I recently contacted DOC, Palmerston North (as the DOC website suggested) requesting the contact details for the land owners so i could ring & ask permission to cross private land to access both Te Ekaou & Forks Huts. DOC stated the land owners requested their phone number no longer be given out as of 10/02/2016. Fair enough. Does anyone on this site have contact details of the land owner concerned? Send me a personal message as I'd like to visit both these huts. Cheers Paul
Have you checked out remote huts ruahine users group? Goggle search. It's good to join if you tramp the ruahine. They do great work and have all the gossip on huts and access.
Thanks for reminding me about the 'Ruahine' user group. I'm an active member of the West Coast remote huts 'Permolat' group & have just returned from a 3-day hut maintenance trip north east of Greymouth. I'll follow-up with the 'Ruahine' user group. In the meantime, if anyone else can help, it'd be much appreciated. The land owners are Dave & Nicole Stuart but I'm still after a number for them.
@reidpaulnz. Hopefully someone gives you contact details for the te ekaou landowners. But just fyi the route up the river to forks from the diggers brudge is ok in low flows. One waterfall not far below the hut requires a boulder scramble but nothing extreme. Wet boots but dry shorts stuff when i visited. In flood it would be impassable though ... narow gorges.
There is also an old track east up the spur north of Forks that comes out 200m south of the end of the gravel on takapari rd on the tops. But that was getting very overgrown in 2013. Was top if my list for trackcutting ... but now i'm in the SI it's not going to happen.
@madpom. Yeah, somebody has kindly given me the land owners name & contact details. I've called & left a message. I was asking for permission just in case the rain that flooded Porirua decided to do likewise in Makawakawa (Diggers) Stream. My plan B you could say. I've been studying all the access options including all the options written up by you.
