Day 1
After the weather put a pin in our West Coast adventure, we had a few passionate discussions before settling on Plan E (or Z? I’m not sure anymore): the Raglan Range / Leatham Conservation Area. I’ll be bold and say it’s not very well known among Christchurch trampers – I couldn’t find many records of tramps in the area by Christchurch folks. Oh well, it’ll be a surprise, won’t it?
We left Christchurch at 6:30 AM, hoping to be walking by noon. With plenty of stops for pies, coffee, and ice cream in nearly every town along the way, we finally arrived at a car park on Leatham Road, by a swing bridge over the Leatham River. Our enthusiasm at finally setting off waned quickly when we discovered the next 15 km would be on a perfectly good gravel road – one we probably could have driven. Oh well, maybe next time I should do a bit more research, huh?
3 hours later, after arriving at Greigs Hut, we took a short break, read a few interesting (sarcasm) facts about the history of decorative guns, and headed off to Siberia Hut. The track was quite straightforward, and this whole section was still in the pine forest. Siberia Hut itself was nice, and it even had magnetic bug nets on the windows – what a fantastic invention. I wish all huts had them.
Stats of Day 1: Branch River swing bridge to Siberia Hut (route on NZ Topo Map, GPX download below).
22.7 km, 5h 55min, 720m ascent
Max elevation: 710 m
Min elevation: 419 m
Day 2
In the morning, we continued south into the heart of the Leatham Conservation Area. A few party members took a detour to Bottom Misery Hut, while the rest of us headed up to Lost Stream Biv. The Lost Stream Track had a fair bit of uphill, with an epic waterfall alongside it, which we decided to utilise for an afternoon wash. Once we emerged from the bush, Lost Stream Biv appeared – and I have to say, it’s one of the cutest bivs I’ve ever seen. It’s very small, with an oven and great views over the valley beyond and above. After a decent break and regrouping with the Bottom Misery Hut crew, we headed up towards the upper end of the valley.
A spectacular meadow of spaniards covered a large part of the valley – what a sight. We picked up a vague track on the TR of Lost Stream Biv through the beech forest. Once we emerged onto tussocks and got closer to the end of the valley, we could see a few potential routes up. I embraced going straight up through the bluffs – it was a bit exposed, but I found it quite okay. The rest of the group chose a route on the right-hand side, which looked easier at first but led them onto the worst part of the ridge, with high, nearly vertical rocky outcrops. I got vertigo watching them try to find a route towards me, so I looked away and had a snack instead. Once regrouped, we followed the ridge to a lake south of Pt 1830, where we camped.
Stats of Day 2: Siberia hut to Lost to Lost Stream biv and a tarn south of pt1830 (route on NZ Topo Map, GPX download below).
13.3 km, 9h, 1380m ascent
Max elevation: 1751 m
Min elevation: 701 m
Day 3
After a spectacular sunrise, I got my tramping mojo back and decided on a side trip down to Bull Paddock Creek Hut. James and Emma enthusiastically followed. We skirted along the SE side of Pt 1830, and after passing Pt 1794, we found a 8/10 scree slope to follow down into the valley (I’m NOT going to talk about how I led James about 500 m along the wrong ridge). The last 100 vertical metres of the slope was on a tussock and spaniard-covered slope, but nothing too bad. We dropped our packs in the creek and headed to Bull Paddock Creek Hut (biv would be more appropriate). It’s a sweet little structure sitting at the edge of yet another spaniard meadow. After a wee break, we boulder-hopped back up the valley and picked up the easiest route up – along the creek draining a shallow saddle 100 m east of Pt 1836. This route was pretty cruisy.
At the saddle, we regrouped with the rest of the party and continued along the ridge past Pt 1668. Here, Rachel, Blair, and I decided to drop down to Mid Silverstream Hut, while the rest of the group followed the tops all the way to a 4WD road by Pt 1482. My group descended along grassy, later spaniard-covered slopes towards the forest. We didn’t pick the easiest route, but again, it was fairly straightforward, with only a few lightly scrambly bits. In the forest, we followed what looked like a good deer track on the TL of Silverstream. The upper sections of the stream formed a deep gorge, but eventually, it flattened out, and the track became more and more obvious and easy.
In the lower parts, before reaching Silverstream Track, the stream had many scenic small waterfalls, which called to us for a wee dip. We listened once or twice and had a lovely swim. When we hit Silverstream Track, the DOC sign said it was two hours to Mid Silverstream Hut – we smashed it in one hour. Encouraged by this, we decided to push on towards Branch River. DOC estimated Silverstream Track would take five hours, and indeed, it took about that long. It’s pretty overgrown in many places, with new growth reaching 2–3 metres, and we had to push through quite a bit.
The “best” bit was after the last creek, just before the track starts to descend towards Silverstream. A fresh slip at E 1605976, N 5369677 / BS25 0598 6968 had wiped out about 30 metres of the track. It was very steep, and slipping during the first five metres would have had serious consequences. We tried to go around it, but the ridges nearby were nearly vertical and more dangerous than the slip itself. I ended up “cutting” a few steps into the sandy slip with my hiking pole, which actually worked quite well, and we got across. I can’t imagine crossing this bit in the rain. Maybe that’s why Mid Silverstream Hut had only about 12 parties visited in 2024, and just four in 2023. If we had been coming from the other side, we might have turned back. We even briefly considered going back to the tops to find another way out.
Anyway, we crossed the slip, survived, and found a lovely camping spot in Silverstream. It was actually one of my favourite campsites ever – flat, sandy riverbanks that begged for a campfire. So we lit one and had a peaceful, warm, windless night.
Stats of Day 3: Tarn south of pt1830 to Bull Paddock Creek hut, Mid Silverstream hut and Silverstream campsite (route on NZ Topo Map, GPX download below).
19.2 km, 11h 50min, 1080m ascent
Max elevation: 1789 m
Min elevation: 578 m
Day 4
The last day was just an easy walk back to the cars, where we met up at 11 AM with the group that had followed the tops. They described their route as good, with “lots of sidling and a couple of scary bits.”
I had a blast that weekend – it’s a beautiful area with accessible yet imposing-looking tops. We also found a surprising amount of water up there, meaning plenty of camping possibilities. A great future trip could be heading down to Top Misery Hut. Maybe in 2026?
Stats of Day 4: Silverstream campsite to Branch River swing bridge (route on NZ Topo Map, GPX download below).
13.3 km, 3h, 200m ascent
Max elevation: 584 m
Min elevation: 419 m
Who and when
Participants: Michal Klajban (leader, scribe, GPX), Blair Skevington, Emma Rogers, Benjamin Still, Rachel Perkinson, James Killick, Naomi Wells
Tramped on 6-9th February 2024.
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