Timms Creek to Mt Fell Hut

This long track follows 10.6 km as a point-to-point, near Renwick in Marlborough.

Seven hours from the car park to the bushline, sent in by Dre, and seven hours is DOC's figure too. From the Timms Creek car park at the end of Te Rou Road, 30.8 km up Northbank Road from the Wairau bridge near Renwick, the track runs through pine and then native bush to Timms Flat, a clearing that is a good swimming and picnic spot in its own right, carries on up the valley to the Timms Creek forks, then crosses the unbridged creek and climbs roughly 900 m of steep ridge to the main ridgeline above. Mt Fell Hut is a 1964 six bunk sitting on the bushline just below an alpine meadow, 1 km south of the 1,602 m Mt Fell summit, and DOC reckons the meadow at sunrise is the reason to be there. The creek crossing at the forks is the part to watch: it is unbridged and DOC warns it causes problems in wet weather, which with a dog means turning round rather than pushing on.\n\nDogs come under the Mount Richmond Forest Park rule and it is not optional: a DOC permit only, the hunting-dog class, arranged with the Whakatū / Nelson Visitor Centre before you drive out. DOC's own track asset data carries that permit condition on both legs of this walk, the road end to the forks and the forks to the ridgeline. Dogs do not go inside DOC huts, so bring a way to secure yours outside overnight.\n\nOne honest note on our map line. DOC calls this walk 12.8 km and its own GIS measures the two legs at 12.2 km, but the only mapped alignment for the route is a coarse default line and it measures about 10.8 km, so it is short through the switchbacks on the big climb. Plan on DOC's 12.8 km and seven hours, which is what Dre and Hazel took, rather than on our distance. We would rather say that than quietly draw in a line nobody has walked.\n\nFrom the hut the Richmond Alpine route carries on over Mt Richmond to Richmond Saddle Hut, another 4 hours that Dre also sent us, and the Middy Hut route comes in from the Pelorus side, though DOC warns that one has many fallen trees and needs real off track navigation. Roads are the other thing to check before you commit: forestry operations can close the roads into Mount Richmond Forest Park, and the Marlborough storms have left road damage across the district, so check DOC's park road status page and the council road updates on the day.

Graded expert, it climbs about 1,116 m overall, and takes about 3 hr 59 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.