Baby Brook will spend his first Christmas in the Welcome Flats DoC hut with parents Ashley and Steve Peters.
Baby Brook will spend his first Christmas in the Welcome Flats DoC hut with parents Ashley and Steve Peters.
Away in a manger it is not, but the parents of a six-month-old baby have chosen some Christmas accommodation with a difference.
Ashley and Steve Peters are taking their baby, Brook, on an 18-kilometre trek to spend her first Noël in a West Coast Department of Conservation (DoC) hut. With the blessing of the local DoC rangers office, it will take the young family from Wanaka seven hours to hike the route to Welcome Flats.
Ashley Peters says it wasn’t because there was “no room in the inn”.
“It was fully by choice. We wanted to spend our first Christmas with Brook somewhere memorable.”
The Welcome Flats Hut is one of the most popular bookable huts on the West Coast. With hot pools and the option for private rather than shared accommodation, in the Sierra Room, it’s got everything the Peter family need.
“We’re really lucky in New Zealand to have access to back country huts,” she says.
“Staying in the Sierra Room, which is a private room, means nobody else has to put up with an excitable baby on Christmas Eve.”
The stove and log burner means that they can save space in their packs for Christmas treats. Pavlova and Christmas pies will be well earned at the other side.
The couple, who were married at the Turere Lodge near Wellington, have explored many of New Zealand’s 900-plus DoC lodges, huts and bivvies. They hope that parenthood won’t change this.
Away in a manger: Welcome Flats is one of DoC's most popular West Coast huts.
With over 20 years professional experience in the outdoors, the Peters say they’re well prepared for the experience, and hope baby Brook will enjoy it.
“I don’t know if Welcome Flats should be your first hut,” says Ashley. The Copeland Track is a challenging route - unless you are being carried by your parents - and isn’t for everyone.
However, there are plenty of DoC accommodation options that remain popular at Christmas.
“It’s important to match your experience to your route to get the most out of it.”
Despite wet weather gear and an inReach and locator beacon, the Peters family say they have still saved plenty of room in their packs for Christmas pies and pavlova.
They hope that taking their son into the backcountry will be the start of a family tradition.
Wayne Costello, operations manager at DoC for the South Westland District, says that he was confident in the family’s competence in the outdoors and that they would have a great Christmas.
Costello says that while DoC huts might appear to be extremely good value compared to baches in Queenstown and Wanaka, which are asking record rental prices, they aren’t really comparable.
“It’s not a choice being made because of cost, but because they love the outdoors, and because people want to be somewhere special for Christmas.”
