Thread: Kelly Knight hut hunting

This thread got me thinking i should pay the hut a visit, must be thirty years since i last spent a night a Kelly Night Hut. So with a low river level and a good weather forecast i headed in on the friday afternoon via the river, pretty good going in the Pourangaki till you get up to where the DOC sidle track starts, cant remember what it was like before the floods.
Deer sign galore in the river bed, but i suspect most activity is under cover of darkness. Cutting up the face onto the doc track i hoped to see something on the faces across the river where i've shot deer in the past but nothing was seen and the slips looked quite barren with no growth on them. Like the river bed there was sign everywhere on the track but had no encounters, finally got to the hut an hour after dark.
The floods have totally rooted the track in places with some major wash outs and the detours in place are quite steep with ropes in place to help pull yourself up and in the dark was a bit tricky trying to follow.
Would have liked to stay another night but had to be out by sat night so back out again next morning, think i was very unlucky not to have seen a deer or two but good to visit the hut again. Looking up at the tussock tops from the sidle track its a big climb to get there from the hut so think ill stick to getting there via Rangi hut, much easier .