Tararua Range is loved and feared by trampers everywhere. Access is excellent, just an hour's drive from Wellington, and its craggy pinnacles have proven irresistible to many. Even the signs at entry points to the forest park, proclaiming that the tops are clagged in for four out of five days a year, do not deter the estimated 150,000 annual visitors. On the days when sunshine triumphs over 100kph winds and dripping wet fog, Tararua Range can't be beaten.
With 50 marked huts sprinkled across the hills and valleys of Tararua Forest Park, there is a place to stop for a cuppa or the night on almost any hike. Having tramped and trudged my way to all of them, here is my definitive ranking of the 50 huts, from worst to…
