Thread: Greenstone/Caples

How have people been getting on in the Greenstone and Caples this winter? Heading into the lower Caples in a few weeks and looking forward to it!

Going to be cold. I can tell you that.

Tramping through the Caples on a summer's day in 1965, I walked through a mob of 84 fallow, including 4 albino animals. Some of them looked up, saw me, and carried on grazing. There was obviously no hunting pressure on the herd then. After that experience, I took up hunting.

Slip Flat hut is a cold hole.

Check out the area behind the Caples hut also reds up home hill

When you heading in there bosh? I'm heading up there on Sunday

I put this in the thread for; Proposed new hut fee system.
I don't know how others are getting on or what their plans are, but I would do some homework if you haven't thought about it.

We're heading to the lower Greenstone for the last week of July for the winter ballot. Initially we were going to use the DOC Greenstone hut, and I thought I would get a annual hut pass as we are going in for five nights and we could use the pass elsewhere as well. With the new fees for the huts that DOC have introduced, the Greenstone/Caples huts are now "Booked Huts" and come with a fee of $25 per person per night, and no winter rates. So we would be paying the same price as the summer walkers do for a non-serviced hut, I pointed this out to DOC that the water would be turned off and there would be no fire wood and there would be no warden, so in effect a non serviced hut, they wouldn't wear it. The other annoying thing is that camping near the hut is not available during the winter for reasons unbeknown.
We'll possibly camp at Slip Flat hut or further up near Passburn hut it we can get permission. But it is annoying that we are going in there to help bring the deer population down but are getting raked over by DOC when the number of people going there in winter is very low, I would have thought that getting a winter rate of $15 for the use of the hut was better than getting nothing. And on top of all that is the fact that the TA walkers get a 20% discount during the height of the season.

Well there won’t be a warden there to check….. I’ve camped up the Passburn a couple times, in the bush just north of 823, handy to a good lookout. Take warm gear

Last time I was at the Greenstone hut, two young American trampers turned up with no sleeping bags, the main valley was in permanent frost for the whole 5 days! Neat spot, good luck

Thanks for that outdoorlad, it'll be interesting to see how the area compares to the lower Caples and steel which we have also done recently. Cheers.

Originally Posted by Ranger 888

Tramping through the Caples on a summer's day in 1965, I walked through a mob of 84 fallow, including 4 albino animals. Some of them looked up, saw me, and carried on grazing. There was obviously no hunting pressure on the herd then. After that experience, I took up hunting.

There are still plenty of deer in the area. My wife and I did the Greenstone Caples circuit in late December last year. We saw 147 deer over the 3 days (only 7 of which were reds). 90% of what we saw were Fallow bucks, I assume because the does were tucked up in the bush about to give birth.

Brother had the Upper Caples mid May. Weather wasn’t great but we went. Didn’t see a single deer in there. Found out it had been 1080’d last year. Didn’t see a fallow until just before mid Caples hut on way out and spooked one on the track the next morning just down for the hut. Plenty of reds down from the mid though, fallow no.


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Originally Posted by Tahr

Slip Flat hut is a cold hole.

@Tahr Yes but a neat old hut, we had to use the axe to cut thru the Ice in the top of the water tank to get water

We had upper caples Aug 2024, a few months after the 1080 drop. Also had terrible weather, but got out for a look each day. Saw lots of carcasses. 1 brief glimpse of a fallow on a slip, and 2 reds on the tops. Some fresh sign in the river bed, but very poor returns for about 5 days effort. The party we shared the block with had similar result.