Tunnel Creek Hut Track
Haast · West Coast
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. More information below or contact the relevant DOC office. Landholders have freehold land and grazing licences for both valleys. You must contact the landholders to gain permission. Contact Haast Visitor Centre for landholders contact details. (DOC, Paringa - Otoko hunting area page; the permit is the hunting-dog kind and comes through the Awarua / Haast Visitor Centre, with the Franz Josef visitor centre the nearest counter while the Haast building is closed for upgrades to early September 2026.)”. 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.
Opens your email app, addressed to [email protected]. You can also call DOC on 0800 275 362.
About Tunnel Creek Hut Track
Near Haast in West Coast, Tunnel Creek Hut Track runs 15.4 km.
A long, flat valley walk to the head of the Paringa in deep South Westland, sent in by Lea, who walked it with Tui. From the Paringa River bridge on SH6 the route follows the river flats up the true right to the Ōtoko confluence, about 6 km upstream by DOC's reckoning, then carries on through hardwood and silver beech forest along the valley floor to Tunnel Creek Hut, a basic six bunker under the big walls at the valley head. Lea calls it about 17 km and six and a half hours each way and says the track is well maintained and easy to follow even where the old topo maps have it slightly wrong near the hut; DOC's own page calls it 4 hours, a fit-hunter figure worth treating with suspicion at Lea's pace or a dog's. Her tip for the top: a large waterfall about five minutes upstream of the hut, no track, but you will hear it. Two permissions before any dog comes here. The whole Paringa - Otoko block is DOC permit country, dogs with a DOC permit only, the hunting-dog kind, arranged through the Awarua / Haast Visitor Centre (phone and email are monitored while the building is closed for upgrades to early September 2026, and the Franz Josef visitor centre also issues dog permits, allow up to five working days). And the lower river flats at the start are private farmland and grazing licence country: DOC says you must contact the landholders for permission, and to get their details from the Haast Visitor Centre. This is remote country with river travel and no cell coverage, and the upper Ōtoko branch beyond the confluence runs into the Hooker-Landsborough Wilderness Area with no huts at all, so the Paringa branch and its hut are the trip. Check the forecast hard: these flats flood in West Coast rain.
It sits at the hard end and gains roughly 250 m, and takes about 3 hr 29 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 Lea & Tui suggested it, and we checked it against the source above.
