It was a case of ‘third time’s the charm’ for 4x4Explorer’s Richard Soult on his latest attempt to find out what lies behind Shepherds Creek hut, in the Eyre Creek area west of Athol in Northern Southland.

In late April, having finished the final week’s guiding for www.4x4exploreradvetures.co.nz, I headed to Queenstown and a well earnt night in a motel. I caught up with Jono from Lost Sheep Adventures, who is a good friend and who produced all the promotional videos for 4x4Explorer and the guiding business. We’ve done several trips away and you can check out his videos on YouTube.

The next day, I had arranged to meet up with another friend and contributor to the magazine, Aaron Rich. Aaron and his family were in the area for the school holidays and we met up in Frankton to drive to Shepherds Creek hut, up Eyre Creek, in nearby Northern Southland.

The weather over the previous week had been dry and I was confident that we were going to have a good run. With family in tow, we finally got away from Queenstown rather late and headed South to Athol and the beginning of the track. It’s about an hour’s drive, but it was great chatting to everyone on the UHF and finding out what they had been up to since I had seen them last.

We arrived at the beginning of the track and aired down. We had driven past a farm vehicle which came up to us and the farmer told us that there was a locked gate with a padlock and told us the code. I was really grateful for this as we would have definitely been driving in the dark had we been forced to return to ask for the code.

I was getting pretty excited by this trip, which had been Aaron’s suggestion. I had previously been into Eyre Creek twice, but never made it further than Shepherds Creek hut. The first time had been with my father a few years ago, while we were getting www.4x4eplorer.co.nz off the ground. We had been invited for dinner in Queenstown, so it was really just a quick in and out trip.

Not far

The last time was back in October with great friend and regular client, Gavin. We had seen a few posts on Facebook and were interested to see how far we could get. The weather wasn’t too sharp and we only got as far as the hut. The river was far too high to attempt a crossing and the hut was very inviting. We placed some marker stones to check the river level and nestled into the hut with a good fire going. A very enjoyable evening.

I had remembered from my trip with Gavin that there were a lot of washouts and that it was now better to follow the riverbed, rather than being tempted to use the old track. Gavin and I had done this and, on one occasion had to reverse about one kilometre due to the track disappearing.

I told Aaron what to expect and we took it in turns leading up the river. The water level was very low and the river was running clear, making the crossings easy. Most of the time, there is no real track, but once you get used to it, you can pick out areas where rocks and gravel have been compressed, a sure sign that vehicles have preceded you.

Whilst the river work was quite straight forward, there was quite a bit of mud further up the valley and I was happy that, just prior to the trip, I had fitted a new set of the excellent Maxxis RAZR M/Ts. This is our second set, the first set having lasted over two years without incident. Quite a testimonial considering the amount of off-road driving we do and terrain that we cover.

Bunking down

We got to the hut just prior to twilight and having been on firewood duty, we quickly got a fire going in the log burner and got the candles lit. The hut has about six bunks and I had decided that I would leave the hut to Aaron and his family and pitch the tent. The kids soon discovered that, despite there being six bunks, there were only three mattresses, so Aaron was dispatched outside to put up their tent as well.

We had a great evening by the fire chatting endlessly about everything and nothing and then headed outside to bed. By this stage, both tents were already covered in frost and I was feeling so happy to have my new diesel heater that Aaron had built for me just prior to the trip. More on the heater in my “Cunning Hack” column next month.

We all settled into our tents with the comforting noise of the diesel heaters humming away, safe in the knowledge that we were going to be nice and warm until morning.

The following day, we had a look at the river crossing and decided that it looked straightforward, so we headed up the valley to see how far we could get. The trip up the valley was simply fantastic. It’s truly one of the most beautiful that I have explored! The track takes you through open ground, muddy tracks, Beech forest and all with stunning views of Jane Peak 2022m, covered in snow.

In the Dog Box…

We stopped briefly at Dog Box Bivvy, which has been in use for a long time as a musterer’s shelter. It’s a cool little hut with a couple of bunks and a fireplace. It also had two mattresses, which we surmised had come from Shepherds

Creek hut...

Along the way, we picked out several choice camping spots, which we will return to next time we are there. We stopped at the end of the track marked on TopoGPS and had lunch. The track appeared to carry on further, but it was getting late in the day, so we decided to save further exploration for another day.

It took us about two hours to get back to the gravel road and we realised that we hadn’t come across a single locked gate and certainly not the one that we had the code for. It must be on the old track, which is no longer usable and we decided that we must have driven around it.

All in all, a great expedition and this route can be combined with the Nevis Valley to make an absolutely awesome trip.

As with all our “Close to Home” articles, details including a GPX file can be found on https://www.4x4explorer.co.nz/?aff+2818.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this and look forward to seeing you out there on the tracks.