Woolshed Creek Hut Loop

Time: 5 hours and 20 minutes
Distance: 12.5 km
Start: Woolshed Creek car park, end of Jig Road, Mount Somers
Finish: Same place - it's a loop
Date: Friday 24th October 2025

Break down of times:
Woolshed car park to Bus Stop Track junction via South Face Track: 1 hour
Bus Stop Track junction to Woolshed Creek Hut: 2 hours
Woolshed Creek Hut to car park via Mount Somers Track: 1 hour and 40 minutes 

Epically beautiful and beautifully epic - such is the Woolshed Creek Loop. Encompassing parts of the Mount Somers Track, the loop is multi-facetted, involving a steepish climb, a meander across an alpine garden, interesting geological features, a waterfall, a swingbridge, a hut and some mining relics.  What's not to like? If you have a lazy 5.5 hours up your sleeve then head this way. 

We parked at the end of Jig Road and pfaffed around - checking out the clean toilets that don't flush well and swatting away sandflies. A light breeze prevailed.  We were intending to walk the loop anti-clockwise, thereby starting with the steep climb up South Face Track (a.k.a Rhyolite Track). It looks gnarly on the map but the going was good and we gained altitude quickly. A French couple stopped to chat.  They had survived an extremely windy night in the hut - and they were understandably in good spirits. They confirmed that the tracks were all clear which was reassuring given the previous day's red wind warning and Canterbury's state of emergency. We continued the climb and eventually the terrain flattened. An hour or so of walking saw us at the Bus Stop Track junction. 

From the junction, Bus Stop Track heads nor-east across open tussockland with snowy mountains all about. Beautiful! By now, a fresh westerly wind had sprung up and the hot sun beat down upon us.  We wrapped our heads and ears in goofy snoods and soon arrived at the rocky outcrop known as the Bus Stop Overhang where we paused to quench our thirst. 

The descent to the Woolshed Creek Hut starts almost immediatley after the Bus Stop Overhang. The landcape here is peppered with many interesting rocky outcrops.  Mount Somers is one of a suite of mid-Cretaceous volcanos that last erupted some 89 million years ago (give or take a couple of million years). According to "Mesozoic Geology of the Mt. Somers Area, Canterbury, including Geochemical and Paleomagnetic studies of the Cretaceous calc-alkaline Mt Somers Volcanics", a PhD thesis by P. J. Oliver, Canterbury University (1977), Mount Somers is composed entirely of rhyolite [silica rich volcanic rock] which can be subdivided into tuffs, domes, plugs, dikes, agglomerates and flows.

We came to a stream where there was a 5 minute detour into a canyon with a gorgeously gushing waterfall.  We clamboured down into the spray zone where the rocks were super slippery. Jane's new boots passed the waterproofness test with flying colours. I filled my water bottle and sampled the icy cold water. 

Back on track, I bumped my head on the only tree during the entire day that was obstructing our path. Ouch. Another canyon lay between us and the hut. It could be crossed - one at a time - via a narrow swingbridge. The bridge provided good views of the emerald pool. I had my togs but yeah nah. 

There was one small creek to cross just outside the hut. Just enough water to wet one foot. Inside the hut, we pulled up pews and ate lunch. Cheese sammies and boiled eggs. Nicole had made coffee for us all bless her. We read the notice board and desired very much to see an orange-wattled South Island kōkako. Alas, it was too late to heed the "boots off inside the hut" sign. Oh well. A fresh-faced hunter arrived, looking far too young to be carrying that gun.  Jane whipped out her phone to show him all the photos of our walk thus far. 

The last section of track from the hut to the carpark is the Mount Somers Track (a.k.a. Miners Track). First we shimmied along a slanted narrow trail directly alongside the river. Then we climbed to the top of the hill where we could peak into the gorge below and look across to where we had been earlier. Up and over the hill we dropped into the more sheltered Woolshed Creek Valley. Snoods off. We began to meet screeds of trampers, young and old, on their way to the hut.  

The track bypassed clusters of coal mining paraphenalia: wagons, shafts and sluices. Steampunkish. Blackburn mine opened in 1929 but was bankrupt a year later. Since then, various attempts were made to reopen it. The last one in 1969. You can still see pieces of coal embedded in the earth. The smell of gorse, in flower on the hill, permeated the air. The last bit of the track ran alongside the river which was absolutely crystal clear. 

Back at the car we flicked sandflies away and quickly closed all the doors and windows.  A few persisted and we got bitten on the drive home. Little buggers. Meanwhile we waxed lyrical about how beautiful the walk had been.  Could it be awarded the Friday Walkies gold medal for best walk ever? I think so. I arrived home with ten minutes to spare. Just enough time to get ready for dinner out and about with my hoa rangatira.