Distance: 7.4 km (5.0 DOC hours) - Tramping track - Easy-moderate terrain
Altitude: 213m to 561m. Gain: 156m. Loss: 482m . Gradient: 5 deg (Moderate)
Skills: - Occasional rivers (3/6)

Tramping track (4/9)
Cut, marked tramping track: natural, rough ground surface

Primary, mapped (1/5)
Formal route, on maps, principal access to hut or along range / catchment

Moderate (difficulty: 3/5)
Occasional moderate climbs

Easy-moderate (difficulty: 2/5)
Tussock / river-gravel / open bush / cut track

None (difficulty: 1/7)
No alpine skills required

Occasional rivers (difficulty: 3/6)
Occasional rivers - impassible after heavy rain

Unknown (difficulty: 0/7)
Not specified

No description

Note: Described in the reverse direction to your journey

Standing at the end of an old road, under the Gates of Haast Bridge, a very faint trail leads across the slip immediately upstream of the bridge, just above the roaring Haast River. If you look closely, you might just spot an overgrown orange triangle in the scrub on the eastern side of the slip. Push through the scrub and connect with the Wills track which runs along the hillside. The first section is an old pack horse track and is in good condition (watch for stinging nettle though), but once past the Wills/Haast confluence the track soon downgrades to a back country track.

The slip near the word "Wills" on the map has a verticle ladder to climb up on its upstream end, leading through a bluff. Otherwise, the track meanders onwards to reach the bush edge in the Wills, with only one section on a steep, slippery, rocky bank potentially cuasing problems. Someone has tied a rope there to assist with getting up/down the bank.

From the bush line, cross the Wills River (knee deep under normal flows) and follow the river bed upstream. A poled route continues upriver on the true left all teh way to Wills Hut.