Child friendly rating: 4 stars

Distance: 10.5km from 4WD road-end

Signposted time: 3 hours

Bookings Required? No

Suitable in Winter? Generally

Camping Available? Yes

4wd required? For kid-friendly access, yes.

Parking:

The shortest access to Hurunui Hut is with a 4wd that will take you as far as Loch Katrine. Generally you can park at the north end of the lake - there is a locked gate past here, so foot or mountain bike traffic only.

The 4wd track to the carpark is not a technical 4wd track, there are just many potholes. One section could be considered slightly technical, but for the vast majority of the track, even if you have no 4wd experience, you'll be fine as long as you have a high clearance 4wd and take things slow. Some people have taken their Subaru up the 4wd road too, but I suppose that depends how much you care about your car. We found our regular cheap bike rack on the back of the car did get hit going through a pothole and snapped off a clip.

Our most recent visit was after rather heavy rain, but the 4wd road was still fine as it had a stoney base, though there were a few deep puddles on the track. No river crossings needed, but a couple stream crossings.

The Track:

The track follows a 4wd track most of the way. There are some creek crossings along the way, and you can make this quicker by mountain biking, however the last section before the hut does get quite rough and unless you're very experienced, there would be a fair amount of bike pushing. We locked our bikes to a tree before the track got rough at the Hurunui Swingbridge on our 2nd visit. Two other parties in the group did the same though one said they would have biked all the way to the hut next time.

The track starts off with a bit of undulation for the first 2.5km or so. On a rocky farm road.

After this, you drop down into the valley flats, and the 4wd road travels on grass for the vast majority of the way to the swingbridge. There are a few rocky sections, but it is predominantly grass. We found on bikes after heavy rain in mid-winter the grass was very boggy and we struggled to cycle. The next morning when everything was quite frozen it was fine and we were much faster.

After the grassy flats, you reach the swingbridge - a total of 9km from the car - leave bikes here. Then it's still another 1.5km to the hut. The track is rocky, tree root filled, and undulating, though the sections our 2yo walked, he didn't struggle with at all.

Our most recent visit was cycling in with a 2yo on the front of the bike / carried for the walk, a 9yo on a 24 inch bike, and a 5 year old on a single speed 16 inch bike, plus hubby walking as support.

The cycling section (9km to swingbridge) took us 3hr20, and the walk (1.5km to hut) took us 40 minutes. On the return trip it took my 9yo who went up ahead 2hr45 total, me and 2yo 3hrs, and 5yo + hubby 3hr15.

We found we needed hubby as the walking support to help with the 5yo as I was busy with the 2yo on the bike and couldn't carry his bike too when needed. He also helped carrying some of the bulky gear like all our sleeping bags as I couldn't cycle with my 75L pack, and my 44L didn't fit everything.

Hut:

The hut is a modern hut with platform bunks. It is one large open room with a couple of tables and a good woodburner.

It sits in a clearing with plenty of camping space, though not all flat. A lot of the camping space would be on a slight slant.

Past the hut about 4km/2hr hour walk is a small hot pool. It's been edged with concrete, and is a nice pool, but the sandflies are absolutely horrendous.

Recommendations:

 This is a great hut to visit with kids if you have a 'real' 4WD. The only thing stopping it from being a 5 star hut is that the track is on the longer side, and that is even with a 4WD. Without a 4WD it's 20km, and this is just unmanageable for young kids. (The only option would be breaking the walk up by staying a night at Loch Katrine on the way, but this is still a big walk and would make it a 4 day trip. )

The hut is also on the Te Araroa trail, so can be busy. Most TA walkers do have their own tents, but given the FIFS basis of the hut, better to come prepared with your own tent, or arrive early as most TA walkers arrive late in the day.

I'd recommend visiting in shoulder season or winter for a quieter trip. Over a late April Easter, most the TA walkers had already finished for the season so it wasn't too busy. A winter long weekend the hut was 3/4 full mainly with hunters. Shoulder season/winter is also better for the hot pools as there's less sandflies and the hot pools are more pleasant in colder weather.

The walk itself is easy being mainly on a 4WD track, but it can get boring. The hot pools however do make up for this so make sure to stay for 2 nights so you've got time to explore the hot pools. We found even coming in by bike, overnight didn't leave us enough time for the hot pools.

I do recommend biking in though as it is a great beginner bike track (just push the bikes on uphills if needed) and that makes the track so much more enjoyable as it avoids walking for 9km on a 'boring' 4wd road.