Mount Misery Track

Mount Misery Track is a steep out-and-back from the Mt Misery jetty on Lake Rotoroa to Mount Misery Hut on the Mahanga Range. The published distance is 3.9 km each way; the mapped track is about 3.5 km one way, so plan for roughly 7 to 8 km return. You climb about 1,100 m from the lake to the hut at 1,550 m. Allow 6 to 8 hours with a proper stop. This is a hard mountain climb for the high country and the hut, not an easy lakeside walk.

The first roughly 750 m gains about 100 m, then the track gets steep through beech forest, ferns and lichen. Dark mould on the ground can make patches slippery. Around 1,400 m the bushline gives way to open tussock and rocky tops, where poles mark the route. The hut is the destination; Mount Misery’s 1,601 m high point is nearby, but this route does not make a summit circuit.

Mount Misery Hut is a basic, free three-bunk hut with no bookings; beds are first come, first served. It sits beside a small tarn in a high basin. The open ridge looks down the length of Lake Rotoroa, with Mt Windward, the Travers Range, Ella Range and Mole Tops around it. For a photo, keep a strip of the tussock slope in the foreground with the lake behind it; the foreground gives the view some scale.

The trail starts at the Mt Misery jetty, not a road-side car park. Reach it by kayak or water taxi from Lake Rotoroa. A D’Urville Hut approach adds about 30 minutes along the shore and an unbridged D’Urville River crossing. That is a separate access variant, not part of this route’s distance; the crossing is for experienced river crossers at low water. Dogs and other domestic pets are not allowed in the national park.