WEST COAST: BULLER

05-May-14

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Slab Hut Creek - DOC

star rating of 3.5

by Chris Gaelic

Off SH7 on Slab Hut Creek Rd, Reefton, West Coast

Phone: 03 731 1895

rvexplorer id: 18378

Lat-Long: -42.15218, 171.78901

DOC registration and honesty box

DOC registration and honesty box

 

Camping beside the creek

Camping beside the creek

 

The river, or creek, where you can pan for gold

The river, or creek, where you can pan for gold

 

 

Slab Hut Creek reserve is a small DOC campsite where you are legally allowed to pan for gold in the river that runs past.

 

It is in a really quiet location, set in a forest environment, and features a large brick barbeque with pizza oven on the side. 

 

It also has the distinction of being one of the very few locations where you can legally pan for gold, and keep what you find. Elsewhere in New Zealand, if you don't have a prospecting license, you can't legally keep any gold that you might find, even it it is on your own land.

 

We visited on a miserable wet day in autumn, on our way from a West Coast storm in Greymouth to forecast sunny weather in Hanmer Springs. So, we didn't really see the campsite at its best. We'd happily come back in better weather, just for the peaceful forest surroundings.

 

There is not a lot of room though, so be prepared to find it already full if you're travelling in the summer holiday season.

 

Gold Fossicking Sign

 

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