• The outside of the hut is fairly original. | Top Hut, Hakatere Conservation Area
  • This used to be a musterers' hut. | Top Hut, Hakatere Conservation Area
  • The canvas bunks have been restored, with DOC mattresses installed. | Top Hut, Hakatere Conservation Area
  • The hut has a long table and good benching. | Top Hut, Hakatere Conservation Area

tramping new zealand

45 almost epic adventures on the South Island & Rakiura

Top Hut | Hakatere Conservation Park

One of the best built and preserved of the musterers’ huts around. Plenty of room.

The New Zealand Deer Stalkers Association members have recently replaced the clear light roofing sheets and generally tidied the place up, as have the volunteers from the Federated Mountain Clubs’ Adopt a Hut campaign.

Plenty of musterers’ graffiti and others, dating back to the construction in 1956.

It’s a spectacular location near the head of the Hakatere/Ashburton South Branch River with Ashburton Peak, 2359 m and the rest of the Arrowsmith Range as an impressive backdrop.

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category . . . basic huts/bivvies

hut fee . . . free

booking . . . not required

elevation . . . 1080 m

bunks . . . 10 mattresses on bunks

built . . . 1956

heating . . . woodburner, bring your own firewood

water . . . rivulet 40 m to south

toilet . . . longdrop