Jollie River (II+/III) from above Littles Hut

The Jollie river lies between the Burnett mountains and the Gamack range and flows into the north east corner of Lake Pukaki. Its a straight forward 16km out and back trip, which can be done as a longer day trip or easy overnighter.

This run needs decent amount of snow-melt or some rain to be runnable; after a dry period or once much of the snow has gone, it can be far too low to be paddleable. So best best is early season (spring). Make sure you’ve got a plan B if you arrive at the bridge and its too low to paddle:

Thanks to Craig Ball for initial information in 2017, and Alan Swann for photos and updates in 2021.


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Jollie River carpark to put in above Littles Hut

Take Braemar Mout Cook Station road to the bridge over the Jollie (takeout) and take a look at the flows.

If it looks good, head back to a small carpark and DOC sign about 1km south of the bridge over the Jollie. From here there is an easement along a vehicle track which allows walkin access to the Braemar Conservation Area. Learn more about tracks in the area via the Tasman River Tracks page on the DOC website.

Jollie Hut, about 3km from the road, is an option for overnight stays, but Green Point Hut (10km’s in) is better situated for overnight excursions.

Worth taking a quick scout at the grade III section around Greenpoint, and noting any landmarks/take-outs if there’s any chance you might want to portage that section.

Continue north on benches and braided riverbed to the put in, which is 1 km above the derelict Littles hut. Here, there is an obvious constriction where the gradient increases, to the point where it’d need heaps more water to be paddleable.

Jollie River (II+) from above Littles Hut to Greenpoint hut rapids.

When there’s enough flow, things start off as class II+ paddling down narrow braided river channels.

The plus comes from the fact it is reasonably continuous wavetrains with few easy spots to sort out a swim: ie, if you swim it could be for a very long way, so you need to know you’ll be staying in your boat.

Even though its ‘only’ grade II+ the continous nature of the rapids also means you need to have good self-rescue skills and teammates who can reliably catch and recover a fast-moving empty boat if you do happen to swim and let go.

Greenpoint hut rapids (III)

From about 500m above the hut, the river constricts and steepens slightly, with rapids containing some obstacles which require maneuvering to avoid.

Below the hut it eases to III- for another 500m or so.

Jollie River (II+)

The river returns to the familiar II+ continous wavetrains and braids for a while, then heads through a short gorge before the road bridge.

There’s no major rapids in the gorge of note, but watch out for treefalls and bits of fence which sometimes find their way into the river.

Gauge

Visual at the road bridge/take out. If it looks like you’ll be scraping at the road, then maybe don’t bother hiking up…

3 Trip reports Log your trip

  1. Matt says:

    Went to have a look at the level in the arvo expecting it to be super low this time of year but didn’t look too bad so went into jollies hut. Walking up the next day it did look kinda bony so ended up putting on at green point and heading back to the bridge. Wasn’t that bad only got hung up a couple times. Would be super sick run with nice spring flow. Epic valley with cool hiking and hunting options!

    • Date of your trip -31/1/24
    • Estimated/gauge flow -Low
    • When did it last rain and how much? -
    • How long did it take to paddle the section described here? -
    • Any new hazards? -
  2. Alan Swann says:

    Agree with Owen`s comments above. We paddled this section is what we considered to be normal flow, and approx 1/2km above Green Point Hut down to the hut was definately grade 3 paddling. Below the hut for another 1/2km was slightly easier but still g3. All super easy to portage if required. The rest all G2.

  3. Owen Keet says:

    Recently ran the Jollie at perhaps higher flows than the author did and found the section around Green Point Hut to be more challenging than grade 2. We had a few swims after been surfed in a hole or two. The hole right on the corner next to large rock dealt to our Alpaca Gnu. Would be best to avoid and run on river left which was the intended line but it was a bit pushy. Great day

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