Paparoa Great Walk

Paparoa Great Walk

Date: February 2021
Category: Great Walk
Weather: Fine
Location: Paparoa National Park
Distance: 55.7km

Website: DOC

Local Shuttle and Camping Service

The recently opened 10th New Zealand Great Walk, is a dual purpose, meant for mountain biking and trampers, track that runs 55km from Blackball to Punakaiki. It is open year round for both. This might be a little jab at Heaphy which historically only allows riding for part of the year. I know they had trialed a longer window, but don't recall what came of it. It being the West Coast expect some wild weather. Had a mate do it in December and it was pissing rain the entire time. Right before we did it, there was a slip that required digger maintenance. We had fine weather for the entire track and only after  we started heading South did the rain start coming down. Without the rain, you wouldn't get the dense green moss monsters.

Logistically this tramp requires a little bit of thought as it is a point-to-point. Some of the riders we encountered chose to do an out-and-back ride over a couple days. Some did it in a single day, but used either a shuttle or got dropped off by friends/family. We opted to camp the night prior to starting in Punakaiki and then got shuttled over to Blackball. Jeb from PaparoaGreatWalk.co.nz gave us a lot of information on the ride over. It was part of a package deal of lodging, shuttling, and car storage. We had a short stop in Blackball to use the restroom and hit up some of the local shops before heading up the hill to Smoke-ho Carpark. The toilet situation up there were a couple of port-a-loos. So go in the serviced ones in town to spare yourself.

The track has proven very popular and securing hut spots for trampers was a bit tricky. Moonlight Tops Hut is the favorite stop over for riders doing it over 2 days, which means its booked until Winter. Not being able to get a spot there, meant we skipped that hut and gave us a long 2nd day. Day 1, our itinerary was Smoke-ho to Ces Clark Hut (according to GPS watch was 11.57km over 3:39). The initial track has a couple historic spots that you can stop and explore. These are the historic hotel sites as well as Garden Gully. If you like 3 wire bridges this is for you. I opted not to go and see it. After taking my bike across one the month before I'm good for awhile.

Day 1 Elevation

In the Ces Clark Hut, you can read about the history of hut, which is a bit sad. The hut design requires you to bring some ear plugs and a sleeping mask. It is one giant room with 2 sleeping areas around the kitchen area. There is a small coat room which has a couple solar powered outlets. So if you need to charge your USB devices bring a cable. We had a couple of load snorers and one guy with a stupid bright bike light that kept shining it in our faces while we were trying to sleep and he was rummaging through his bags. The hut etiquette seemed to be lacking on this trip. Lots of shoes worn in the hut, bags left on tables and benches, and leaving doors open when trying to leave them closed to prevent lots of sandflies inside.  The hut was slightly modified when the historic track was elevated to Great Walk status. There is a new deck with an egress window out on to it that requires a rather large step in order to do so. The solar power was added as well. The Croesus Track, which hasn't had any alterations to it yet, starts from Smoke-ho and its a pretty unrelenting climb of 700+ meters to the hut. Once you get on the ridgeline past here you get on the purpose built track. For those so inclined, there is mobile reception at this hut and for a good stretch up the ridgeline on the 2nd day.

Day 2 Elevation

The next day we pushed from Ces Clark to Pororari Hut (28.8km) with only a short pause at Moonlight Tops to use the restroom and top up water. The view from Moonlight was pretty cool and I heard you could get mobile service, but can't verify it. After leaving Moonlight the next chance for water or a toilet is 19.1km away and much of the track is very exposed. I saw more toilets on shorter tracks like Routeburn and the Tongario Alpine Crossing than I did here. It would probably help if DOC put 1 or 2 on this stretch. It was a little strange to look down from the huts and ridgeline and see cars and farms. It can be remote, but not always. Guess that explains why you could get service out here.

We covered the 16.7 from Pororari Hut to the end in under 4 hours. It was predominately downhill for the entire duration. However, just before the end the bikes and trampers become separated for the first time. This section of the trail goes down close to the river and it was our first time seeing a flight stairs on the entire trail. Lets just say our legs weren't expecting this and there might have been some groaning. The trail ends right across the street from the campground that we had previously stayed at and where our car was waiting for us. We we able to shower and re-pack our bags prior to leaving as we were planning on one day off the trail and diving right back with a Routeburn double.

Day 3 Elevation