Explorer Hut
(Explorer Hut: Photo Andrew Buglass 2005)
Maintenance status
Explorer has been designated as
minimal maintenance. The track sections of the routes to the Hut are not officially
maintained anymore, but have had the odd bit of volunteer work done on them.
Location
Mikonui/ Hokitika catchments:
Grid Ref: E1431670/ N5236720. Topo Map
BV18. Altitude 460m. Explorer Hut is located on Douglas Saddle, between
the Mikonui River,
and Doctors Creek in the Hokitika catchments.
At normal river levels Explorer Hut is an easy 3-4 hour trip up from the Mikonui road end.
It
is a great little overnighter with wonderful deep bush ambience.
Access from the Hokitika side via Doctors Creek is more challenging, but
can also be done in a day. There are a couple of old NZFS tops on either side
of the Saddle. There has been no official maintenance done on these for over 30 years. The
Fraser Peak track
is still marginally useable and the Miserable Ridge track has recently been partially recut.
Access
The route to Explorer from
Mikonui Flat is mostly river travel with one small gorge
to negotiate just upstream from the Dickson River confluence. The track around this on
the TL had some of cutting and re-marking work done by volunteers in 2005 and 2009.
The track, marked on the topo map as continuing all the way up to Murdoch Creek, ends at
the top end of the gorge. It is necessary to drop back into riverbed at this point and boulderhop
from here. Travel
is easier on the TR initially, but further upstream there's not much difference.
Around an hour upriver the Mikonui veers sharply
south-east at the junction of Open and Explorer Creek.
Cairns lead up a creek bed running parallel to the Mikonui for a short distance
to a short section
of track on the TR through a patch of olearia to the original track entrance at
the foot of the hillside (E1431280/ N5235970).
The track from here to the Hut has was re-marked in April 2005 and 2009 with
cruise tape and the odd bit of permolat. It climbs steeply
initially, then sidles for a half hour around to the Douglas Saddle. There is an area
of windthrow around 300m
before the Hut, some of which has been cleared
and cruise-taped. The Hut is located in a small clearing surrounded by podocarp forest
just above the
Saddle.
There are two routes to Explorer from the Hokitika valley via Doctors Creek,
both of which start at the Hokitika Gorge. The shorter of the two is via Minnow Creek
and Murray
Saddle and starts an hour upriver from the Gorge on the TL of the Hokitika.
It climbs steeply
up the TR of Minnow Creek and is getting quite overgrown. The section crossing Murray
Saddle section has been kept open to some degree by wild cattle. The track
drops into Surveyors Creek and follows it down to where a small creek
comes in on the TL just before Surveyors does a u-turn
North. Head up the side-creek over a flat ridgetop and down onto
a flat in Doctors Creek just before the Smith Gorge.
There is a track around
the TR of the Gorge. Another small gorge just upstream can be walked through at normal
river levels. Continue up the riverbed from here to Bramhall Creek. The
track entrance to Explorer Hut is
cairned and cruise-taped around 400m up Bramhall Creek on the TL. The first section up a
steep bank onto the ridge between
Doctors and Bramhall Creeks is overgrown. It continues up the ridge up for 5-10 minutes,
levels and
crosses a flat area of podocarp forest to the Hut. There is a fair bit of
windthrow on this section making it tricky to follow in places. Some partial blazing and
cruise-taping was done here in 2005, but it needs more work. Allow 4-5 hours from the Hokitika
Gorge to Explorer Hut.
It is also possible to follow Doctors Creek up from its confluence with the Hokitika.
Follow an old bulldozer track down the TL of the Hokitika from the Gorge down
for an hour or so to Doctors Creek. Head up
Doctors to a side creek that comes in on the TR just upstream from Shadow
Stream. Follow this to around the 200m contour line, then
sidle out over a low bush saddle onto the faces above Doctors Creek.
Stay well above the river until you are
past the first gorge, then drop onto large river flat. Boulderhop from
here to the second gorge upstream from the Surveyors
Creek. Negotiate this on the TR then drop back
into Doctors creek at the flat where the Murray Saddle
track comes in. The route from here on up is the same as the Murray Saddle one. Allow
a full day to reach Explorer using this route.
Type
Explorer is a standard NZFS 4-bunk design with open fire. It
has a roof-fed water tank and a toilet.
Condition
DOC repainted the hut, resealed the exterior,
did roof repairs, and
replaced the watertank and stand in March 2004. There is a hole
in the floor in the corner
of the cupboard which has been covered to keep rodents. The
skylight above the fire needs replacing and there is a new sheet of clearlight
under the Hut for this.
Routes
An old NZFS track up Fraser
Peak from Douglas Saddle is still followable in its lower section, but vanishes from the
750m level to the ridgetop, where it can be picked up again. There are great
views from Fraser Peak.
There is an old tops track behind
Explorer Hut providing access to Miserable Ridge that had become very overgrown, particularly in
the alpine scrub zone. Some volunteer work was done on this in 2009 and there is now a good route
taped and cut to within about 100 vertical metres (800 lineal) of the
tussock. The last bit will still be overgrown, but the route is quite
viable again for tops access, or even a round trip to Mikonui Biv.
A tops track marked on the pre-metric maps going up to Mikonui Spur from the Mikonui River
opposite where the
Explorer Saddle track starts probably no longer exists. There is no recent data on this.
Repairs
A bit more clearance of the vegetation around the Hut is needed,
along with skylight replacement and repair of the hole in the floor.
Provisions
on Site
One broom, an axe,
two galvanised buckets, a plastic bucket, a small coal shovel and a hearth brush.