Three Passes Route

From the SH73 bridge, follow river flats to Carrington Hut, a four-to-five-hour stage. The next leg follows Taipoiti Stream toward Harman Pass. White River is an unbridged ford: its cableway has been removed, and it is crossable only at low flow. On the climb, stay with the marked line to Ariels Tarns and keep to the route around rocky shelves above Mary Creek. The line toward Julia Hut is a different route and an easy wrong turn once the basin opens.

Above Harman Pass, poles lead over rocky shelves and stop before the permanent snow and ice at Whitehorn. Cloud can hide the pass, and the ice may be crevassed; carry and know how to use crampons and an ice axe. The western descent is steep, loose scree, zigzagging from the true left through bluffs. Find the markers before Cronin Stream reaches its gorge, then follow the route to a boggy terrace dotted with tarns and Park Morpeth Hut. Skirt the tarns to protect the fragile bog.

From Park Morpeth, head upriver and cross Wilberforce after Hall Creek joins it, near the Clough Memorial. The river can look manageable at low flow but becomes dangerous after heavy rain. Browning Pass is the route's steepest climb: old zigzags rise through loose scree and tussock, gaining about 500 m before the saddle. Lake Browning / Whakarewa lies just beyond the pass. For a route-specific photo, frame the blue lake with an orange route marker and rough tread in the foreground.

From the lake, skirt the western shore to the marked descent into the Arahura headwaters. The route drops through rocky creek beds to Harman Hut, then crosses the Arahura to a benched track on the true right. Three avalanche chutes cross that bench, with a recurring hazard period from late July into November. Beyond a swingbridge, the track climbs over wet, boggy Styx Saddle and descends through forest where moss and lichen make rocks slippery. Continue via Grassy Flat for the long valley finish to Dorothy Falls Road.

Park Morpeth Hut remembers James Park and John Morpeth, who died in 1929 while tramping from Lake Kaniere toward Wilberforce. Clough Memorial commemorates Allan Clough, a 16-year-old tramper who drowned at the river in 1956. Browning's zigzags began as part of a late-1860s goldfields route, and the western valley benches were built during the gold-mining era.