
The Greenstone Valley walk can be accessed via crossing the Divide from the Milford Road and passing down through the
Howden and McKellar areas or alternatively driving about 90kms from Queenstown via Glenorchy & Kinloch and parking at the end of the Greenstone Road and hiking up the valley. Either way it is a fairly simple walk with well defined tracks and huts every couple of hours or so. The Mid Greenstone Hut is sited near the junction of the Greenstone Valley and
Steele Creek Valley which enters from the north. The hut is on the true left side of the river tucked up next to the bush in possibly the spot that would see the least amount of sunshine at any given time of the year. It is a hut of high usage with numerous amounts of hikers and
trampers in the summer months as well as
Fishermen and the winter sees its fair share of
Deerstalkers after the resident
Fallow Deer.
The hut has 20 bunks and a fairly adequate Fireplace with it being serviced by the
Department of Conservation (DOC) - so some coal or wood MAY be available. In any case take your own gas cooking gear.
Giardia precautions are a must if taking drinking water from this river. One of my forays to this hut was during the
Beech Tree flowering during which an explosion in the Mice population was taking place and it made for a living hell with the hut being absolutely infested with mice - crawling around your head at nights and chewing anything that wasn't hung above ground. Other than that it's an ok place to visit and stay. Hunting in this valley is via a ballot system managed by DOC's Queenstown Office and Fishing the river has it's seasonal limits as well as being
Fly Fishing only.
Hunting in area - use caution |
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Scenic View Compass Suggested / Required |
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