Huts or tents?

Id much prefer to camp and sleep in my tent if I had the choice especially if the weather if good. It is an awesome feeling knowing that you can just stop ANYWHERE good, chuck up the tent/fly and have shelter. I always carry some form of shelter, either my fly or lightweight tent on overnight trips and a light weight bivvy bag on day trips. Huts are great in the winter, during bad weather (i.e. extended rain, very windy) and they are a lot easier to cook and recreate in. There is nothing better than knowing you have a solid roof over your head with a howling Nor' Wester blasting in...also 4 inches of foam mat is a lot more comfortable than 2 inches of air mattress. Im right into bivvy rocks, sure the sandflies eat you, but its hard to go past that closeness to nature. Nothing like laying in your pit, brew in hand looking up at the rock above you, quintessential NZ tramping!

When they are empty I prefer huts, when the weather is bad or cold I prefer huts. Still have not found a tent I adore enough to carry with me all of the time, plus most of my local huts are typically empty.

I'm really thankful for the network of huts we have available to us and will use them when I can. All offer roomy shelter compared to a tent [especially appreciated this time of year when the nights are longer]. In general any other inhabitants are friendly and likeminded, but the potential negatives include overcrowding, snoring and rodents. Even if planning to utilise huts I will always carry some alternative form of shelter, in case the hut is full or we get heldup or stuck on the wrong side of the river etc. When tramping with the kids I take a complete tent or if alone or with a mate a bivibag and/or fly. As others have said the charms of camping include the flexability of chosing routes away from the huts and therefore more isolated or adventurous trips.

I've met a number of people from countries with few huts who struggle to understand the place huts hold in NZ tramping, hunting, climbing and our outdoor experience in general. I've heard Australians for example argue that their 'bushwalking' is a better experience because they have so few huts. For most outdoor people camping and huts are not an either/or choice. The backcountry huts are overall an assett, as in they can enrich the experience, open new oportunities. Huts in a general sense have been an essential part of experiencing these lands since the first humans arrived. Tramping as recreation started with groups building huts (almost :-) ) and the two great booms of shelter building correspond with increased numbers of people enjoying and benefiting from the backcountry. To most trampers climbers hunters fishermen etc its not an either/or choice, or even necessarily a preference. Anyone who chooses to only camp or only use huts is choosing to limit (or focus) their experience of NZ's unique outdoor heritage.

Hi all. I am currently snuggled into my brand new Kelty Dridown sleeping bag; I look like a giant tomato. :D I'm in CES Clark hut on the Croessus. Now, I was planning on mostly tenting it along the TA. And I had planned on tenting it tonight. However, the wind is driving through with such force, I have serious doubts that ANY tent would survive the onslaught! In fact, it's so violent that I am rethinking taking a tent at all! I think I might be better off with a bivvy bag. Of course, I need to take SOMETHING for such an extended tramp, but if I factor huts in where I can, a bivvy might be simpler, less likely to tear to shreds, and won't collapse. Thoughts on this would be appreciated.

well if anyone doesnt understand how important a hut is, ins the worst weather its like an oasis in the desert, it may be the difference between life and death... its like an astronaut docking with the space station... a hospitable environment surrounded by an inhospitable one..

Kreig I am jealous of you tucked up warm and toasty in your pit. I'm thinking that one of those Z-Pack Cuben fibre tents at around 600g and a Montbell Sleeping bag cover at around 180g - plus huts - and you are reasonably covered. What a tent offers is flexibility and independence that works at least 95% of the time. A lot depends on how smart you are in picking wind direction and shelter. I recall sitting out a horrendous NWester in the Upper East Matukituki under nothing but a well-pitched tarp and a bit of engineering to get us off the ground. But the key was spending a bit of time finding the best spot. If it gets really bad and the tent fails then the SB cover will at least get you through safely the night with something rigged low over your face area. The chances are come daylight you'll be able to reach some kind of shelter the next day. The worst I've ever experienced was three wet nights in a row. (Unless you count five nights under a rock biv in Fiordland one time, but that was more boring than miserable.) That is how I see huts - as points of safety - not destinations. But of course without a tent you become dependent on being able to cross all the side-streams in order to be able to reach shelter at all. And that becomes another kind of compromise. In a nutshell - just enough tent/SB cover to offer to get you through a rough night, combined with being able to reach the backup of a hut to stage a recovery if necessary.

"...and a Montbell Sleeping bag cover at around 180g" Wait! Surely you will have no need for that! Not with your.. "...brand new Kelty Dridown sleeping bag.." You should be able to bivvy in a creek haha

The other strategy is to say 'sod the huts' and take a tent that will cope with 100% of the conditions. Something in the Hilleburg Alto style of thing which you can pitch more or less anywhere. Now you are carrying something close to 2kg plus of tent to cover that upper 5% of conditions the lighter biv and SB cover won't do, and you've won complete independence from the huts. Of course camping on the open tops is a mugs game anyhow. Even if the tent holds up and stays dry - it's still a noisy, confined and difficult space to be trapped in for days on end. Not good for the morale if nothing else. In the end the difference between the two strategies comes down to the area and season. If the route you are taking has the potential for bad weather to trap you in an exposed spot where you cannot reach any hut for days on end - then the bomb-proof 2kg tent is the go. But most trips you can get away with the sub-1kg setup and rely on reaching the hut within the next day or so.

Sound reasoning Phillip. Although I don't believe a tent exists for 100% of the conditions. I found out today that last night they issued a tornado warning. I'm not surprised. I really was quite concerned the hut windows were going to blow in. Thankfully they held up. But yes, I believe the tent I have is sufficient for most conditions. Just not all. And I wouldn't have trusted a tent on Earth last night.