06/10/2022
Had a great trip up the Macaulay river to the Macaulay hut, you can access this track off Lily Bank Road just on the end of Tekapo.
This track is 4x4 only and I would recommend you have a snorkel, however if the river was low you could do it without one. Not recommend though.
The track is self-starts along the side of Lily bank Station about 3km up you drop off onto the river bed, and there are a number of water crossing throughout the trip, there is also a number of tracks as the river is for ever changing, some 4x4 drivers have stacked rock pile to help make the way however again that can change, so the key is to just take you time. I have download the TOPO GSP app and have found this a great help as you can follow tracks as well as record your own.
The hut is amazing it’s a big credit to the Trust that manage it, the hut is very well set up, the fire put out a great heat as well as it has an oven built into it, you can also cook on top of it. There is also a 4 burner cook top there runs off gas bottle which is outside. There a number of pots, pans, and roasting dishes, it sleeps 14, however also has a good area outside to pitch tents.
This area weather can change really quickly and like we did all the checks around the weather and though we were all good however it change and we had to make a call on if we stayed and waited the weather front out or go. We had enough supplies to stay for 4 days, however made the call to go as we had mapped our trip in.
I would say if you do head in this area make sure you have good supplies just in case.
