Newton Creek Hut

(Newton Creek Hut: Photo Mauricio Lloreda 2006)

Maintenance Status

Newton Hut and the access track to it are designated as fully maintain.

Location

Arahura catchment: Map BV19. Grid Ref: E1467495/ N5255620. Altitude 725m. Newton Creek Hut is located in the montane zone at the lower end of the Newton Creek basin. Newton Creek drops steeply from the basin through a gorge into the Arahura River. The valley itself is narrow and ringed by the peaks of the Campbell and Tara Tama Ranges. Newton Creek Hut lies on the reasonably popular Newton Saddle circuit linking the Arahura and Taipo valleys, and much of its traffic is doing this crossing. Upstream from the Hut the Creek is rough and untracked, opening out into tussock in its headwaters. There is tops access from here to other remote huts and bivs in the area.

During the 80's and 90's Newton Creek received minimal attention from DOC, but was kept clean and well provisioned by Alan Reith of Hokitika. The Hut was stripped of Allan's and its original NZFS provisions during DOC maintenance purge in 2004. Utensils, tools and reading material were put in moss bags and flown out, an ideological austerity measure designed to encourge greater self-sufficiency in the high-country. An NZFS camp oven was rescued and moved back into the Hut by a benign wood sprite. Information was received around that time that DOC were taking all the old camp ovens to the Hokitika dump.

The track to Newton Creek remained unmainatined for a number of years and started to overgrow. It was kept marked and trimmed in a rudimentary fashion by high-country users until reinstated to full maintenance in the 2004 review. It was officially recut in March 2009.

Access

Newton Hut is accessed from the Arahura valley by following the Browning Pass track up from Lower Arahura Hut. Two hours of fairly gentle sidling will get you to the Newton Creek turnoff just before Third Gorge Creek. The Newton track drops directly from the turnoff to the River and crosses the swingbridge to the TR. Head up the Arahura from here for 200m to a point just below a small side creek with a conspicuous waterfall, opposite Third Gorge Creek.

The track enters the bush here and climbs steeply on the TR of the waterfall, then up the bush faces and over a low ridge into the Newton Creek Basin. Allow around three hours to get from Lower Arahura Hut to Newton Creek Hut.

If coming downvalley from Mudflats Hut Allow around two hours to Newton Hut. An old track down the TR of the Arahura River from Mudflats over the third gorge has recently been recut in a rudimentary fashion by DOC for use as a stoatline, but the official bench track on the TL is probably more user friendly. will probably the main valley track on the TL .

The other main access route to Newton Hut is from the Taipo valley via Dunns Hut and Newton Saddle. The Saddle is normally reached by travelling up the true right branch of Dunns Creek from Dunns Hut. The route is snow-poled in the tussock zone tracked in the scrub zone, and is a fairly straightforward alpine crossing. There is a drop of some 700m in altitude down the access creek to Newton Hut. Entries in the hutbook show big variations in times for the Dunns-Newton crossing (5-13 hours), a reflection of an equal variation in the fitness and experience of those doing it. Average times should drop a little now that the tracked sections in the alpine scrub zones of both access creeks have been recut. 5-6 hours for this crossing would be commensurate with the other times on this site.

Type

Newton is a basic 4-bunk NZFS hut built in the 1960's to replace the original hut, built a decade or so earlier. Newton had its open fire replaced with a wood burner and was lined at some point. Water is from the Creek, and there is a toilet. It is a damp location and there is not a great deal of firewood in the vicinity. Supplies are best fossicked from dead standing trees or track offcuts.

Condition

The Hut was repainted inside and out and resealed in 2004. There is a rat hole on the floor abutting the food cupboard which has been blocked with a tin lid. The floor board round the hole may be a bit rotten but the rest of the floor appeared sound in 2009. The orange paint is flaking away on the iron cladding around the door. The wood shed only keeps the wood slightly dampish, not dry and is in the process of collapsing.

Routes

Dunns Saddle is a far less attractive or practical route to Dunns Hut and involves a bush-bash/ boulderhop up the true right of Newton Creek, followed by a 300-400m climb up one of a series of very steep rock guts. Dunns Saddle is higher than Newton with more likelihood of snow in the upper basin, and some avalanche danger from Tara Tama after heavy falls. If you want to have a look at Dunns Saddle from Newton Hut, I'd recommend a traverse of Mt. Eidelweiss from Newton Saddle, which is very easy. The descent from Dunns Saddle down the true left branch of Dunns Creek to Dunns Hut is reasonably straightforward.

There are a number of high-level routes possible from Newton Hut including a traverse of the Campbell Range from Newton Saddle heading South, Top Olderog Biv via Mt. Olson, and Scottys Biv and Griffin Creek Hut this way via the head basin, the Tara Tama Range and Scottys Saddle.

Newton Creek just above the Hut is rough cascade of big boulders and you need to stay up in the bush above the Creek on the true right for a stretch until the creek bed becomes easier to follow. Further up you can drop back into the Creek, from where it is a mix of bush and riverbed travel. Once you hit the the open tussock in the headwaters it's easy going.

Top Olderog Biv can be reached via Mt. Olson by ascending a side creek coming in on the true right at E1467575/ N5256880. The ridge dividing the Olderog and Wainihinihi catchments below spot height 1566m is difficult and unpleasant with a number of exposed, vertical sections. It is however, possible to drop down the steep gut from the col between Mt. Olson and spot height 1566m into the head of Olderog Creek (at least one party has done this route in reverse - they also mention there being a rock biv down in the Olderog Creek), and from here climb up to the Biv via a side creek coming in on the true right at E1464688/ N5257080.

Repairs needed

Some floor repairs may be needed along with some repainting work around the door. A new woodshed is a good idea. There is a bowsaw in the Hut and you are invited to use it on the basin track and stack the green wood from the trackwork at the Hut for future use.

Provisions on Site

A paint scraper, a small quantity of light green paint, an axe, a handsaw, an old paint brush, a camp oven, two buckets, a plastic basin, three billies, two hand brushes and a broom. There are 2 metal food storage drums. Outside is a ladder. There are 3 banana boxes inside for storing wood.