South Temple, Ahuriri, Hunter, Ahuriri and South Temple Circuit

This 80km, 6-8 day demanding circuit starts at the Temple stream roadend off Lake Ohau road. It climbs out of the Hopkins into the Ahuriri and Hunter catchments before returning back to the Ahuriri and out via Watson creek to Temple stream. This route weaves it way through the Southern Alps following spectacular river valleys and crossing rugged alpine passes. It should only be attempted by very experienced parties with the necessary knowledge to safety travel through untracked alpine areas. Most of the passes require good visibility to navigate around bluffs and gorges as we found out in Feb 2012 when attempting the Huxley, Ahuriri, Hunter and Landsborough circuit.

The route takes you up the Temple stream south branch and its north branch crossing over a saddle of the Barrier Range into the headwaters of the Ahuriri, south east of Vee Notch Pass. Below Top hut a long siddle up out of the valley permits access to a 1980m saddle before descending into the Hunter to Ferguson Hut. Down the Hunter to Scrubby Hut and climb out over the Huxley range into the Ahuriri to Shamrock Hut. Return to the South Temple hut via Watson stream and col between pt 2222 and pt 2090 and out to roadend. 

After an shortened trip in this area in Feb 2012 we travelled back in 2013 and completed the Ahuriri portion of this trip. The route to the Hunter from Ahuriri opposite Top Hut looks like a full day mission with access from the valley floor via a ramp to the slopes above heavily vegetated. Also the access over the spur into the area south of the tarn looks a tad "interesting". Access via Little Canyon Creek into the Hunter is much more do-able, we got to within 150m of the saddle before turning back.