Child friendly rating: 4 stars

Distance: 9.8km

Signposted time: 3 hours

Bookings Required? Yes

Suitable in Winter? Generally

Camping Available? Yes - paid bookable lawn

4wd required? Ideally yes

Parking:

 Park at the Greenstone Caples carpark at the end of Greenstone Station Road past Kinloch. There are about 4 fords to cross on the way to the carpark, and the road past the farmland on the way can flood too.

While we did see a 2WD car in the carpark, we turned around from driving our 2WD to the carpark as the road has very sharp steep drops into the fords which are not ideal for low-clearance cars.

We ended up paying the Kinloch Lodge to drop us off at the carpark, and then managed to hitch a ride on the way back.

The Track:

The track is wide enough to walk holding a child's hand basically the whole way. It is wide and well-graded, but the only thing stopping it from being a 5 star child friendly hut is the distance. The distance is quite long for little legs, and while you are walking in beautiful sheltered bush, it can get a bit boring for little kids with little legs.

We walked this while I was quite sick at 6 weeks pregnant and also carrying a 2.5 year old. But it did take us only 2.5 hours to walk as it was drizzling and we didn't want to stop too much with the 2.5 year old. With a preschooler walking the majority of the way, it would probably have taken us around 6 hours to walk, or with a 5-7 year old walking around 5 hours including breaks.

Hut:

 The hut is modern with flushing toilets! It is a great hut experience for kids, and now that it's on the booking system you can also know you'll have a bed.

There is plenty of space to play near the hut, and during the roar there were so many deer near the hut.

Recommendations:

This would be a great first hut to visit with older kids 7/8+ who don't mind the distance, or for younger kids who've already done at least a couple of trips and would be capable of covering the distance (with parents carrying them for part for preschoolers).

The nearby Greenstone Hut is a slightly longer distance on a very similar track to a similar hut, and the track feels a little harder as it heads more uphill. Mid-Caples would definitely be the one to do first, and this would be a good one for after.

If your kids are older and capable, the Greenstone Caples is actually an amazing 4 day loop track to do. I would recommend going up the Caples Valley and back via Greenstone as this makes the climb much more gentle and well-graded to McKellar Saddle. There are also two huts owned by the NZDA on the track if you wanted to break the days walks up further. The only rough section of track is from McKellar Saddle down to the McKellar Hut. The valleys are stunning, but very sheltered by the huge mountains, so at Easter we didn't actually have the sun hit us till noon most days after heavy frosts overnight, so it does get very cold.