Image: BackpackersGuide.NZ | Creative Commons
Pudding Hill Stream route.
Pudding Hill Stream Route

Located in Mount Hutt area in the Canterbury region

This route winds up steeply through Pudding Hill Stream through Mount Hutt Forest.

Mt Hutt from Scotts Saddle. Photo: G Iles.
Mount Hutt from Scotts Saddle 

This route follows the stream bed. Pudding Hill Stream is negotiable in all but flood conditions. However, about 1 km upstream of the turn onto Mount Hutt Range the stream bed narrows into a steep-sided gorge, which makes further progress difficult.

Caution: This route involves repeated crossings of Pudding Hill Stream. Trampers should be prepared for cold, wet or windy conditions.

This route can be accessed from the western end of Alder Track (accessed from Awa Awa Rata Reserve at the end of McLennans Bush Road, which is off Arundel Rakaia Gorge Road and is 12.5 km from Methven) or from Hart Road.

The area can also be accessed from Mt Hutt Skifield access road. During summer, there is a locked gate at Scotts Saddle; you will need to walk from here.

Mount Hutt Forest is mostly mountain beech/tawhairauriki, with broadleaf/pāpāuma, Hall’s tōtara, fuchsia/kōtukutuku, marble leaf/putaputāweta, kōhūhū and pōkākā. Crown fern/piupiu and bush lawyer/tātarāmoa occupy the forest floor. Above the bushline the vegetation changes to alpine herbs, shrubs and snow tussock/wī kura.

Forest birds include bellbird/korimako, rifleman/tītitipounamu and grey warbler/riroriro. New Zealand pipits/pīhoihoi and occasionally kea are seen above the bushline.