Mole Hut Loop via Jameson Ridge

Near Murchison in Nelson-Tasman, Mole Hut Loop via Jameson Ridge runs 15.3 km as a loop.

A full-day or easy-overnight circuit to the four-bunk Mole Hut on the edge of Mole Tops, 35 km south of Murchison at the head of the Tutaki valley. Park at the signposted car park beside Mole Stream on Tutaki Road South, near Mataki Lodge. The Jameson Ridge Track starts a few hundred metres back up the road, over a stile and across a paddock of farmland before the bush edge (private land: permission and a lead are the rule here); it drops briefly to Mole Stream then climbs steadily through beech forest onto the ridge, easing above about 1000 m into a long amble along the forested crest with the trees getting more stunted and a few tussock clearings before it comes out onto the open tops at Mole Saddle, around 1270 m. From the saddle the marked track does a horseshoe down through red tussock to Mole Hut (standard, four bunks, hut tickets) at 1160 m on the forest edge above the stream. Allow about 3 hours up and 3 hours down, 15 km all up with roughly 700 m of climbing. The way back follows Mole Track down Mole Stream: a couple of slips to cross, then a long stretch where the stream opens into a wide bouldery riverbed that you ramble down until a marker takes you back into the forest, and out across farmland on markers to the car park. It is a wet-boot day with multiple crossings, so leave it for settled weather and low water, and keep the dog close: kārearea (New Zealand falcon) have been seen nesting in the area. The dog rule here is DOC’s permit rule, and the permit DOC describes for this land is the hunting-dog one: the loop sits in the Tutaki East Conservation Area, inside DOC’s Braeburn Range hunting block, where DOC says “Dogs with a DOC permit only” and “Hunting dogs are allowed by permit only … Dog permits are available from the local DOC office”, the Nelson Lakes National Park Visitor Centre at St Arnaud. Ask that office before planning to bring a dog, and do not turn up with the dog first. The dog’s walk also stops at the hut and the saddle: Mole Tops straddle the national park boundary, which runs only a couple of hundred metres east of Mole Saddle and the 1651 m knoll, and everything east of it, the tarn basins toward the D’Urville and Pt 1770, is Nelson Lakes National Park, where DOC allows no dogs at all. Check the map on the day and leave the spur above the saddle to the people. Dogs cannot go inside the hut; bring a way to secure the dog outside.

It sits at the hard end and gains roughly 836 m, and takes about 4 hr 27 min to walk.

A DOC dog permit is required before any dog walks here. Arrange it with the managing DOC office ahead of your trip. This walk is on the map because Roxy & Doug suggested it, and we checked it against the source above.