Hunts Creek Hut

(Hunts Creek Hut: Photo Greg Ross 2009)

Maintenance Status

Hunts Hut and the track to it over Hunts Saddle from Kellys Creek are designated as fully maintain. Its proximity to Arthurs Pass and relatively easy access means it gets higher levels of use than most of the huts on this site. There were 47 visits in 2005 with peoplw having to camp outside on occasions when it was full. Outside of weekends or public holidays however, there is a good chance that Hunts will be empty. The feeling of remoteness returns with the mist and is punctuated but the shrill cry of the kiwi as night falls.

Location

Taipo catchment. Grid Ref: E1477550/ N5255780. Map BV20. Altitude 880m. Hunts Hut is located on a tussock flat below an old moraine wall in Hunts Creek basin. The flat is ringed by sub-alpine forest. Further downstream Hunts Creek drops through an impressive, impassable gorge to the Taipo River. Upstream, a short section of track leads up onto the moraine, and poles and cairns up over this into the upper basin. The basin slopes gently for several kilometres and at its head high-level cols provide access to the Gorgy Creek tops, Campbell Pass, and beyond. The peaks of the Barron and Hunts ranges ring the basin. It is a beautiful spot and one of the few easily accessable huts where Kiwi can still be heard. Hunts is an easy overnighter, or a stopover for longer tops journeys.

Access

The principle route to Hunts from Kellys Creek on State Highway 73 10 kms North of Otira. The tracked sections on this route were re-cut by DOC in March 2006. There is some windthrow from the winter storms of 2008, mainly on the last hour of the trail. Follow the TL of Kellys Creek up from the picnic area, a mix of track and river travel. Half an hour upstream the track climbs steeply up and around a small gorge, then drops back into the Creek. From here the mix of river and track travel continues. The climb up to Hunt Saddle commences 100m up an open side creek around E1479400/ N5258720, and sidles above Kellys Creek through the montane and subalpine forest, then open areas of red tussock and peat. The trail re-enters the montane forest, crosses the Saddle, and sidles up the TR faces of Hunts basin. This section is uneven and rocky with lots of little ups and downs. The track crosses two large screes then drops down into the basin proper. The tussock flat where the Hut is located is visible from the screes, but not the Hut.

Type

Hunts is a standard NZFS four-bunk design built in the 1960's. It originally had an open fire but this was replaced very early in the piece by a wood burner. It can be a bit of a scrounge finding dry wood here the higher visitation rate means more free-lunchers who use and don't replace existing wood. Hunts has a toilet and a roof-fed watertank.

Condition

Hunts Hut is in good condition currently. It was repainted inside and out, and resealed in 2004. It also had some framing and a section of floor replaced, and new skylights and flue installed. The wood burner's grate has disintegrated and the flue cover has vanished.

Routes

There is a reasonably good tops route to Hunts Hut from Carroll Memorial Hut over Kellys Range. The tops are flat with open tussock and numerous tarns and good campsites. It is necessary to drop off the tops at the SW end of the Range to connect with the Kellys Creek track at Hunt Saddle. This requires a scrub-bash from the tussock to a swampy clearing just above Hunt Saddle, then dropping down the small creek draining it to meet the track East of Hunt Saddle. Carroll Hut to Hunts Hut takes around 4 hours, or a bit longer in reverse.

There are a couple of high-level routes to Hunts from Otira over Barron Ridge or the more experienced. The first of these starts by following a water pipeline up Goat Creek from SH 73. A track at the top end of this takes you up onto a spur North East of Mt. Barron. This trail is not officially maintained but is occasionally trimmed by Gerard O'Malley, the owner of the Backpackers near Goat Creek. From the spur sidle around and through a saddle between Mt. Barron and spot height 1629m. Once on the Hunts side sidle beneath Mt. Barron in a SW direction traversing two large basins until above the largest of the screes that drop in to Hunts basin just downstream of the Hut. The Hut is visble in fine weather from the top of the scree.

The other route starts off Highway 73, 100m on the Otira side of the railway underpass just before the Otira rubbish dump. The track takes you up onto the southern flanks of Mt. Barron. From here sidle around the high basins of Holts Creek, staying South of the summit of Mt. Barron, onto the crest of the Range. The descent for this route is via the same scree as the Goat Creek route.

Allow a full day for both these routes.

For more experienced trampers, a number of high-level alpine trips are possible from the head of Hunts Creek via the heads of Gorgy and Tumbledown Creeks, to the upper Rolleston, or Campbell Pass and into the Waimakariri. You can continue further along the Main Divide over a high col between spot heights l805m and 1801m (North of Mt. Campbell) to Harman Pass.

Access onto Hunts Ridge from Hunts Hut is relatively easy and there are a number of places you can drop off into the Taipo valley. The most frequently used of these is down Dry Creek. Mid Taipo and Julia huts can be reached in in this way.

Another way of getting from Hunts Hut out to the Kellys Creek car park is via Barron Ridge. This is the same route in reverse intially as the Goat creek route in, but instead of dropping down the Goat Creek track, continue sidling along a series of benches in a NE direction to spot height 1359m. From here drop down the leading ridge to the Kellys/ Otira conflence. There is a very short scrub bash at around 900m altitude that takes you down into more open montane forest. From here it is a standard bush bash down to Kellys. There is a short well defined section of ridge before and over spot height 615m with old blazes in places. The drop from here down to the Kellys Creek car park is probably the least pleasant bit on this route due to a band of dense regenerating hardwoods. Allow 5-6 hours from Hunts hut to the road.

Do not attempt to attempt to use Hunts Creek as a route down into the Taipo valley from Hunts Hut as the gorge is impassable.

Repairs

A new grate is required for the wood burner, and the missing flue cover needs replacing.

Provisions on Site

Three billies, one camp oven, one aluminium bucket, one small frypan, an axe, a slasher, a shovel, a broom, and a small hand brush and shovel. There are a few warratahs under the Hut.