Tramping (Hiking) in New Zealand #15: Caroll Hut Track in Arthur's Pass National Park

Caroll Hut + Kelly Range Track

Type: Out and Back

Time Spent: 8 hours

Distance: 8 km (5 miles)

Elevation change: 1058  meters (approximately  3471 feet) 

As a first hike in Arthur's National Park, we did Caroll Hut and Kelly Range. From the pave road to the trailhead there is a small section of gravel road. Since we had a hard time to go through gravel road at the first portion of trip (we got a flat), this time we had asked a park ranger if non-4WD is doable on the gravel road. The ranger said it is fine. The road was even and the gravel portion was just 5 minutes, so it was no problem. 

On the way to the hut

The hike started with crossing a river. It was a knee high. Grr. My feet got wet. Then track went into the forest. It was very New Zealand-ish track: STEEP climb. Steepness continued for an hour and half, then the view got great. Now it was gradual ascend on the ridge. The undulating mountain range appeared with tall falls. It was very beautiful. As I enjoyed the view, the Caroll hut appeared. Caroll hut is a standard hut, meaning 1 ticket is required to stay. 1 ticket is $5. (New Zealand $5=US $3.2). It is quite cheap. Standard huts don't have wardens. So there is a honesty box on the wall inside the hut and you insert a ticket into a box. There are different levels of huts in New Zealand. Some huts are service with a warden and those need 3 tickets to stay. 

Caroll hut has only 10 bunk beds and a table. It is very cozy. We didn't know if we would stay or not, but we anyway secured the 2 spots of bunkbeds. There were 2 French females still there who stayed at the previous night. We saw many Frenchs tramping in New Zealand. The ladies said the last night was only 2 people stayed there, probably because the weather was not nice and cold. 

Going up

We left our big backpacks at the hut and carried only a small sack and climbed to the top of Kelly range, which is another hill climb from the hut.
You can see the Caroll hut down in the left picture. As we climbed, the view got even more amazing.
After the hut there is no official track, but maybe there was before, because wooden poles are there to the top every 20-30 meters. The track was no longer maintained at all, but still there was unofficial track. Probably people go up to the top. We enjoyed the Kelly range a lot and then came down to the hut at 4 p.m. 

Oh my. 16 people were in the hut. for. 10 bunk beds. We had wished having quiet relaxed night, but it was so crowded and noisy. Humm.
We debated if we would go down. We were leaning to go down as we thought twice. Another factor we thought hiking out was that we only had one more day in Arthur's Pass National Park and we had one more day hike we wanted to try. So we hiked down.
On the way down there was a family. They were just 30 minute away to the hut, but two kids were sitting on the trail. The kids looked tired. The father is Caucasian. From his accent he is from either Australia or New Zealand. His wife is Asian. They asked if there was availability at the hut. We warned that there is NO space and already extra people. They didn't bring a tent. Uh oh. Despite of the fact, there were not upset. After we said good by to them, I overheard their conversation.
The wife said, "どうする？帰る？"
She is Japanese!!! She said, "Oh what should we do? Going down?"
It seemed that she is raising kids by talking to them in Japanese. It is typical style of international marriage. Although it was not an easy situation, from her tone she was not upset but still very cheerful. Great! I respect those people. Being always cheerful and positive is not easy, but for sure it turned out to be good for those people. 

Camped here

Going down was less than 2 hours and we camped at another very pretty DOC campsite. Nobody was in the visible area which was a vast meadow. We were glad we camped peacefully.