Boundary Creek Track

Boundary Creek Track is a moderate-length walk of 3.4 km, near Makarora in Otago.

An old musterers trail above the Boundary Creek gorge, climbing from State Highway 6 at the head of Lake Wānaka toward the McKerrow Range. DOC says it starts opposite the Boundary Creek campsite. Sort the dog out first, because this permission is not a DOC permit and no DOC office can issue it. Dogs are allowed in Hāwea Conservation Park, but the way in from this trailhead crosses Makarora River Ranch, and DOC is direct about what that means: you need permission from the Makarora River Ranch to take your dog into Hāwea Conservation Park using Boundary Creek Track. Email [email protected] at least 24 hours in advance of your visit to request it, and DOC adds that you must provide a valid worming certificate showing the dog is clear of hydatids and sheep measles. That certificate is the condition, not a formality. A dog that scavenges carcasses carries sheep measles straight back into a working flock, which is the whole reason the ranch asks, so get the worming done and the permission confirmed before you leave home. The farm conditions ride with it: DOC asks you to stay on the marked track until you reach conservation land, leave gates as you find them, use the stiles where they are provided and keep your distance from livestock, and it notes there is no camping until the conservation area boundary. The walk itself is a serious one. DOC grades it an advanced tramping track, 12 km return, 6 to 8 hours, and warns that before the open flats the farm track becomes narrow and overgrown with limited or non-existent track marking, so it suits experienced trampers with good navigational skills. The flats are not marked at all, and getting across them means crossing creeks and wetlands. Avalanche terrain crosses this track, usually from May into November, and the weather turns fast enough here that hypothermia is a real risk even in summer, so read the Mount Aspiring National Park forecast and the avalanche advisory before you commit. The line mapped here is the lower 3.5 km, from the highway junction up the farm track to the point where the mapped route ends on the slopes above the gorge. That is well short of DOC’s 12 km return, and the part that is missing is exactly the ground DOC describes as unmarked, so treat this as the way in rather than the whole trip. DOC gives the Wānaka Tititea/Mount Aspiring National Park Visitor Centre, +64 3 443 7660, as the contact for the area, but for the dog it is the ranch you email.

It sits at the hard end and gains roughly 556 m, and takes about 1 hr 36 to walk.

The landholder’s permission is required before any dog walks here: the track crosses a working farm, and access is arranged with the farm ahead of your visit, with a current worming certificate. This walk is on the map because Amanda & Henry suggested it, and we checked it against the source above.