Potts Hut, located in Hakatere Conservation Park, exudes history from every metal panel and nail. Once upon a time, this hut was part of Hakatere Station and used by the annual musterers. Scan the walls for long enough and you begin to feel the history come alive, the earliest names date back to 1906.
I’ve journeyed to this hut on three previous occasions, and never repeated the exact same steps. Such is the allure of this hut and the expansive park it sits within.
On this particular journey, we began on the shores of Lake Clearwater at 8.45am on a calm, clear, crisp winter’s day. Snow had fallen the week before, and while there was none remaining in the village, the Dog Range still had a decent covering.
From the car park, we followed the 4WD track, open during the summer months, to the bridge crossing the lake’s outlet. Across the bridge the 4WD continues around the lake, the track to Mt Guy branches off along with the track to Mystery Lake, and where we departed the 4WD track for our onward journey.
A well-worn poled route sidles and gently climbs its way above Lake Clearwater, eventually joining with Te Araroa Trail after about 30 minutes. This next section of track is very popular with mountain bikers, trail runners and numerous people heading to Mystery Lake for an easy overnight trip. There is a short zig zag climb to reach a tarn and the turn off to Mystery Lake, this made for an ideal snack break and photo stop.
Continuing on along this section towards Mystery Lake, the track again sidles and climbs gaining elevation until a final climb to the lake itself and the junction to the track heading up to the Dog Range. Here we stopped to have to have a well-earned rest and snack before continuing up a briefly steep section that joins the 4WD track along the top of the Dog Range.
Top of the range is wide open and exposed to the weather, we were fortunate to have very little wind which made for pleasant walking, eventually resting for lunch. We reached the snow towards the far end of the range, patchy, hard and solid at first with nothing technical. As we began the final climb the snow deepened half burying the marker poles and completely obscuring any sign of the track below. We completed all the climbing for the day, and looked down the valley to the tarns below. Still following the 4WD track, zig zagging our way down, we paused at the bottom for another rest and snack before continuing on for the hut.
On the final descent, the long drop appeared at the bottom of the hill, rounding the final corner the hut glistened in the late afternoon sunshine. There is a stream to cross before reaching the hut (this is also the hut’s water source) it is shallow enough that wet feet are of no concern.
Arriving at the hut, it was completely deserted, the previous occupants had been there only a few days before, notes in the hut book about rats were a little concerning but eventuated to nothing during the night.
The following day we retraced our steps, returning to Lake Clearwater. The weather had begun to turn and the exposed top of the Dog Range was no place to linger in the building wind. Once we dropped down and descended on the track to Mystery Lake the sun gently warmed us and we were able to take off some layers.
Distance: 23.3km each way
Time: approximately 7.5 hours each way
Vertical range: 873 metres each way
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