Top 10 tramping huts
Most trampers have their favourite huts.
Many pick places tied to people they’ve met. Friendships form quickly when you share adversity.
Travelling solo, and now rarely going to popular huts, I’m more inclined to pick the memorable experiences getting there.
My favourite Top 10, in no particular order, each has had its moments.
1. Bluff Hut. On the second day of a staged trip from Hokitika Gorge to Kaikoura, I dropped my pack into a fully flooded Whitcombe River.
It was sobering to watch my full summer gear float quickly down the raging river. Miraculously, it was caught in an eddy, and I rescued it, though the rescue operation soaked much of my torso. After a cold night out in a wet sleeping bag, I managed to dry everything out at Frew Hut before heading off to the amazing sited Bluff Hut.
Bluff Hut is perched above the Hokitika/Mungo Rivers and was buffeted by a storm that I sat out. A major expedition to get to the toilet in the conditions.
2. Slaughterburn Hut. If you want to get away from civilisation and companionship, this is a good bet. A great six-bunk hut that has few visitors other than rare hunting parties and DOC trap clearers once every six weeks, who tend not to stay. Okay, there’s some mud to get through on the South Coast track between Wairaurāhiri River and Angus Burn, but at least there are no hills to climb. A great Little Adventure for those skilled in off-track navigation.
3. Long Harry/Doughboy Bay Hut. You might think I’m cheating by slipping these two in, but there’s a reason. The original NZFS SF 70 six-bunk structure was relocated from Long Harry Bay in 2003 and fully refurbished to accommodate eight at Doughboy.
Doughboy Bay Hut is a great spot to park up for a day or two. You can walk either way down the beach, well, at least at low tide. Plenty of residue from an ancient shipwreck on the beach, seals, or sea lions frolicking, and kiwis doing their thing down on the beach. The track on the north side of the bay is worth following to watch the rollers cruise past the huge rounded granite outcrops near the heads of the bay.
Meanwhile, at the new Long Harry Hut, kiwis are active during the day. It’s great to look out across the Southern Ocean to the mountains of Fiordland, watch the gulls/terns doing their thing, and the clouds rapidly change. Majorly dynamic.
4. Ministry of Works Hut. The 1970 Ministry of Works Hut is seldom visited, and is therefore in great condition. I approached from the Kahurangi Keepers Hut just 7.6 km away. The complete lack of track, and having to make your way through the West Coast scrub, left me looking like I’d spent a night in a cage with a few feral cats, ie, remarkably scratched up. Yes, another soaked sleeping bag story.
5. Burn Creek Hut. A hut I visited aged 16, mid-winter, as part of a group of five. In the intervening years, the track became overgrown. I was part of a group that restored it to a liveable condition and have been back a few times. The most remote hut in Nelson Lakes National Park.
5. Penk Hut. Where? Yeah, not many visit this well-preserved hut in an obscure location in North Marlborough, and most who do are choppered in. I arrived via Lake Alexander, climbed Ferny Gair (1560 m), and departed via the Penk River. No track is provided towards the Awatere River. You just rock hop, wade, jump, or swim as required.
6. Venus Hut. Venus Hut has to be one of the great located huts around, perched in a small clearing just above the Karamea River, you can pop out to have a look at the huge trout languidly oscillating in the clear green water below.
7. Limestone Hut. A grunt to access, either across the tops from various directions, messing with the wild rose and matagouri, or straight up the stream. This has deceptively easy progress, at least to the halfway mark where there are some poplars, with the second section up a chunky rock gorge, where it pays not to look up to view the huge overhanging rocks ready to rumble.
8. Big Bay Hut. Overall Big Bay Hut is a great place to shack up for a day or two if you doing the full Hollyford – Pike circuit.
9. Lake Man Bivvy. Lake Man Bivvy is another New Zealand Forest Service bivvy built around the length of a bunk and, for many, requires stooping to enter.
10. Old Julia Hut. The old, character-filled Julia Hut was totally and lovingly renovated in 2014 and is a fully fabbo place to stay.