Heaphy Track

Walk Overview

This walk is one of New Zealand’s nine “Great Walks” as designated by the New Zealand Government’s Department of Conservation (DOC). At 78.4 km, it is the longest of the Great Walks.

It’s also generally regarded as the most diverse, given that the landscapes traversed range from sub-alpine plateaux to the beach and coast. The diverse geography results in a staggering array of flora, another feature for which the Heaphy is known.

The walk is a “point to point” walk, running between Brown Hut (located 28 km from Collingwood, a small town along Golden Bay on the north coast of the South Island) and Kohaihai River (located on the west coast of the South Island,15 km north of Karamea). The walk may be tackled in either direction; an advantage of starting at Brown Hut is that the vast bulk of the climbing is done on the first day and most people do the walk in that direction.

The walk follows a route used for many generations by Golden Bay Maori to access the West Coast in pursuit of greenstone and trading activities. In early European times, the track was used to access goldfields in the far northwest. As a result, the track is unusually wide in parts.  

The track is well marked and sign-posted. Some sections can be steep or muddy but generally the track is wide and well-constructed with moderate gradients. The highest point on the track is Flanagans Corner at 915 metres, but, in contrast, 24 km of the track is at or around sea-level.

There are seven DOC huts and nine campsites along the track enabling your trip to be tailored to your time available and inclination. Huts and campsites must be pre-booked year round.

The Heaphy Track is located in the Kahurangi National Park which, at 452,000 hectares, is New Zealand’s second largest national park. The park takes up a fair proportion of the northwest corner of New Zealand’s South Island.

Further information:

• A four day itinerary is described below.

• For more information on walking in the Kahurangi National Park, click the button below.

Itinerary

The walk takes 4-5 days to complete. An itinerary completing the entire track is shown below.

Day 1

Brown Hut to Perry Saddle Hut

Distance: 17km

Time: 5 hours

Accommodation or Camping: Huts or Camping

Day 2

Perry Saddle Hut to James Mackay Hut

Distance: 24km

Time: 7 hours

Accommodation or Camping: Huts or Camping

Day 3

James Mackay Hut to Heaphy Hut

Distance: 20.5km

Time: 6 hours

Accommodation or Camping: Huts or Camping

Walk Options

Guided

Several tour operators offer the Heaphy Track as a four or five day guided trip.

The tour operators that offer the walk as a four day trip generally follow the walking itinerary described above. For the five day trip, Day 2 of the four day walking itinerary described above is generally split in two.

Typically, the package offered by these operators (for the four day trip) includes:

• Transfers to and from Nelson

• 4 day tour with professional guides

• 3 nights accommodation in DOC huts

• All meals

• Equipment hire

Assisted self-guided

Some tour operators offer self-guided services for the Heaphy Track, such as transport, equipment hire and provisioning assistance.

Spaces at the DOC huts and campsites must be pre-booked all year round. The seven DOC huts take between 16 and 32 people.

The DOC huts include bunks with mattresses, a water supply, heating, toilets and during the busier summer months a DOC ranger may be present. Cooking facilities and lighting are provided at most of the huts.

Independent

Spaces at the DOC huts and campsites must be pre-booked all year round. The seven DOC huts take between 16 and 32 people.

The DOC huts include bunks with mattresses, a water supply, heating, toilets and during the busier summer months a DOC ranger may be present. Cooking facilities and lighting are provided at most of the huts.

Essential Information

Access

The starting point for the Heaphy Track is either Brown Hut or Kohaihai River. The distance by road between the two locations is 463 km!

Brown Hut is 156 km from Nelson and 28 km from Collingwood. Bus and taxi services are available to transport you to Brown Hut from either place.

Kohaihai River is 15 km north of Karamea and a further 95 km to Westport. Again bus/taxi transport is readily available to ferry you to or from Kohaihai River.

There are a couple of helicopter services operating in the area that feature a Heaphy Track service. They will fly you from the end of the track where you finish back to your car at the end you started at (or from your car at one end to start the walk at the other end). They can also be used to cut out Day 4 of the four day walking itinerary described above, if you’re unfortunate enough to only have three days to allocate to the Heaphy.

There are also businesses that will re-locate your car from one end to the other.

Park entry

No entry permit is needed for access to Kahurangi National Park but tickets must be obtained for use of the DOC huts and campsites on the Heaphy Track. Tickets can be bought online and printed yourself or collected from the DOC Visitor Centre at Nelson.

Best time

The walk can be done all year round.

For most of the other Great Walks, the DOC encourages walkers to undertake the walk in the “Great Walk season” (from mid-October to the end of April) and discourages undertaking the walk outside the season. This is not the case for the Heaphy, although the DOC website does warn that heavy rain can cause flooding with little warning (and the DOC track notes refer to particular sections of the track as being flood prone) and that walkers need to be prepared for rain, snow and wind on the exposed sections of the track.

Difficulty

This walk is rated by the DOC as “Intermediate: Great Walk/Easier tramping track”.

Accommodation

In addition to the DOC huts described in ‘Walk Options’ above, there is a good range of accommodation options either side of the walk. In particular, Karamea (a short distance from the Kohaihai end of the track) has some excellent options, as does Collingwood at the other end. 

Some of the accommodation providers are attuned to walkers’ needs or offer amenities suited to walkers. 

We can assist walkers in choosing the accommodation options which best suit their needs.

Other activities

As a popular tourism destination, the northwest region of the South Island offers many attractions in addition to the Heaphy Track. For one thing there is the Heaphy’s neighbouring Great Walk, the Abel Tasman Coast Track.

Many walkers choose to add extra days to their trip so that they can experience some of the other attractions of the region. The attractions (other than walks) include caving, rafting and scenic helicopter flights.

Assistance

We can assist walkers with various aspects of their walking holidays.