Newton Creek Hut
(Newton Creek Hut: Photo Mauricio Lloreda 2006)
Maintenance Status
Newton Hut and the track to it is to be fully maintained.
Location
Arahura catchment: Grid Ref: 2377400E/
5817200N. Map K33. 650m altitude. Newton Creek Hut
is located in a clearing next to the Creek in the montane zone
at the lower end of the Newton Creek basin (about
100m downstream from where it is marked on the topo map).
Newton Creek is a small
fast-flowing river that drops steeply
through a gorge into the Arahura River just below the Hut.
The valley is narrow and the peaks of the Campbell and Tara Tama Ranges loom above.
Newton Hut is on a circuit connecting the Arahura catchment with Dunns Creek and the
Taipo River via Newton Saddle, and a lot of the Hut's through-traffic
is heading to or coming from the Saddle.
Upstream of the Hut the Creek is rough and untracked, opening into a
tussock basin in the headwaters. A number of tops routes provide
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.
DOC contractors stripped the Hut of Allan's and any remaining original NZFS provisions
during maintenance work in 2004.
Utensils, tools and a heap of good reading material went as part of what appears
to have been some kind of ideological purge intended to
encourage us to being more self-sufficient in the back country.
Some of the stuff, including a
perfectly good camp oven, left in a moss bag of garbage waiting to be
helicoptered to the dump, was moved back into
the Hut by a benign wood sprite.
The track to Newton wasn't mainatined
for a number of yerars and started getting overgrown. It was kept marked and trimmed
in a rudimentary fashion during this time by remote hut users. The route was reinstated
to full maintenance in 2004 and officially recut in March 2009.
Access
Access to Newton Hut is via the Arahura valley. The valley track (the old
benched route to Browning Pass) is mostly easy, level travel
except where side creeks have modified or washed out the
original bench. After Lower Arahura Hut the track follows the river
for an hour before heading directly up a large unnamed side creek. A reasonable
distance up the creek it reconnects with the old bench track,
climbing and sidles above the second gorge until just before Third Gorge Creek.
The turnoff to Newton is located about 2376510E/5816040N and
drops directly to the bridge which spans the Arahura (the bridge is about 120m further
downstream from where it is marked on the current maps).
Cross the the bridge and head back up the true left of the Arahura for 200m to just
below a small side creek with a conspicuous waterfall, opposite Third Gorge Creek.
The track climbs steeply on the true right of
the waterfall initially, then
up a face and over a low ridge into Newton Creek Basin. Currently the trip from
Lower Arahura Hut to Newton Creek Hut takes around 3 hours.
If coming from the upper Arahura, allow 2-3 hours from Mudflats to Newton Hut.
An old track down the TR of the Arahura River from Mudflats over the third gorge has been
recut by DOC for use as a stoatline, so you now have a choice as to which side you come down.
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 2377540E/ 5818500N. 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 2374650E/ 5818690N.
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.