Two recently renovated huts nestled in the beautiful Huxley Valley. Could be combined with a night at Monument Hut for a multi-day trip 🙂

Located: Huxley Valley, which branches off the Hopkins Valley in the Ruataniwha Conservation Area. At the head of Lake Ohau. NZTopo50- BY14, Mount Ward.

Access: About 8km from Monument Hut. Or about 5km from where Huxley river joins the Hopkins Valley. We drove (4WD) to this point and took us about 3 hours to walk to the hut (4 year old speed). If the river is low enough and you have good river crossing skills you can stay in the valley the whole time. Otherwise you can take the ‘high level route’ and use the swing bridge (4 year old loved this ), or a combination of the two. Each has it’s pros and cons – up and down on a high level track, or the sometimes rougher ground of the valley, which was slow going for little legs. To keep things moved we ended up carrying our tired 2 year old over most of this.

Hut features: The main hut has 6 bunks and a fire with a good supply of wood around. No fly screens on windows but clean and warm enough. Some cooking utensils. Bonus feature is the second little hut – a new 3 bunk hut to replace the original forest service quarters. No woodburner but would be ideal in summer if the main hut is busy. Plenty of flat ground around as well for camping.

Negatives: Shady in winter (possibly in permafrost?), we walked in during the afternoon and the valley itself was mostly in the shade. Sandflies were a bit of an issue – survivable but not great for the kids.

 

Visited by: Clark Family, April 2017.