Suggestion of huts with nice day hikes?

Hi I have a young family who love to tramp (hike). We have a 7 month old baby who comes with us on every trip I carry him in a front pack with my pack on my back. It sure does slow you down and you have to be more selective where you can go. We recently (2 months ago) did a 3 week tramping trip down the South Island. We did a mixture of overnight and day hikes. I'll give you three really great trips we did that are fantastic for families and the baby. Asbestos hut in the Kahurangi national park. It's an easy 1&1/2 - 2 hr hike on an easy track to a fantastic historic hut. We stayed there the night as we arrived at the hut late. It is also a good spot to explore further into the park. There is also the option to carry on to trilobite hut and explore the Cobb valley similarly good for baby. Ces Clarke hut in the Paparoa range. This is a very family friendly trip along an historic gold mining trail. It travels an easy valley before an easy climb up to the bush edge to two great huts with stunning views. We did this as a day hike but it would also be a great overnight option. It took us 7 hrs there and back with lots of breaks and a detour to garden gully hut and the battery which we fully recommend . We actually did the routeburn up to Harris saddle as a day hike. It's quite an easy tramp even with baby in tow. It's a fantastic tramp. Harris saddle is a stunning spot. It took us 7 hrs there and back with lots of stops. We actually visited 18 huts during the 3 weeks all over the island. But these 3 will probably give the greatest taste of the different environments that the South Island has. Though there are hundreds of trips easily achievable with baby. It's the ones that aren't you need to be aware of.

While it's basically flat to Aspiring hut, and further up the valley to Pearl Flat, the side trips are steep and potentially treacherous in November. Rob Roy glacier and maybe Cascade Saddle only to the bushline is all I would consider suitable there. Young Hut is not within day walk range of Crucible Lake, it's 8 hours one way over a mountain and then up into a hanging valley! You might mean Siberia hut. Siberia is routinely over full of people with plenty sleeping on the floor and deck outside, it might not be that bad in November/December but I would consider a tent for the sanity of the other hut users as well as your own piece of mind.

Thanks for the feedback! I'll look a bit further in the Kahurangi national park and Paparoa range as I have not read about them before. Im still getting familiar with the different regions and national parks =D @Gaiters, when you mean that you did the routeburn up to Harris saddle as a day hike, you mean from the car park or from the Routeburn Flats hut? @Yarmoss, when looking more at Young Hut, I see that indeed it is 20km til there and there is a river crossing which seems a bit nasty. I may skip that one. About the trips from Aspiring Hut, do you mean that Liverpool Hut and French Ridge Hut would be out of question? Do you think that leaving Mt Aspiring for beginning of December increases much my chances?

I wouldn't rule out Crucible Lake.... there are jetboats that operate on the Wilkin River as far as Kerin Forks.... its roughly $130pp for a ride up. From Kerin Forks there is a good track that goes up into the Siberia valley to Siberia Hut, and there is a lot of places to camp in the valley. If you jet boat in and out (yes, that will be expensive) then you only have the river crossings of the Siberia Stream and the Crucible Streams on the way up and back to Crucible Lake, which are fine under normal conditions. Regarding Aspiring hut, yes I meant Liverpool and French Ridge (and Cascade Saddle above the bush line). These tracks are very steep and often poorly formed, with short banks to scramble up hanging onto tree roots. Above the bush line there are cliffs to pass above where a slip would be serious or fatal. Under normal conditions, with suitable experience the routes are physical but not overly taxing, but I wouldn't take a small child/baby up there. Again, there is very nice camping on the valley floor past Aspiring Hut (Shovel flat is lovely) and the views are impressive. I would still recommend going, even if you don't leave the valley floor. The views from the treeline on the Cascade Saddle route are almost as good as from the top of the climb.

From the car park.

I've had a very bad experience with the jetboat operator at Makarora (Siberia Hut) last month, I wouldn't go back there, they are incredibly unreliable, and the Siberia hut ranger was unhelpful as well. So if you go there triple check that the operator has booked you for the right time and that they will come and pick you up. And this is also very expensive for what it is. So yeah I wouldn't advise it. In Kahurangi you have plenty of other options: Flora Hut or Mt Arthur hut will give you access to a nice day walk to Mt Arthur summit, or a longer loop to Gordons Pyramid. Salisbury Lodge is well situated too. Another one I like is Fenella Hut, still in Kahurangi. There's two main day hikes, partly on un-mapped routes: Mt Gibbs and Waingaro Peak. Might be on the harder side of things though.

Unbookable gateway huts ?. Multiple nights ?. Don't complain about the traffic. You ARE the traffic. "Gateway" huts are used by trippers who arrive at a location and use those as a launching base for traveling on. Increasingly, tourists are using those for an overnighter on a day trip in, to come out again the next day. Some intend to use them as a base camp for day trips, such as yourselves. I don't mean to be harsh. Just be aware, there can easily be over-occupancy of Gateway huts.

I've used wilken jetboats in makarora multiple times and i highly rate them. Never had a problem.they even made a special trip up once to pick a group of us stuck at Siberia hut due to rain,after the warden radioed for us. Its a good way to avoid a days slog up/down the wilken. Basing yourself at Siberia would be a good idea but it is a popular hut that's for sure.

the wilkin jetboat service goes way back decades... they've been a solid service,,, they put our canadian canoe on their jetboat to kerin forks , they were really helpful to our group. it was as long as their boat, they were really good humoured about it, they were happy to do it about it.. maybe it was a new boat driver..