Staircase Hut (Waianakarua)

Staircase Hut (6 bunks, open fire, tank water, firewood available) is a rarely visited hut in the Waianakarua Scenic Reserve. It lies at the head of 'the staircase' - a stepped ridgeline dropping to the south fork of the Middle Branch of the Waianakarua. The hut lies at the top of a native gully in an area otherwise almost exclusively covered by manuka. Above the hut the ridgeline breaks out onto tussock tops as it ascends to Mt Fortune.

The hut is reglarly visited by a handfull of regular hunters, but gets less than a dozen visits per year. They have the hut well equipped with almost everything you can imagine. Only 2 entries from trampers were in the book when I visited (and the book goes back to 1987).

Bunks are stacked 3 high, so don't sit up in the night. Must frequent comments in the hut book tally the number of mice caught, and methods of stopping the fire from smoking.