Upper Caples

$30 / bed / nightpublic tariffMembers free

Sleeps

16 beds1 bunk rooms

Cooking

Hob + burnerTwo gas cookers (9 kg LPG bottles supplied) + wood/coal stove

Heat

Wood/coal stove, new in late 2023

Water

Runningwater inside the hut. In winter the indoor tap is turned off (the pipe can freeze and burst); the outside tap on the tank stays on, but it can freeze overnight — fill up before bed in cold conditions

Sixteen bunks. in a grass clearing on the Caples Track. New wood/coal stove in late 2023, gun cabinet, two drop toilets, gas cookers. A comfortable base for the Greenstone–Caples loop or the Steele Creek ballot.

Once a DOC hut, the Upper Caples came to the Deerstalkers in 2014 when DOC built the newer (and confusingly named) Mid Caples Hut lower down the valley. We've looked after it ever since — a new wood/coal stove went in late 2023. About a 4–5 hour walk from the Greenstone car park at the Glenorchy end.

Facilities in the Upper Caples Hut

Space for 16 people with DOC style foam mattresses
Good sized kitchen bench and 2 large tables and stool type benches.
Meat safe
Wood store
Two drop toilets (away from the building behind the wood store).
Wood/Coal stove (installed new late 2023)
Gun cabinet (bring your own padlock).
Running water inside the hut. (During winter this tap is turned off as the pipe freezes and could burst, however there is ample water in the water tank with an outside tap but until the sun comes up it can freeze on very cold nights so fill up with water before you head to bed.)
LED solar powered lighting to reduce the fire risk, so no need for candles
USB charging ports
Axe and handsaw, please do not chop firewood on the decking – use the chopping block provided. Absolutely do not chop any live trees.
Plates, cups, glasses, knives and forks and cooking utensils – the spoons keep going missing so maybe take one or two.
Frying pans, plenty of cooking pots, stock pot sized large, medium and small and a skillet for meat.
Two gas cookers (with gas provided in LPG 9kg bottles)

Branch members stay free. A refundable $50 key deposit is charged at booking and refunded to your card within three working days of returning the key.

Tariffs

Branch member: Free
NZDA member (other branch): $10 / bed / night
Public: $30 / bed / night
Key deposit: $50 refundable

Getting there

From the Greenstone car park (via the Caples Track): allow about 2.5–3 hours to the DOC Mid Caples Hut, then another 2 hours to here. From Mid Caples the track crosses large grass clearings, then settles into bush track and eventually runs alongside a long grass clearing for a couple of kilometres. At the end of the clearing the track heads left and starts uphill — newish path, rocks blasted away, slowly being covered by leaves and moss. About 10–15 minutes up that steady hill, look for the DOC 'Caples Track' sign on your left. Directly opposite, down to your right about 200 m below in a grass clearing, is the hut. If you reach the Kay Creek turnoff, you've gone too far.

From the McKellar Saddle: you'll pass a track on your left to the Fraser and Kay Creek swing bridge; about 5 minutes after that you reach a DOC Caples Track signpost (on your right from this direction), with a Steele Creek Track signpost in the trees behind it. The hut is down to the left in the clearing.