The trip began with us all meeting at Wellington Train Station to catch a 4pm ferry sailing to the South Island. Our original plan was to camp at Butchers Flat campsite, but as the forecast was looking rather awful, we made a decision while waiting for the ferry to book accommodation in Picton for the night. When we arrived in a rainy Picton, some of us headed out for dinner before settling into our accommodation for the night, Tasman Holiday Parks.
We left Picton just before 8am the next day and it took about 1 hr 15 mins to drive to Butchers Flat carpark. For drivers – the club van was fine getting to the road end and at the fork at the end of the road, the carpark is to the left (plenty of room for parking).
The walk to Devils Creek Hut took the seven of us just under 2 hrs (to cover 7km). As we had plans for the rest of the day, we didn’t muck around. We had three options for the next 24 hours before walking back out again; a return walk to Fosters Hut, a shorter return trip to some stone hut ruins, and a return trip up Mt Royal.
Once we got to Devils Creek Hut, four of us decided to go to Fosters Hut and three of us decided to go to visit the stone huts. We also decided that most of us would likely walk up Mt Royal the next morning, depending on the weather.
Fosters Hut return
Daniel, Mon, Sarah, and Tony set off at 11.15am for a return trip to Fosters Hut. The climb up the spur was steady but nice underfoot, with a well-formed track. The forest was shrouded in low cloud all day and it took longer than expected to get to the top of the climb. As we reached the summit, the rain began in earnest. The trail also became more technical underfoot (rocks, clay and roots) as we descended to a stream before another steady climb to Fosters Hut. We arrived at the Hut at about 3.30pm (4 hrs 15 mins one way).
After a very short break and cool down we hit the track back to Devils Creek Hut. Assisted by the downhill travel and the knowledge that we had a 1:2 head torch ratio between us, it took us an hour less time to return to Devils Creek Hut . We arrived at 7pm to a warm fire and billy.
Stone huts
Megan, Lynsey, and Ben decided on a more leisurely afternoon and visited the stone hut ruins at the end of the Stone Huts Track. Looking at the topo map, we expected this to take us about 20 minutes one-way. But there was a bit of sidling and some windfall, so it actually took us 50 minutes (with a few short breaks and a stream crossing) to reach the remains of the stone huts. This was a cool little side trip – we saw a possum in a sorry state, crossed a stream, came across some windfall and a slip detour, and saw 6 goats!
Besides the odd very large tree and the slip detour, the track was in great condition! Once we reached the stone huts, Lynsey set about taking heaps of photos while Ben and I relaxed.
The possum was still on the track when we headed back to Devils Creek Hut and after a prod to see if it was still alive, it rolled/hopped off into the bush. We felt quite conflicted leaving it there. The whole side trip was about a 2 hr return trip from Devils Creek Hut.
We had a pleasant afternoon relaxing with hot drinks and keeping the fire going while a steady drizzle descended outside. We expected the other group to join us at around 5pm. By 6pm, when they hadn’t arrived, we decided to have dinner, knowing full well that they were all quite capable and had PLBs and head torches. It appeared that the track was a lot more challenging than they had anticipated.
After the Fosters Hut group arrived back at Devils Creek Hut, they all got warm (after having gotten quite drenched) and we all settled into our toasty hut for the night.
The next morning, after replenishing the firewood supply, we decided to just head back to the road end and catch an earlier ferry (if possible) rather than heading up Mt Royal. The Fosters Hut group had found the previous day’s climb quite challenging and from the topo map the walk to the top of Mt Royal did not look gentle. In addition, it was an estimated 6-hour return trip. We therefore all decided that a nice late afternoon arrival back in Wellington sounded quite pleasant compared to getting back at midnight.
We got back to the road end slightly faster than it had taken us to walk in (ie it took 1.5 hrs this time to cover the 7km). We only stopped a few times on the walk back for breaks to admire a cool mossy waterfall and a bridge crossing a neat chasm.
Back at the road end, we set off in the club van back to Havelock. During the drive we managed to change our booking to the (earlier) 2pm sailing. So after a quick stop at the Sneaky Beach Café (best Pork Belly pies!) and to change out of our wet clothes, we set off along the scenic route back to Picton and then on to Wellington.
Saturday:
Carpark to Devils Creek Hut – 7 km, 1 hr 40 mins, 322 m ascent, 200 m descent
Fosters Hut return – 18.5 km, 7 hrs 30 mins, 1500 m ascent, 1500 m descent
Derelict Hut return – 5.7 km, 1 hr 40 mins, 240 m ascent/descent
Sunday:
Devils Creek Hut to Carpark – 7 km, 1hr 30 mins, 200 m ascent, 322 m descent