Harper Pass and Taramakau River

January 21 25.5 kms 9.5 hrs

Not especially fast going along the Upper Hurinui valley - again missing the frequent forest markers when the track went out onto the grassy river flats, etc. At one point after travelling for some time I was a bit stuck for the next section, so explored up a hillside, then sat down for break and a chance to check my GPS. Hmmm... that said (correctly) that I had just passed the (bright orange) Harper Pass biv a short distance up the hillside from the track !

From there a relatively short ascent to Harper Pass, and the view it provided along the Taramakau River valley - a long way below. As promised, the descent was steep and required a lot of care on the at time rocky or narrow path. But continued on reaching the special Locke Stream Hut for a later lunch break.

Soon after you end up on open river flats, with most of the time being able to follow a well enough used path, so easy to cover quite a bit of ground relatively quickly. A few crossings of the Taramakau River, but no issues because the last few days had seen minimal or no rain. Happy enough to do the side trip to the old Kiwi hut, where 3 hunters were in residence, having driven their 4WD vehicle up the valley to just below the hut.

From there a final crossing of the main river, and then a significant crossing of the Otehake River - made that bit more straightforward because it was in 2 channels. Target achieved for the day, so found a suitable camping place, with showers forecast for overnight.