South Coast Track: Cape Palliser to Ngapotiki Hut

Access: Head down the Cape Palliser road, past the settlement at Cape Palliser and the lighthouse. The road crosses a ford just before the lighthouse, but this is concrete floored and passable in 2wd vehicles in most conditions. Park in the carpark at the roadend at Rocky Point. Directions: From the carpark, directions are simple: follow the 4WD track through the locked gate, and east along the coast. The track starts off broad across the grazed coastal strip east of Cape Palliser. There are usually seals on the rocks around Rocky Point. The track soon narrows and becomes rocky as it winds its way though increasingly dense vegetation and boulder-fields. The only significant stream on the route is crossed after 3.5km, at the outflow from Stonewall Basin. This wide-floored valley in the southern part of the Haurangi Range narrows to a cleft just meters across at its exit, forcing the Waitetuna through as series of pools and waterfalls to reach the coast. For thopse interested in exploring, the ridges to the east of the river provide the only access into the valley. The western and southern valleysides are steep crumbling bluffs and impassible. From the Waitetuna, the track begins to climb ad sidle the hillside as the coastal plane shrinks and disappears, before dropping back to the black sand beach. Finally it climbs again through sand and gravel to cross the outwash fan of the unnamed stream 1km before the hut. Ngapotiki Hutis on the left of the track and hard to miss, it's the only building on the walk (the building 2km beyond at the Ngapotiki roadend is a private house). Considering the hut is 4WD-accessible it's in surprisingly good condition. There's a couple of broken armchairs on the deck to give it a run-down look, and the door needs something along the bottom to stop the sand blowing in through the gap - but that aside it was comfortable, clean and tidy. The hut sleeps 15 in two rooms: 9 in the kitchen / main room and 6 more in a separate bunk room. However, there were only three mattresses in 2010 when I visited! The hut has a new woodburner, and there's plenty of driftwood and manuka scrub to burn. There's tank water and sinks in both rooms. A good easy overnighter, a base to explore Stonewall Basin or head north. Little visited hut by trampers: but doze off with the sound of the breakers on the beach, and wake to a golden sunrise over the sea, and you'll wonder why. Return the way you came, or continue 2km to the Ngapotki roadend.