McCauley Hut, Godley/McCauley Conservation Area

Pip and I spent a wonderful day mountain biking up the McCauley valley to visit a neat hut. The trip started out cool and cloudy as we drove up the eastern shores of Lake Tekapo. Our first obstacle was Fording the McCauley river, whose braids were a little deep in places. I had the bright idea of taking shoes for the ford and trying to keep my bike shoes dry, but not far up the valley it needn’t have mattered.

The huge sloping terraces that flank the Two Thumb range held several neat ‘waterfall streams’ that caught my eye as we peddalled up valley. Soon, the peaks that had been obscured by a thick stratocumulus layer began to peak through. This is big country..

We intended to follow the 4WD track all the way up to the hut, hoping on about 2-3 hours to cover the 18km. This plan looked pretty feasible all the way to the entrance to the Godley McCauley Conservation Area. However, farther upstream, the valley narrowed a little and the track petered out to multiple options over rough gravel braids of the river.

As we bumped our way over the gravel, the sun began to properly peek out from behind the clouds. This made the frequent river crossings much more pleasant, but our feet didn’t get any chance to thaw out.

I’d tried to purchace the topo map for this ride at Tekapo, but they were sold out of the particuar quad. Using the GPS map and the DOC overview map to orient was ok, but niether were able to accurately say where the hut should be. Our enthusiasm was flagging, but the hut was seen high on a terrace on the true right before we gave up. After 3.5hrs of rough riding, we arrived at McCauley Hut and were able to have lunch.

Two Hilux’s outside signalled the presence of other residents, who proved to be chatty Thar hunters from wellington. They’d alreay had a brew on, so offered us some hot water to complement our lunch. The hut was quite amazing, with concrete and river rock external walls. The hut was administered by the ‘Mackenzie Alpine Trust’ and came ‘fully furnished’ with cookers, gas, crockery and seats. Impressively, the hut did not officially cost for overnight stays, though donations were accepted. Wish we’d brought some $, as it was such a great hut that was largely maintained through donations and volunteer work.

Pip’s guts were giving her grief, the poor thing really wasn’t feeling well and seemed to dread the long ride back. To her credit, she gritted her teeth and made a pretty good pace back albeit between frequent rest stops.

Our return ride was much easier, with the slight downhill meaning that we only had to pedal gently to keep a reasonable speed on. We made it back to the car in 2h40m and not before time. I managed to get a puncture in the final km, but made it to the McCauley ford before it was unrideable.