tramping new zealand

Hutbagger acknowledges 116 huts in the Nelson region. I had visited 110, but two other enthusiasts had passed my total since my Achilles tendon injury in November 2023. I was knocked off second place while I was deep into rehab, not that I’m competitive, but I’m keen to have made it to all the huts.

Three of the remaining huts are just outside Nelson Lakes National Park, and I realised I might be able to visit each as a day trip on my way south.

Two are the old and new Maud Creek Huts, both pretty ancient, and required permission to cross farmland, so for the first time in my life, I thought that could happen. I dropped by the DOC office in St Arnaud, and they provided a contact.

I was good to go.

It was 1 pm by the time I set off on what turned out to be a 15 km round trip, with at least 20 creek crossings each way.

No worries.

For the first time in my recent hiking career, I wasn’t wearing boots. I bought two pairs of hiking shoes to try out and picked one of them.

The four-wheel-drive track to the hut was helpful in making pace. It also helped that a pack wasn’t required.

The old Maud Creek Hut has a monumental chimney that marked its place in the forest. I noted it was massively tapered and a great height.

The place would have been excellent accommodation in its day, say the 1950s and 60s, but now it lies derelict. As someone who has stayed in the dirt-floored West Harper Hut more than once, it was definitely too far gone.

The new hut was an old hut that had been massively extended, maybe in the 1960s. You could have stayed there if it hadn’t been locked.

With my late start to the day, the third one in the area, Booths Cottage, would have to wait for my return to Nelson.

It was good to have a relatively easy day to test my leg. The new hiking shoes worked well enough.

Then I drove to Murchison to get a good start for Mt Curtis Hut the following day.