Concern about time Rees Dart Track

That's pushing nearly 30kms. Minimum DOC time is 10 hours, or 3km/hour not adding in breaks. Rees Saddle is straightforward but still requires some work. In addition, I imagine you'll be feeling it the day after scaling Cascade Saddle. It comes down to your tramping style as a team, weather (as always), fitness, and what you consider to be enjoyable tramping. Some folks can be almost masochistic about such things. Despite its popularity, I think it's one of the best South Island tramps.

I would not consider a 30 km day to be a fun way to spend time in this beautiful area. Split it into 2 parts if you can.

In the past the only Muddy Ck transport was 10am at Muddy Ck. Even hooting along from Shelter Rock required you to start before 6am.

Itinerary should be as follow: 1-Rasberry car park to French ridge hut 2-French ridge hut to Liverpool hut 3-Liverpool hut to Aspiring hut 4-Aspiring hut to Dart hut(trough cascade) 5-Dart hut to Shelter hut 6-Shelter hut to muddy creek car park What I'm saying to him is the it's good to have a extra day to play around(which would be the French ridge hut to Liverpool hut day)in order to understand what's the weather will look like before crossing. So I can definitely avoid the second day and cross the saddle one day before but I'll love to have an extra day just to change the plane if required. The only thing is that you need to do is book in advance the pick up from muddy creek so doesn't really look like we have a choice. Do you know if the warden at dart hut have a radio that can inform Glenorchy transport for a pick up change of date? Does this type of request are doable?

No, the Doc ranger won’t radio up your transport for you. It’s a 1000m climb straight up to French Ridge following the walk up valley. Then to get to Liverpool is a 1000m descent followed by a 600m ascent. Aspiring hut to Dart hut is a 10+ hour day involving a 1400m climb. It is 8 hours from Dart hut to 25 Mile Creek, plus another 3 hours to Muddy Creek. Do you really want to pull an 11 hour day following on from all those other days? 10am is the standard shuttle time at Muddy Creek, you would have to charter a shuttle to get there in the evening. Slow down and enjoy the scenery. Take a tent, there are many great camping spots along the way.

I managed to convinced my friend for the Saturday booking. Glenorchy transport for some reason doesn’t accept booking on that Saturday and Sunday We booked with buckle track transport which would be a private ride and they are happy to wait 1/2 hours if we get late. So seems all good at this stage.

Can someone tell me where exactly the location "park boundary"is on the rees track? I cannot see it on any map of the rees dirt track.

My understanding is the park boundary is at the swing bridge 12kms in from Muddy Creek. That first/last section is on private land.