Browning Hut

Browning Hut is most easily accessed via Hacket Track, which begins at Hacket car park, 8 km up Aniseed Valley Road (25 min drive from Richmond). There are toilets at the car park and a bridge across the Roding River, beneath which there is a great swimming hole to cool off in during summer.

Hacket Track bridges Roding River at the car park and heads east up Hacket Valley, following the true right of Hacket Creek through pine forest. A suspension bridge crosses the creek and the road becomes a walking track, continuing on the true left through native bush and crossing into Mt Richmond Forest Park.

The track makes a short uphill detour to avoid an eroding section of the creek bank, and a few hundred metres further on crosses into the Dun Mountain Mineral Belt, where the surrounding vegetation becomes stunted and outcrops of ultramafic rock (namely dunite, rodingite and serpentinite) jut out from the hillside above the track.

Hacket Track continues past the Whispering Falls and Old Chrome Road Circuit turnoffs, along Hacket Creek through mineral belt scrub (including kānuka, celery pine and lancewood) and a little further enters Douglas fir plantation. You will reach the junction with Browning Track 4.8 km from the car park. Turn left here.

Browning Track crosses Hacket Creek and Browning Creek soon after. Browning Creek is crossed again and then the track reaches a junction with Te Araroa Trail. Turn left to get to Browning Hut; turning right will take you to Hacket Hut, 1.3 km away. From here to Browning Hut, Browning Track doubles as Te Araroa Trail. The track crosses Browning Creek again, and heads through native forest, deviating from Browning Creek and instead climbing in and out of the unnamed creek gully. You will reach a section where you will need to clamber over car-size boulders that have crashed down into the creek gully. The remainder of the distance to the hut passes through attractive native forest that contains beech, rimu and tōtara.

Browning Hut is located on the edge of a clearing, 25 m from Browning Creek, the hut’s water source. Do not be surprised to find the hut at full capacity, given its location on the Te Araroa Trail.

Pelorus Track to Roebuck Hut continues east through the saddle and sidles the forest hillside on the southern side of the valley above Roebuck Creek. The track is not benched, though is relatively gentle in gradient, as it stays around the 600 m elevation contour for nearly four kilometres. Tall beech forest allows only occasional views north toward the other side of the valley. As you near Roebuck Hut, the track descends a spur and a swing bridge crosses Pelorus River to reach Roebuck Hut. The hut stands in a grassy clearing above the confluence of Roebuck Creek and Pelorus River. The clear-flowing Pelorus River is great for swimming if you can stand the sandflies.

Te Araroa Trail to Rocks Hut climbs steeply and roughly north out of the saddle, and follows the crest of the ridge northeast. Soon the track emerges onto an area of mineral belt tussock and scrub, which allow open views back to Mt Starveall. The track dips into a low saddle, then climbs up to 1030 m, the highest elevation it gets to. From here the track is undulating though gently descending, as it climbs over and around a series of hummocks and rock outcrops that dot the ridge (a nearby point on the ridge appropriately named The Rocks, which is the hut’s namesake). The majority of the track passes attractive beech forest with a thick undergrowth of crown ferns, though you will also encounter a couple of sections where the forest has been severely damaged by wind. Occasional openings in the trees allow good views northwest toward Tasman Bay.