Distance: 1.5 km (1.0 DOC hours) - Unmarked route, clear - Moderate terrain
Altitude: 1130m to 1405m. Gain: 277m. Loss: 6m . Gradient: 11 deg (Moderate)
Skills: - Streams (2/6) Winter - Snow/ice underfoot (2/7)

Unmarked route, clear (7/9)
Unmarked route, follows obvious geography (river, spur, trail, etc)

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

Moderate (difficulty: 3/5)
Occasional moderate climbs

Moderate (difficulty: 3/5)
Low scrub in open or bush / river rocks

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

Streams (difficulty: 2/6)
Small streams, danger only in extreme weather

Snow/ice underfoot (difficulty: 2/7)
Snow/ice likely on track

From Waikamaka Hut, head up the creek to the south towards Rangi Saddle. This starts as a riverbed route, but a cut, marked track later appears, crossing the creek a few times until it reaches the bushedge. From here there are no (useful) markers, follow good ground trails up the creek, often sidling low on the western bank, but avoiding climbing more than 15m above the creek. 150m NE of Rangi Saddle the creek forks, and a steep, speargrass-covered face climbs to the saddle itself. Warratahs mark a route, but do not coincide very well with the faint ground trail. Riven the thick speargrass, follow the ground trail, if you can find it. Hard - painful going to the saddle.

Note: Described in the reverse direction to your journey

From Rangi Saddle a fain ground trail drops down the guts of the face to the NE, through thick speargrass. Warratahs confuse, more than help. Once at the forks in the head of the creek, follow the creek down, initially on the wetsern bank some 15m out of the river, later crossing to the east. A cut, marked track finally appears when you hit the bushedge, and criss-crosses the creek for a few hunderd meters before depositing you on the gravel rivcerbed. Follow this to the forks at teh hut.

Waikamaka Hut is reached by a short track some 20m up the eastern fork, signposted on the southern bank.