Time: 5 hours and 20 minutes
Distance: 14.8 km
Start: Awa Awa Rata Reserve car park, end of McLennans Bush Road, Pudding Hill
Finish: Same place (it's a loop)
Date: Friday 3rd April 2026
Warning: Don't do this one on rainy days because the river can flood
A Good Friday. I'm unterwegs with my hoa rangatira, whom I shall refer to (for the purposes of this blog) as "Meesh" (not his real name). The plan: a reconnaissance of the Pudding Hill Stream Route for the gals. This loop is described in the Hiking is Good blog as "very easy" and "like a Sunday afternoon stroll". However, I would probably describe it more as "not very easy" and "not like any Sunday afternoon stroll I have ever done". But beautiful all the same.
The Awa Awa Rata Reserve (a.k.a McLennans Bush) sits at the base of Ōpuke/Mount Hutt and intersects with Mount Hutt Forest. There are a few tracks within the reserve which can be linked together in various combinations (for example see FW blog post Awa Awa Rata Reserve - Loop Track).
Today, as we pulled into the car park, it was busy (horrors) . A multitude of people had arrived shortly before us: over-excited kids, chatty parents and barking dogs. Probably off on an egg hunt. We quickly scrabbled our things together and started walking very very fast, along an unmarked track behind the loos. A short-cut to Alder Track.
On the Alder Track, the cacophony soon disappeared and we were in wonderful beech forest with korimako/bellbirds belling all around us. This magic disappeared as the beech forest morphed into a pine plantation at the saddle. From here it was a quick descent to Pudding Hill Stream, which today, was shallow(ish) and bubbling along at a decent pace.
It took us two hours to make our way upstream, crisscrossing numerous times. The rocks were brown with algae and slippery and, at first, I crossed on wobbly legs, glad of my poles. After a few crossings I began to get the hang of it more or less. Meesh was always about 5 minutes in front. I could see him hopping from rock to rock like a gazelle. Every now and then he would stop and wait patiently for me to catch up a bit, before moving on again at high speed.
The sunlight had not yet hit the valley floor, so it felt darkish despite blue skies overhead. The valley is narrow, beautiful and has a wild, remote wilderness feel to it. No cell phone coverage and no people about. The water was mostly knee deep and not too cold. But there were so many crossings and therefore so much time stomping about in the stream, that the legs and feet eventually felt like stumps.
Everything was pretty straightforward until we got to "the crux". The valley had narrowed to a gorge with vertical rocks on either side. Here, a large boulder blocked the middle of the stream, causing water to pour around it and gouge out two deeper rock pools either side. Meesh, five minutes ahead, leapt onto the rock with no qualms. I had stopped to watch him, when suddenly - thwumpf! My feet slid out from underneath and I hit the deck. I scrabbled around in an ungainly fashion and managed to get vertical again. Luckily no harm down.
I made my way carefully over to Meesh - but try as I might - I could not climb on to that boulder. In the end I had to go around it - which was easier than expected. I walked into the right rockpool (wet to the beaver) then shimmied myself up between two stones, to a point where I could get my foot into a tiny gushing waterfall which had easy steps.
We continued on, bend after bend, until we came to a point where we could see the ski field at the northern skyline. The sun appeared over the eastern skyline and the valley filled with light. Lovely! Meesh flourished two mueslie bars from his backpack and I flourished two apples from mine, one of which was rotten inside. We munched away happily.
The sandflies eventually found us and it was time to move on. Two river bends later, there was a big orange triangle track marker attached to a tinsy beech tree. Here we left the river bed and ascended steeply on a well trodden track through beautiful beech forest to Scotts Saddle at the Mt Hutt Skifield Road.
It was a short five minute walk in gusty Nor' westerly winds down the road to Scotts Saddle Track. This was probably the old ski field road. It took us up the hill to a scree slope where we crossed via a stony trail. From there the track followed the ridge down through wonderful sub-alpine scrubby foliage which morphed into stunted beech dappled in sunlight. The Canterbury Plains/Kā Pākihi Whakatekateka o Waitaha stretched out before us like a patchwork quilt.
At some point the Scotts Saddle Track morphed into the Ridge Track. We continued on, eventually turning onto Ōpuke Track and wiggling our way back down to the car. Happily weary, we headed home to our digs and Pickles the dog.
