BlogRoddus: Meg Hut - 28th December 2013

Uncle Roddus tramping diary: Tramp No.140

Meg Hut - 28th December 2013

From the reports I received after we returned home, our location between Xmas and new year was the place to be weather wise, there had been plenty of rain at home with the local river in flood the day before we returned. I had a couple of trips planned while were staying in Cromwell, although I only completed one of them due to the large blisters I now have on the back of my feet due to boot problems.
I had been keen to check out the Pisa Conservation area and especially Meg Hut after it was profiled in "Shelter From The Storm", A book I got for Xmas Last year and the landscape looked pretty interesting.
I left my car at the Roaring Meg power station on the Kawarau Gorge Road about 8:30am on a warm but slightly overcast day and proceeded up the track through the dead pine trees which linked to the Cardrona-Roaring Meg Pack Track, which for the first 3-4 KMs is just and unsealed road which took us to the Roaring Meg Dam. From there the road turns into a nice tramping track which sidles along the true right of the Roaring Meg Stream. The first section of track meanders through a sea of yellow dandelions over the entire side of the hill. After another 3kms I crossed the Meg at planks Crossing where Plank stream joins the Meg and there is a wonderful place to camp and indeed there was a party of a half dozen people packing up their camp as I arrived. From Planks Crossing I then travelled through the beautiful tolling tussock lands below Queensburry Hill before encountering an old two bunk mustering hut perched in a U-bend of the Roaring Meg. From there I climbed to the Touhys Saddle, where the track almost becomes a road again and links with the Meg hut track and the Touhoy track and another track that heads up onto Queensbury Hill and back to the Crown Range Road. These tracks are used a lot by mountain bikers and indeed I saw several of them on my travel. From the saddle I traveled the last half hour dropping down 200M to the Meg Hut Valley, having taken 4.5 hours to reach the hut.
The hut is an impressive 8 bunk tin shed that had been wonderfully restored next to the original 1860s hut of which some stonework still remains next door. The newer hut was built in 1958. There are still fenced paddocks in the valley from when it was a sheep run. There is a seven hour route out over the Pisa tops back to Lowburn near Cromwell, which I will do next time but for this trip it was straight out the same way I came in, arriving back at thee car around 5:30PM. The last section down the unsealed road was particularly hard going as my feet were in particular distress by this time. An Excellent hut and a great track.