Jacko Flat Hut

(Jacko Flat Hut looking up to Mt. Alexander: Photo Andrew Buglass 2007)

Maintenance Status

Jacko Flat Hut and the track to it from the Crooked roadend will be fully maintained. There are extant tracks in the Crooked despite their not being marked on the current topo maps.

Location

Crooked River catchment: Grid Ref: E1487860/ N5270715. Map BU20. Altitude 415m. Jacko Flat Hut is located just upstream of a large river flat in the mid Crooked valley in a setting dominated by the sheer rock walls of the North face of Mt. Alexander. The Crooked lies on the Northern boundary of Westland's beech gap, and the transition from podocarp/ rata/ hardwood to beech forest is evident here in a number of places. Above Jacko Flat the River veers sharply East, rising gradually toward the Crooked headwaters. The Crooked has always been a fairly low-use valley with visitor numbers declining further with deteriorating tracks from the early 90's on. The tracks were recut in 2009, so hopefully this will reverse the trend somewhat. Jacko Flat Hut is in good condition and is well provisioned in the old NZFS style.

Access

Access to the Crooked valley is via the old Rotomanu - Kopara Road which turns off the new Road just after Puzzle Creek. The old road is rutted and scoured out in places, but OK for 2-wheel drive if care is taken. There is a fairly unfriendly sign and padlock on a gate 600m from the start of the track, depsite there being a paper road all the way to Kopara. The Crooked track starts behind the Kopara Reserve Sign just above the piles of the old Crooked bridge.

The first section of the track climb/ sidles around a gorge for an hour before dropping back to the river. it then follows the river terraces up to the Morgan River confluence. Just past the confluence it drops briefly to the riverbed at the start of the 2nd gorge. The track re-enters the bush after 50m, climbs, then sidles across some steep faces, rough and rocky underfoot, above the gorge.

After around an hour of sidling the main Jacko river flat comes into view. The track drops gradually from here to river level. Jacko Flat Hut is 400m up from Jack's Creek. This is the large creek at the top end of Jacko Flat, un-named on the Topo Map, that drains the Alexander Range. The Hut is in a small clearing surrounded by hardwood scrub. Allow 4-4.5 hours to get to the Hut from the road end.

The track up to Top Crooked Hut was recut by DOC in 2009. It passes mostly through open beech forest on the TL with a couple of riverbed sections midway up, eventually emerging on a river flat at the head of the valley just downstream of the Hut. Allow around 2 - 2.5 hours to Top Crooked from Jacko Flat Hut.

An open grassy patch next to Jacko Flat Hut would allow helicopter access.

Type

Jacko Flat is a standard six-bunk NZFS design with an open fireplace built in the 1960's. It has a toilet, and water is from the River.

Condition

Jacko Flat is in good condition and was repainted and resealed in the summer of 2003/ 4. The chimney is starting to rust out a bit at the bottom.

Routes

A track marked on the older maps up Jack's Creek to the Alexander Range no longer exists in any useful form. The occasional bit of permolat can be found up there according to reports in the hutbook, and the creek is apparently followable for in its lower and mid sections, with a couple of waterfalls to negotiate. The upper Creek sounds like a pretty serious scrub-bash.

The spur directly opposite Jacko Flat Hut has occasionally been for access the Morgan Tops and Lake Morgan Hut. It looks OK on the map, but accounts of the route in the Lake Morgan hutbook are not encouraging. There is an extensive alpine scrub band and bluffs from 700-1100m. It is probably quicker to take a less direct route up the main valley and use the tops track opposite Top Crooked Hut.

Repairs Needed

Repairs or replacement of the bottom plate of the chimney will be required at some point in the medium term.

Provisions On Site

There are 3 billies, a pot, a large camp oven, an aluminium wash basin, a large plastic water container, an old FS food drum with a bit of food in it, a fish slice, an axe, two brooms, one spare broom handle, heaps of permolat, and 7 old perspex louvre panes. There are odds and sodds of timber under the Hut.