Katie and I headed up to our stomping ground in Arthurs Pass again. We stashed our bikes and some gear at the CMC lodge and drove down to Otira and a little further to Kelly’s creek. It was a couple of hours of walking up the steep track to Carroll Hut on the Kelly range. Carroll Hut is a nice little DoC back country hut that sleeps about 10 people. It’s in very good condition and is situated amongst tussock near a handy little creek. We stayed the night there.
The next day we wandered along the Kelly range and bashed down through the rather dense bush to the Hunt saddle. From there we joined the track and walked back down Kelly’s creek to the car. The walk back down the river was interesting with large parts of the track damaged or washed away. The walk out took around 8.5 hours while the walk in was around 2 hours.
We stayed the night at the CMC and went for a short road ride down to the Waimak the next day. My ankle was not keen to do more than that. Booo.
Above left: Katie nearing Carroll Hut in the evening. Above right: View from Carroll Hut in the evening.
Above left: Katie leaving Carroll Hut the following day. Above right: Katie tramps with Aarn packs.
Above: Katie navigates through parts of the damaged track in Kelly’s creek.
Above: We cooked up some goodies at the CMC lodge and stayed the night there after our tramp.
Above: Do not feed the keas.