Paringa Cattle Track to Coppermine Creek Hut

This long track follows 6.3 km as a point-to-point, near Haast in West Coast.

The southern end of the Historic Haast to Paringa Cattle Track, walked in from the car park on SH6 north of Haast to Coppermine Creek Hut. DOC puts the hut two hours from the highway, the same time Dre, who sent this one in with Hazel, gives it. The track follows the old 1875 droving route along a fence line and through southern Westland bush to the hut, a standard eight bunk on the true right of Coppermine Creek and the most southerly of the three huts on the track, with an honesty box for hut tickets if you stay the night. The dog rule is DOC's permit rule for the whole Haast, Paringa and Moeraki rivers area: dogs with a DOC permit only, and DOC codes the permit here as the hunting-dog kind, so arrange it with the Awarua / Haast Visitor Centre before you go rather than assuming a pet is welcome in this country. DOC grades the full cattle track an advanced three day tramp and warns of active slips, overgrown diversions and steep banked stream crossings in the area, and the section beyond the hut climbs for hours toward Māori Saddle across the alpine fault line at Slippery Face, so the hut is the sensible turnaround for a day with a dog. Check the forecast before you commit, these creeks rise quickly in West Coast rain.

It sits at the moderate end and gains roughly 65 m, and takes about 1 hr 22 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 Dre & Hazel suggested it, and we checked it against the source above.