Time: 5.5 hours
Distance: 13 km
Start: End of Taaffes Glen Road, North Loburn
Finish: Same place - it's there and back
Date: Friday 27th February 2026
Warnings: There is a river crossing at the very beginning (and end) of the walk. There is a steepish track detour around an (oldish) slip
Walking times breakdown: 2.5 hours car park to hut; 2.5 hours hut to car park
Sparrow's fart. I was on the Ecan website checking the Ōkūkū River at Fox Creek river flow and eating my porridge. Everything looked hunky dory so Pinchgut Hut was a go.
Two hours later we were picking up punters and working our way northwest. After Rangiora and the Ashley River Bridge, you really need Google Maps to navigate through the backblocks of North Loburn and beyond. Despite doing exactly that, we ended up on a forestry road with a closed gate. We back-tracked to Taaffes Glen Road which has two fords. I paused for thought at each one while the others egged me on. I had to channel Mikee to get unterwegs. This entailed putting my foot gently on the pedal and driving through at a solid and steady speed. The belly of the Toyota Wish got scraped but no worries mate. We parked at a point where we weren't quite sure if we should keep going. We were only 50 minutes from home - but it felt like the wop-wops.
The track starts with a crossing of the Ōkūkū River. Today it was meandering along at a great grey-green greasy Limpopo pace. I stomped across in my boots and the others looked appalled. Despite my forewarning, no-one was quite expecting this. After a few minutes of doubt everyone followed suit except for Jane, who whipped off her trainers and walked daintily through, pink nail polish shimmering up from the depths.
On the other side, we soddenly looked on as she happily donned her dry shoes. Envy. But from here the track is easy to follow through beautiful bush, past beehives (we quickened our pace) and blackberries (we slowed our pace). Random factoid: hedgehogs can climb fences. At some point we climbed up and around a large slip, then dropped down to the river.
We were now in the riverbed and there was about 5-10 minutes of intense boulder hopping upstream. Jane balanced carefully across - retaining dry shoes - and, I must admit, had she fallen in I would have been rather delighted.
The way back into the ngahere is marked by a large orange triangle track marker that you can't miss. From here, the track left the river valley and climbed up a steep hill. Eventually things levelled out and we descended to Pinchgut Hut.
There were gazillions of sandflies flitting about so we quickly got inside the hut and shut the door to keep those littler buggers at bay. It was just after midday and we ate lunch - fruit, nuts and sammies.
The return journey has more downhill and, to my way of thinking, went by pretty fast. Towards the end there were a fair few grumblings though. During one of those, a piwakawaka flew up and danced about us in an adorable fashion, flashing its shuttlecock tail. Random factoid: Blue whales have the most sperm and pigs have the longest orgasm. We paused at the blackberries to sample the choicest ones. A gazillion bees were flying frenetically around the hives.
At last it was time for the final river crossing. We stood on the other side, sodden, while Jane whipped off her trainers and tiptoed daintily across with her pink nail polish shimmering up from the depths. I felt a certain glee as there was a plop and one of her shoes fell into the water. But it floated and she salvaged it in the nick of time - dry as a bone.
The bottom of the Toyota Wish was scraped again at the fords but she'll be right. As we wiggled our way home across the North Canterbury Plains, everyone started yawning so I was forced to put on some "awful" electronic gangster music. This put paid to all thoughts a snooze. Instead we planned out our evenings: hot baths, spas, wines, GnT's, chips and chill music.
