Heading to Rees Dart Track

Rees-Dart. Your never really more than twelve hours away from the road end. Why bother. The track is easy to follow. The route has been upgraded to include flush toilets and bigger 30 bunk+ huts. Won't be long before it's a Great Walk.

Thanks for that aardvark. We are taking our tent so we don't need to worry about not getting a bunk! :) That is true... it won't be long, so better do it now!

th main problem with the rees dart is if there is heavy rain you won't be able to get between dart hut and daley's flat hut or possibly daley's flat and the rd end because the side streams will become impassable. and you won't be able to get up the rees from the rd end either. so if rain is forecast take enough food to ride it out extra days. dont attempt cascade saddle if you cant make it back to dart hut before forecast heavy rain is due to hit, or if its forecast to rain for a long time. the whole area is prone to severe flash flooding and there are few bridges, there are no bridges on the dart above the dart hut. if you're patient you will be safe, if you're might you might join those who haven't been patient before and are no longer alive... if in doubt seek out about the conditions seek out the hut wardens for advise you should be ok on the rees dart track in light rain,

have my doubts it will be a great walk soon, the huts have to be updgraded to take cookers and aspiring park have halted all upgrades to accomodation, it's against the current policy to upgrade them, daley's hut isnt up to spec they would have to replace that altogether. they would also have to bridge all the watercourses that could cause problems in floods, it would cost major money. they are just going to have a booking system for the huts from 2013 for jan feb. hten some other track will have to suffer the overflow of people instead.... the only great walk i know of at the moment under construction is the one around lake tarawera, great walk construction is announced years in advance and can take years to build. with the current doc budget they don't have the resources to fund any more in the future they may have to combine with private interests to afford to build more tracks....

This thread might be of help with some of your questions: http://www.tramper.co.nz/?view=topic&id=1595&messageId=11507

Thanks much for all the info!

I would recommend doing the cascade saddle as a day walk. Its an amazing walk and the best part of this tramp. Take an emergency beacon with you to be safe. We have had very little rain here in the mountains for a while so rivers are currently nice and low.

mountain forecast http://metservice.com/mountain/fiordland-national-park http://www.metservice.com/national/maps-rain-radar/rain-radar-forecasts/rain-forecast-3-day http://www.mountain-forecast.com/peaks/Earnslaw/forecasts/1000

And I'm back! Thanks all for the info. The track was amazing! (except for the sandflies :) We took 7 days to complete the track. Why doing it in such a hurry of 4-5 days? We go to the mountains to enjoy them! :) Spent 3 days at Dart campsite, gone to Cascade Saddle and also did the Whitbourn Glacier track! The bridge is broken due to flooding last year so you need to cross the river by the flat. We were a party of three people crossing and it was difficult to cross, especially on our way back with the river just a little bit higher due to some drizzle. Advice is not to cross unless you know what you're doing. River crossing techniques are essential. We also camp on Biv Rock, spectacular place being the only ones there that day and you get to cut the distance from Dart to Dealeys Huts in half. We set the tent inside the cave so we didn't need to use the flysheet. What an amazing country NZ is! South Island is so similar to Patagonia! Now I'll only miss Patagonia on the feelings side! :) waynowski, another good website for weather is windguru.com check for the search of custom spots. That one along with mountain-forecast.com or snow-forecast.com are my favourites. Once again, thanks for all your replies. Cheers, Andres.