Griffin Creek Hut

Tom and I decided to head to the West Coast for the weekend in search for the hut with the bath tub... The weather was looking good, so after a brief stop in Arthur's Pass for coffee we were on our way. The track up Harrington Creek through the bush was pretty well marked and not too overgrown for the West Coast. It was fairly steep, but after 2 hours of climbing through the bush we'd reached the high point (934m-an 800m climb from the car). An old, corroded barrel marked the turnoff down into Griffin Creek, but before making the descent we decided lunch (and Jelly Babies) were in order.

Heading up Harrington Creek

West Coast bush

The track down into Griffin Creek was steeper and more overgrown than the track we'd taken up. It was more about parting the thick bush to see where to tread rather than proper West Coast bush bashing, so was actually quite fun. I did fall over many times, but what do you expect when the ground is covered in slippery grass. After an hour descent we'd reached Griffin Creek, and it was only another 45 minute amble upstream to the hut. The river was an awesome greeny/blue colour, and there was plenty of greenstone around. We also saw a couple of blue ducks, which didn't seem too bothered about us being there.

Blue Ducks

Griffin Creek Hut

We reached Griffin Creek Hut at about 3pm, and after dumping our packs we headed 100m towards the river to find the bath tub. The only problem was that there wasn't a tap for the bath, so we had to use a bucket to carry the water from the river to the bath, and there wasn't actually a plug... Tom solved that problem by making one out of wood. The piece of cloth that was sitting on the bath obviously wasn't good enough. It took him an hour to find a piece of wood that didn't have a hole down the middle, and then when he did find something suitable he got out his penknife and began sawing and shaping the wood into a plug. Meanwhile, I was sipping on the bottle of wine that I'd carried up and over the hill. Perfect! Eventually the plug was finished, so I got to work carrying the water from the river to the bath, while Tom started the fire. By the time the plug was finished and the fire was going it was dinner time. So we got the food from the hut and started cooking dinner by the bath while it was heating up.

By the time we'd eaten dinner, the water in the bath had got hot enough for a good soak. What a great way to end the day! We headed back out from Griffin Hut the same way, and made it out in time for a pint at Jacksons, a drive around Otira looking for Chris (whom we didn't find!) and an ice cream in Arthur's Pass.

Tom and his Wooden Plug

Yey, finally a hot bath