Sylvester Hut near the Cobb Valley is the perfect family-friendly option for an overnight hut stay in Kahurangi National Park (or the base for some more adventurous exploration of the tops).
Length: 5km one-way with around 600m elevation gain
Time taken: 2 hours up, quicker down
Difficulty: easy 4WD track the whole way (although uphill)
Facilities: small carpark at trailhead with a DOC intentions book, but no toilet. Sylvester Hut is a 12-bunk hut with a long-drop toilet, water tank, fire and firewood. It is $25 per night per adult, and operates on a first-come, first-served basis.
– Important: the last section of this track is above the treeline in alpine terrain. It would be exposed in poor weather. The access road to the trailhead from the Cobb Power Station requires 4WD vehicles in winter. –
Why Sylvester Hut?
I was holidaying in the Golden Bay area with my husband Matt, our almost two year old toddler, and my parents. I’d never stayed overnight in Kahurangi National Park before and wanted to explore this beautiful and wild part of the country. The Cobb Valley seemed a perfect access point with easy tracks for our young family. The lovely Ali suggested Sylvester Hut as an easy hut to access while still having some beautiful views above the bushline.
How to get to the Sylvester Hut trailhead?
The trailhead for Sylvester Hut is about 1.5-2 hour drive from Takaka. It’s marked as “Sylvester Hut Track Carpark” on Google Maps. The Cobb Valley Road is very narrow and windy. It’s the only public road into the interior of Kahurangi National Park. There was quite a bit of rockfall on the road when we drove in.
From the Cobb Power Station the road is unpaved and a 4WD is often needed in winter. I wouldn’t recommend this road (even in summer) unless you’re happy driving on gravel, narrow roads. You’ll need to be confident in your ability to reverse to a passing bay if you encounter oncoming traffic.
Climbing up to Sylvester Hut
Picking a good weather window, me, my husband, my parents and toddler in her carseat all managed to pile into Dad’s 4WD for the windy and narrow drive to the carpark.
At the trailhead, there was a DOC Intentions Book (pictured below). I filled out our intentions and checked if we’d be sharing the hut with any others tonight. Our luck was in, just a couple coming out to the only other car in the carpark. Perfect!
Someone a week or so earlier had written that they’d heard a kokako, which is pretty exciting! (The South Island Kokako is thought to be extinct. There is a current reward of $10,000 for definitive proof of its existence).
The trail is a 4WD track the entire way to the hut. It runs through scrub alongside the Cobb reservoir for about a kilometre, before entering the native bush and starting to climb steadily. The road is well maintained, and on our walk our we found out why – two DOC rangers were driving firewood up to the hut in a ute.
Like all 4WD tracks, it can be a tad rough in patches, but the gradient is really steady which makes for very efficient walking (if a little boring). There are a few switchbacks, but the track is very easy to follow. The beech forest is beautiful and birdsong was plentiful.
Hearing a South Island Kokako!
About halfway up, we heard a bird call that absolutely stopped us all in our tracks. It was like nothing I’d ever heard before. The resonance of a tui or bellbird, but with these loud, haunting notes like a squeaky door hinge swinging closed. We all looked at each other and later once we reached the hut (and realised we still had cell service), we double checked. It was indeed the call of the South Island Kokako!! Once back home in Invercargill I remembered to log my ‘encounter’ (sadly we didn’t see the bird) on the website linked earlier.
The Cobb Reservoir
The road up to Lake Sylvester was cut during the building of the Cobb Reservoir between 1930s-1956. You can still see vestiges of the old road, like this old “retaining wall”. The dam across the Takaka River in the Cobb Valley created a reservoir with the highest hydro storage area in New Zealand at around 820m above sea level. The Cobb Reservoir is able to hold up to 25.6 million cubic metres of water.
The Cobb also has the highest hydraulic head (the height the water falls between the dam and the power station) of any dam in New Zealand at almost 600m fall (along a 4km tunnel). Because of this the power station is able to generate a significant amount of power from a relatively small flow of water. This is a cool photo of the building of the Cobb dam and reservoir, taken in the 1950s.
Sylvester Hut
We climbed up the 4WD track with the trees steadily lowering around us. Eventually we topped a rise and spotted our first view of the hut (above photo). It was a short downhill and then quick uphill climb to finally reach the hut for a well-earned lunch.
We had lunch at Sylvester Hut, spread out our gear onto our chosen bunks and then headed off to Lake Sylvester. The track to Lake Sylvester still follows the old 4WD track, although you’d no longer be able to drive a large vehicle up it. But it’s easy to follow and only 20 minutes to the first views of Lake Sylvester.
Lake Sylvester
Unfortunately the weather was clagged in and threatening rain (which didn’t actually eventuate until much later). It was delightfully moody in person but a bit challenging for photos and not quite the shots I’d wanted.
We followed the well-trodden path around to Little Lake Sylvester on the other side of Lake Sylvester. There is still lots of evidence of dams from the early years of the Cobb Reservoir, helping build up its water supply. Little Lake Sylvester had an odd line running fully around its perimeter a few metres above the current water level. I’m assuming it marks the water height when the lake was dammed.
My parents climbed up to Pt 1619, but Matt and I just climbed a little above Little Lake Sylvester. Our Little Adventurer was on Matt’s back, napping. There is a cairned route past Iron Lake to the top of Iron Hill. From there (according the hut logbook entries) it’s a popular trip along the tops (unmarked / untracked) to Lake Lockett, or along further to Fenella Hut. I’d love to return one day and explore more! Such a beautiful region.
Matt and I returned to the hut while my parents mountain-goated (yes that is a verb) all over. I want to be them when I grow up.
A solo woman from Australia had walked in to share the hut with us that night. It was her second attempt to stay at Sylvester Hut. The first time she’d tried, she’d arrived to find more than ten cars in the carpark and given up. Later a couple with a six month old baby arrived and set up a tent outside. What an awesome way to celebrate your six month birthday!
The sunset was beautiful and made up for the moody weather earlier as the clouds cleared. Little A took a while to calm down enough to go to sleep, but then it was lights out.
Walking back out
When we woke up the next morning the weather was still clear, instead of the forecasted waterfall that was meant to be hitting the entire island. I ran* up to Lake Sylvester to see if I could get any better photos (*I walked). But it was blowing a gale down across the lake. (Apparently this is quite common so I wouldn’t recommend tenting near the lake).
While I was off gallivanting, my parents and Matt got Little A ready and started the descent back to the carpark. Little A was walking on her own, we’re entering that era!
I chatted with the lovely couple and their cute baby while getting my gear packed, checked we’d left the hut clean, then started down after my family. Despite giving them at least a 30 minute head start, I caught up with them within 10 minutes. The joys of going at a toddler pace.
To be fair to Little A, she did probably walk 2-3km on this trip on her own. A big milestone for a not even 2 year old! We had to fight her to get back into the backpack. Then she wanted out again as soon as we stopped for a rest in the shade of the trees at the bottom of the hill. No kokako were heard on the downhill trip sadly.
The last flat 1km of the walk seemed to take foreeeever at toddler pace. The Cobb Reservoir had some really interesting straight lines running along the water from the wind, which had me mesmerised (you have a lot of time to notice that kind of thing when snails are passing you). I was happy to finally reach the truck.
This trip in to Lake Sylvester Hut has ignited my desire to explore more of the Cobb Valley and Kahurangi National Park. We only just brushed the very surface of what this special place has to offer (e.g. New Zealand’s oldest fossils or a remote cottage inhabited for 40 years by a couple living in the wilderness). I’m already planning my next trip back for when Little A is older.
Where to from here?
