Child friendly rating: 5 stars

Distance: 1km

Signposted time: 15 minutes

Bookings Required? No

Suitable in Winter? Yes

Camping Available? Yes

4wd required? No

Parking:

You'll need to park in Manapouri township, and get boat transport to West Arm. Whether that be by water taxi, your own boat, a friends boat, or you can hire boats from Steve Gooding Marine in Invercargill. Trackhoppers is one of the options for water taxi.

The Track:

Once you're at West Arm, you've done the hard bit. From here, it's an extremely easy walk on a gravel road all the way to the hut. The 1km walk did take us the signposted 15 minutes with 3 young kiddos in tow.

You could very easily push a pram (Or even a wheelchair) all the way to the hut if you can get it out of the boat.

At the start of the track is actually a visitor centre with flushing toilets. Full of information about the power station as well as its construction. Worth a visit, and a great place to hide out from sandflies.

Hut:

The hut is very standard, but comfortable. 6 single bunks. It's usually visited by people at the end of the Dusky Track on their last night - or occasionally their first night. However the Dusky Track isn't an overly popular walk so you will likely have the place to yourselves. Enough space to pop 2 mattresses on the floor next to each other if you'd like.

Recommendations:

If you want the fun of the boat ride over, this is a great hut to visit. Easy access as not too much physical exertion required so a good one to do if you've got multiple very young kids who would need carrying on longer walks. They'll love the fun of the boat ride over too. It's definitely a bit too far to paddle to with kids - you'll have to come via motorised boat.