com/hunting-in-fiordland/

http://www.theultralighthiker.com/off-to-fiordland/

http://www.theultralighthiker.com/shadowland-fiordland-video/

http://www.theultralighthiker.com/the-best-toilet-view-in-the-world/

http://www.theultralighthiker.com/10-days-in-fiordland/

http://www.theultralighthiker.com/fiordland-2009/

http://www.theultralighthiker.com/fiordland-nz-with-bryn/

http://www.theultralighthiker.com/fiordland-april-2007/

http://www.theultralighthiker.com/weather-for-fiordland/