Top Kokatahi Hut to Crawford Junction Hut
Hokitika · West Coast · Point to Point
This walk was suggested by the community and checked against the authority quoted above before it was published. The route line comes from official track data. DOC’s own wording: “Dogs with a DOC permit only. Contact closest DOC office to get a permit. Other pets on conservation land rules. (DOC, Toaroha/Zit Saddle/Kokatahi/Lathrop Saddle/Styx River Route page, read 28 August 2026.) That is the page for Dre's round itself, so for this leg the rule comes from the route's own DOC page rather than a neighbouring corridor. DOC's asset data says it again: WEB_DOGS_ALLOWED reads “Dogs with DOC permit -hunting” on both of the published lines this walk is made of, the Zit Saddle To Top Kokatahi Hut Route and the Top Kokatahi To Crawford Junc Hut Route. Worth knowing what does NOT set the rule here: this ground sits in the Hokitika hunting block, and that block page states no dog conditions of its own, it only says to refer to the DOC website. The whole line is DOC conservation land, the Wanganui / Otira Catchments stewardship area (J33031), checked against DOC's Public Conservation Land layer on 28 August 2026, so the permit from the Hokitika office is what makes a dog lawful on it”. Evidence: the rule-setter’s own published wording. How we check dog rules.
Good to know
A DOC dog permit is required before any dog walks here. DOC codes this land for the hunting-dog permit, so it is not a casual dog walk. Ask the DOC office before planning to bring a dog.
About Top Kokatahi Hut to Crawford Junction Hut
Top Kokatahi Hut to Crawford Junction Hut covers 6.3 km, near Hokitika in West Coast, walked as a point-to-point.
Six kilometres down the Kokatahi, and DOC is blunt about it: this is a fine weather route only, because even at normal flow it has a number of swift river crossings. That is leg four of Dre's nine leg round, Top Kokatahi Hut through to Crawford Junction Hut, and both DOC and Dre put it at 4 to 5 hours for the 6.3 km. It starts where leg three put you down. From Top Kokatahi Hut you drop to the confluence of the Kokatahi and the unnamed stream coming down off Zit Saddle, cross the Kokatahi to pick up the cut track on the true right, and from there the day alternates between cut track and riverbed. DOC has you crossing the Kokatahi three times before you end up on the true right above the Top Kokatahi swing bridge. After the bridge the track stays on the true left until you reach a cableway. You cross on that, carry on downstream along the river edge for 200 to 300 m, then pick up the track through the forest to Crawford Junction Hut, which sits on a low terrace looking over the Crawford and Kokatahi confluence. Read DOC's guidance on using the cableway before you go, and think it through with a dog on board, because a cableway is a two hands job and Hazel is not going to work the pulley for you. It is downhill on paper and that is the least useful thing to know about it. The line loses about 650 m, from roughly 1065 m at the Top Kokatahi end to 418 m at Crawford Junction, but the height is given up steadily along a river that you are in and out of the whole way. The crossings are the day, not the descent. If the Kokatahi is up, this leg is not on, and there is no way to shortcut it: Crawford Junction Hut is six bunks with heating, mattresses, a toilet and a tap, and it is the only shelter at the far end. Dogs need a DOC permit and there is no way around it. Every metre of this is DOC conservation land, the Wanganui and Otira Catchments stewardship area, and DOC's rule for this route is dogs with a DOC permit only, from the closest office, which is Hokitika. Sort it before you leave. From Crawford Junction the round carries on to Top Crawford Hut, another 3.5 to 4 hours by Dre's reckoning, and that leg is now on the site too.
It sits at the expert end and barely climbs, and takes about 1 hr 15 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 Dre & Hazel suggested it, and we checked it against the source above.