Save Shelters and Friendly Encounters
We just love the infrastructure of campsites and huts all around New Zealand. It’s great fun to stock up on food supplies and then get lost again in the wilderness, with the certainty that sooner or later, you will find a cozy campground with fresh water or a small hut in the mountains.
It’s not that we desperately need a hut, as our Big Agnes tent has already become the best home we can imagine. However, having the option available makes planning much easier, and it is a nice gesture from the department of conservation towards us travelers. Furthermore, those spots are ideal locations to get to know other travelers and interesting locals.
On our way from St Bathans (Blue Lake) over Omarama Saddle, we had a noteworthy experience. After a tough and tiring climb on a rugged road, we finally arrived at Top Hut – one of two little shelters in a vast countryside.
It’s a quiet and basic hut close to the river, just before the Omarama Saddle peak. There, we got to know a friendly older lady who rode her two horses there to spend the weekend in the quiet.
It was a beautiful encounter! We were even served some local red wine with our spartan dinner and talked about horse-packing and how to attach our gear well to our rides. How wonderful!
She stayed in the hut, and we pitched the tent next to it, as the mattresses in those huts usually feel as soggy as our shoes after countless river crossings.
BTW: This is how camping in NZ looks like on the DOC sites.
You don’t have to look for a picknick table very long.
Thanks to DOC!
