After our trip to Totara Flats last year, Hop and I had our eye on a return. When we were at the hut last time we met a a few groups, including a family with kids around Hop’s age and a dog, who had come in from the other direction and said it wasn’t too bad.
The other direction was about 1km longer, but instead of a technical, rooty and muddy trail, it’s main feature was a 400m ascent along an easier track, followed by a couple of steep descents.
The first 4km was fairly steady climbing along a mostly smooth trail. Once we turned off it onto the trail that leads to the hut the trail got much rougher. The next 1-2km featured a steep descent that was technical, rooty, and muddy. If was followed by a few km’s through the land of the ferns. A second hill with another steep descent got us to within a couple of k’s of the hut, but wasn’t as technical, though our legs were jelly by the time we got the bottom.
The hut was only about 1/3 full, but we made friends with a mom and daughter and dad and son (and their dogs), and played some card games.
We weren’t looking forward to going back up the steep hills we had come down the day before, but we took it slow, and they didn’t seem as bad as we thought they would.
Kiwi Bound 