North Canterbury huts

Andersons Hut is an early two-bunk New Zealand Forest Service hut, built in 1955 and has been neglected for some decades.

The old farmhouse has three small bedrooms and a central living room with timber match lining. It’s comfortable, but not sure who actually stays.

Continue on another 15 minutes for the full grandeur and panorama of Mt Oxford, the Canterbury Plains, and the full view back from whence you have come.

It’s a tidy two-bunk bivvy that nestles into the beech forest.

Sadly Brass Monkey Bivvy suffers from dampness and mould.

Cameron Hut is from 1955, with plenty of character, ie, the concrete floor doesn’t extend under the bunks where it’s just 60-year-old dirt, there’s a fireplace, and graffiti stretching back in time, hut users from decades past.

Great little two-bedroom hut with a small living area with an open fire and kitchen bench between.

It’s a standard NZFS SF 70 six bunk hut in a fairly unrenovated condition. At the time of visiting, it had a major rodent issue. Earplugs were useful.

An hour’s ramble downstream from Tribulation Hut, Cookies is from a similar era, but with a few notable differences.

Built in 2007 it has a reasonable level of amenity for a tiny two-person bivvy.

Sadly Doubtful Hut has been long neglected and suffers from its proximity to the highway. It’s verging on failure for one of the basic requirements for a hut: being fit for habitation.

Doubtless Hut is a typical New Zealand Forest Service SF 70 hut in almost original condition, at least the open fireplace remains.

Few visit, however, with just three names in the old and new hut books for 2022.

Plenty of character. Perhaps excessive.

Harper Pass Bivvy is a tiny box, frigid for much of the year, not so far from the summit of Harper Pass, that can accommodate two close friends.

Hope Halfway Hut was once kinda halfway between a hut and a simple shelter, once you ascended the giant front door step it provided comfortable enough accommodation for those who have not managed to get all the way to the more amenity rich Hope Kiwi Lodge.

Hope Kiwi Lodge was once the outstanding hut in the area, still much used by scout groups and school parties, it’s now somewhat faded and in serious need of a makeover.

Hurunui Hut is the usual everything-in-one-big-room style of DOC hut that tends to promote social interaction, if there are others about, and ain’t that what tramping in NZ is all about.

Yup, character+, one of the more memorable huts you will encounter, at least architecture-wise.

The two bedrooms at either end of the hut with a living space in the middle work well. Particularly for snorers.

Lake Christabel Hut is not located adjacent to the lake, but in a clearing, on a river terrace some distance upstream.

Lake Man Bivvy is another New Zealand Forest Service bivvy that has been built around the length of a bunk and requires, for many, stooping to enter.

Once a radio station building for the Awaroa/Godley Head defences, the structure has been well-renovated for public accommodation.

Lochinvar Hut is a standard New Zealand Forest Service SF 70 six-bunk hut, of which there are around 185 in existence.

Delightful small bivvy not far from the creek, but man, this is the middle of not much.

Lucretia Hut is more correctly termed Lucretia Bivvy. It’s not quite full-sized, as in door, bench, and for those who are tall, bunks.

A well preserved hut, with a few renos: woodburner, bunks, benches. In a delightful spot well might track an attractive valley, ie, it’s a lovely walk in just a simple slip to climb around.

Plenty of decent camping spots, and proximity to the highway SH7 make this a pleasant spot for families and inquisitive tourists on a day trip.

Mid Robinson Hut is one of the South Island’s many New Zealand Forest Service SF 70 huts.

Nina Hut is popular for school parties, families, etc.

A lovely easy camping spot not so far from the road.

One of the four rest houses on the 35 km Te Ara Pātaka/Summit walkway that wanders along a Banks Peninsula ridge with plenty of big views of Lyttleton Harbour.

Visited by fewer than 80 parties in the last 10 years, and some haven’t stayed due to underestimating the time and effort required to get there.

A great place to take teens for a first tramping experience.

The Rod Donald Trust converted the two-level structure into a DOC-style hut in 2015.

Set on a river terrace above the Hope River, St Jacobs Hut has a unique design, there’s a kitchen area, then you go behind a partition for the bunks and table with benches.

Once this was a New Zealand Forest Service deer cullers’ hut, like so many others.

It’s popular for its proximity to Christchurch, but note that access is sometimes restricted due to farming activities.

The last 150 m, once you emerge from the forest into a grassed open area and can see the hut, is a swamp that cows’ hooves have well puckered over the decades.

Despite the proximity to Hope Kiwi Lodge, Three Mile Stream Hut has few visitors, hunters during The Roar mostly, but it certainly has some charm.

Too far up the Hope River to be much use to fishermen, it is handy accommodation for those wanting to visit the hot pools further up the valley. Apparently visiting the South Island’s 16 open air hot pools is a thing these days.

Top Robinson Hut is part of the Lake Christabel Track and accessed from Palmer Road.

It might be a shed, but it’s surprisingly well-appointed.

A tiny two bunk hut that has been lovingly restored in late 2018.

This has to be the longest name of a hut in New Zealand. At least it describes the location, so there is that.

A great place to take youngsters for their first night in a hut.

Wildman Hut is one of the few huts with a wet back on the woodfired oven, producing plenty of hot water for endless cups of tea to go with the freshly baked scones.

Not much amenity at Windy Point Shelter, no toilet, bunks, etc, just a simple shelter, in the bus shelter style, at the road end near the highway. On the positive side it is shelter.

It’s enough to make you feel like you’ve put in a good day’s effort. It’s a great destination for adventurous teenagers.