Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
evening the sunsets are extraordinary, with the sun melting into a shimmering Tasman Sea.
Nearby is the James Mackay Campsite.
Day 4: James Mackay Hut to Heaphy Hut
5-6 HOURS, 20.5KM, 710M DESCENT
The track heads southwest, and in 10 minutes passes a spur track that leads to one of the last
views down the Heaphy Valley. From here you begin a steady descent towards the coast.
Gradually the valley closes in, and within one hour you spy the
Heaphy River
below. In an-
other two hours the 12km descent ends with the trail bottoming out beside your first nikau
palms, three of them clustered 100m above the junction of the Lewis and Heaphy Rivers. In
all you'll have dropped 600m in little more than two hours. Lewis Hut (20 bunks) is just
five minutes away, down a short side trail.
The hut - a three-hour, 13.5km walk from James Mackay Hut (26 bunks) - is perched on
a terrace above the Heaphy River. From its veranda there is a nice view of the water. It
would be an enjoyable place to sit and relax but the sandflies can be thick at times.
Trampers often pass up Lewis Hut for the popular Heaphy Hut, on the Tasman Sea, just 2½
hours away.
Follow the track in front of Lewis Hut 100m upstream to the new, 150m-long
Heaphy
River Bridge
. The track now follows the true left (south) bank of the Heaphy, and will re-
main on this side until it reaches the Tasman Sea. Limestone bluffs keep the track close to
the river and occasionally you break out to a view of the water below. Most of the time
you're in a rainforest so thick and lush its canopy forms a tunnel around the track.
Within 3km (one hour) of crossing the Heaphy you arrive at another new bridge, over the
Gunner River
, and in another 30 minutes you cross the last swing bridge of the day over
Murray Creek
. In the final hour the track remains close to the river until you skirt a steep
bluff, looking at the Heaphy River below and the Tasman Sea just to the west. This is a
scenic end to a fine day of tramping. You are now only about 15 minutes from the hut.
The spectacular new
Heaphy Hut
(32 bunks), completed in 2013, is just up from the river
in an open, grassy area enclosed by nikau palms and overlooking a lagoon in the Heaphy
River where there is good swimming. Swimming in the sea should be avoided as there are
vicious undertows. Most trampers are simply content to stroll along the beach to witness its
powerful surf and let the sea run through their toes. In this wilderness setting, having a
beach like this to yourself is worth every step it takes to reach it.
