Pinchgut Hut via Mount Thomas summit, Forrestdale Road, and Whare Stream
- 2 days loop track
- Medium
A circuit route following the original track that goes to Pinchgut Hut.
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Walking time
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2 days
7 hr – 10 hr
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Distance
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11.0km |
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Type
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Loop track
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Grade
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Medium
Parts of this route are not maintained by DOC. Track may be overgrown in places. Serious infestation of wasps in late summer and all of autumn. Grades explained
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Bookings
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No bookings — open access
No — open access
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Starts
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Mount Thomas car park, Hayland Road, west of Loburn |
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Maps
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NZTopo50-BW23
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Altitude
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360m
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1,020m
Altitude change 660m
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See Mount Thomas for information about routes onto Mount Thomas. From the summit, follow Forrestdale Rd, which deteriorates into a recently felled muddy hillside with bulldozed tracks. A signposted foot track begins just on the left side of the terminus at point E2457471 N5784279 (see "coordinates" for alternative formats).
Follow this foot track down to Gorge Stream. The track has had some snipping and goes in a fairly direct line through gorse we have recently cleared. From here on, the track gets quite pretty and in good order. It climbs up to the next spur and drops down to Whare Stream. Across the stream the start of the track has been wiped out by a grey mudslide but Frank has marked the start with cruise tape and mattocked a benched track opposite where it emerges from the true right. Please take some secateurs, slasher, loppers whatever to keep it open where it starts. Currently there is a massive wasp nest residing in a windfall on the first section of the foot track but there is a bypass track formed. Someone (us) needs to take some Carbaryl in.
You can return via the track to Wooded Gully as described in Wooded Gully - Pinchgut Hut. It's quite nice too.