Waikato Dooley’s Hut

NOT RECOMMENDED WITHOUT SOMEONE WHO HAS BEEN BEFORE:A moderate walk of about 5 to 5:30 hours which is best attempted in the company of someone who knows the area and tracks. No amazing views but a great forest walk and a look at a piece of local history – Dooley’s Hut with a plaque in memory of old Joe Dooley, a “batten splitter” who lived and worked in the area for many years and actually died with his axe in his hand. The tramp is mainly on underused, old or uncharted hunters’ tracks through re-growth of logged forest.  The tracks are marked by paint splashes (reddish, green and yellow) on the trees whilst many of the older, unused sections are quite heavily overgrown in places. Wind-falls can be a slight hazard or inconveniences on the walk, especially to the Hobbit sized tramper. There is a fair amount of ascending and descending through the rolling terrain of the tramp, but there is only one taxing ascent after about an hours walking when a climb is made up onto the SW / NE trending ridge where the bulk of the walk is done.

A short in and out done in 2015 shows how the track alignment has changed whilst the target hut looks much the same. Well marked track, impossible to lose the marks as so many but tricky due to windfalls etc.