Lake Morgan via Brian O’Lyn and Cone Creek

Route Description

First things first: To access both the Cone Creek and Brian O’Lyn routes, you need permission from Gloriavale. Contact details can be found on the DOC website.

Brian O’Lyn Route

There’s a small car park with a DOC sign on a gravel road next to the Haupiri River. The car park is located at 42°36’34.3″S 171°43’49.7″E / E1495870 N5281765. From there, follow the 4WD road along the Haupiri River.
The Brian O’Lyn Route starts at a DOC sign where the 4WD crosses O’Shanessy Creek (E1497681 N5280519). From there, the route climbs steeply up a flat spur. It’s sparsely marked with orange DOC triangles, supplemented by Permolat markers. From about the 800 m contour, the route flattens out and gradually leads to the bushline.
From the bushline, a few waratahs indicate the general direction of the track. It’s fairly straightforward – just stay on the flat ridges until you see below you a prominent tarn east of pt1251 (the tarn can be seen on TopoMap), then sidle towards the saddle between pt1251 and pt1196. The ridge leading to pt1251 looks quite uninviting. There are many small tarns between the 1100 m contour and the ridges, offering several good campsites.
From the saddle between pt1251 and pt1196, a vague track can be picked up leading to pt1196. The track dips into scrub again before climbing up towards Mt O’Shanessy. There are some interesting boulder fields with deep gaps between the rocks, so watch your footing.
From Mt O’Shanessy, the route continues along its southern ridge towards pt1134, though most of the ridge is approached from the east. A few waratahs show the general direction.
The Lake Morgan Hut is quite hard to spot until you’re directly above it. The hut is simple but nice, and has a surprisingly fancy new toilet, kindly built by the Gloriavale community.
To reach Lake Morgan Hut via the Brian O’Lyn Route takes about 7 hours from the car park. However, I can see how some fit folks could do it in around 5 hours, while slower parties might take to 10 hours or more depending on conditions.

Lake Morgan Hut to Cone Creek

The most straightforward route appears to follow the true left of the creek flowing out of Lake Morgan. A prominent set of bluffs can be approached from the left when coming from the hut. There’s a vague deer/human track through a steep tussock between the bluffs and the Southern ridges of pt1343. This route seems to be more efficient than the route leading over pt1343. This “low” level route also provides a direct access to Lake Morgan.
From the lake, head towards pt1368. The ridge is flat and easy to follow. Once on the ridge leading towards pt1368, descend to a prominent basin below (circa E1495214 N5273843) and sidle close to the TL of the creek over a flattening ridge.
Somewhere around E1495601 N5273886, a 400 m-long track begins. The start is behind a prominent house-sized boulder with a rock cairn on top. The track leads to a small saddle before descending to a steep and rather unpleasant scree slope.
The scree, with its large boulders, is a textbook example of the angle of repose – the boulders seem to be just waiting for a touch to trigger a small rock avalanche. It’s not too bad, but take care here. The scree leads directly to Cone Creek Hut. Grade of the scree: 2/10.
It takes about 4 hours to reach Cone Creek hut from Lake Morgan

Cone Creek Route

The Cone Creek route is rough – a mix of muddy, slippery, and steep tracks, along with sections of riverbed travel.
The track is marked on NZ TopoMap, and where it’s not, it’s more or less a “choose your own adventure”. When the water level in the creek is high, it’s possible to stay on the TL the whole time. There are plenty of visible lines in the bush that can be followed, though they eventually turn into bush-bashing through dense scrub and long grass.
From the confluence with the Haupiri River, it’s an easy-going stroll along the river back to the car.

Trip report: 31 October – 3 November 2025

Kupkin and I arrived at the base of the Brian O’Lyn route on Friday evening and set up camp.
On Saturday morning, we cut and marked the Brian O’Lyn route from 7 AM to 4 PM. Many windfalls were cleared, and plenty of markers put in. I initially didn’t want to add too many Permolat markers to a DOC track, but after seeing a few Permolat ones already there – and taking a wrong line several times – I decided to gently supplement the lack of DOC markers with a few more permolat markers. After an 8-hour shift, we had about 400 m left to reach the bushline. That section was heavily overgrown, and we were both pretty knackered, so we just stopped cutting and headed on towards Lake Morgan.
It took us a good 4 hours from the bushline to Lake Morgan. Progress was slow due to tired bodies, heavy packs (hey, Kupkin, I’m not taking two onions and fresh eggs next time for a “fancy lunch”!), and a decent amount of snow on Mt O’Shanessy. I was very happy once we reached the hut. It was roughly a 13.5-hour day, about 8 hours of which were spent track cutting.
On Sunday, we followed the route to Cone Creek. I have to admit – the beauty of Lake Morgan with a gentle amount of snow on the surrounding tops was disarming. We spent a few hours working on the short marked section between Lake Morgan and Cone Creek (the approach track to the scree). We cut heaps of tussocks and flax and added a few markers where we could.
We reached the Cone Creek hut at around 3 PM. We had planned to push a bit further and camp, but ended up going all the way to the Haupiri River which we reached during the dark. We cleared some windfall on the way, but there was so much more that it became quite overwhelming again.
We camped in the bush, and on Sunday we did a bit more track cutting before walking out.
It was a pretty epic adventure, and I feel strongly drawn back to the area. Both the Lake Morgan and Cone Creek hut books surprised me with how few visits they’ve had – it’s a reasonably accessible area with good huts and a truly mesmerising lake among the mountaintops.

Participants: Michal Klajban, Jan Kupka