You came
back for part two? Wow, how bored are you? Well, it is January, so I’m guessing
that the answer to that is very. Plus
fed up of work, plus probably suffering from some kind of ill-health…Ooop, too
real? Let’s get back to the huts.
July (31/07/17)
This is Awatere hut on the Makateru river in the
Ruahine forest.
As you know, I always look for the story, but there isn’t always a story lurking, sometimes a hut is just a hut. The most details I could find were– ‘This is a basic three-bunk hut in the Hawke’s Bay region.’ What more could you need to know?
As you know, I always look for the story, but there isn’t always a story lurking, sometimes a hut is just a hut. The most details I could find were– ‘This is a basic three-bunk hut in the Hawke’s Bay region.’ What more could you need to know?
But there are two things to note. One, despite this being the 7th hut I’ve researched this year, I’ve only just come across the practice of ‘Hut Bagging’ which is as straightforward as – visit a hut and you’ve bagged it. There appears to exist a whole sub-culture around this practice, which is, of course, charmingly nerdy. For more information, go here - https://www.hutbagger.co.nz/
The second thing is that this hut is only an hour and
half’s drive away from where I’ll be staying in a couple of weeks. I have
looked into the feasibility of actually going there, but I just won’t have the
time, resources or money to pull it off on this occasion.
However, is does strike me that it might be pretty awesome to
actually visit one of the huts at some point. But given that they are usually
at the top of mountains, this is quite a challenge in itself. I suppose there
are 5 more huts to go, so let’s hope that one of them was built to shelter
people feeling a bit wan from climbing a small embankment, or a slight incline,
or something along those lines…
August (30/08/17)
Yeah, I know what the date is, I know how close to the
wire I am (again!) But give me a break dudes, I’m just not feeling it right
now.
Having said that, I’ll be buggered if I’m gonna let
such rampant introspection ruin this fun thought experiment, not 8 months in at
least. So, without further faff…
August’s hut is the Pell Stream Hut in the Lewis Pass
National Reserve, which is in the West Coast/ Canterbury area. The hut is
pretty basic from what I’ve read, and not very well
maintained (mattresses on the floor, with free bleach available to get them up
to a “gingerly lay your head down while you frantically fever dream about what
darkness that bedding has seen” standard) but the area that the Pell Stream Hut
is in, is far from basic.
Lewis Pass is the northernmost of the three main
passes across the Southern Alps, even higher than the Haast Pass (which, if
you’re paying attention, I’ve talked about before) and this pass is in the saddle
between the valleys of Maruia River to the northwest and Lewis River to the
southeast. But I can’t really TELL you how awesome a place looks, for that
you’ll need to have a gander at the pictures and this fantastic video filmed at
the top of the pass, kindly shared on the YouTube by a generous tramper – thanks
Greg, you’re the man - I hope you enjoy life too!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otRPPwZHuEY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otRPPwZHuEY
Besides all of the astounding beauty (as my friend
Kirby would say – put it away New Zealand, really) there’s a not a lot else to
note here except that one of the nearby mountains is called the Philosopher’s
Knob (because if you could name mountains, you just would, wouldn’t you?) and I
found a super charming blog by a guy searching for a wild kiwi that’s worth a
read, if you’re in a procrastinating kinda mood.
https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/kiwi-hunting/
https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/kiwi-hunting/
September (29/09/17)
September’s hut is Shute’s Hut in Ruahine Forest Park.
The Ruahine range is the largest of several mountain ranges (including the
Tararuas and Rimutakas) in the North Island that form a ridge running parallel
with the east coast between the East Cape and Wellington. It’s made of stone
and its original form has been maintained in order to keep it as a place of
historical interest, as well as a habitable hut.
It was built in 1920 by Alex Shute, described as a
‘rabbiter and practical joker’ who decided to spend
20 years wandering around the Ruahine back country, rabbiting and presumably
practical joking... although I can’t find any evidence of what sort of japes he
got up to. It does somewhat beg the question, if a practical joke is set up and
paid off in the woods and nobody is around to see it, is it still funny? He
also planted a small orchard of pine and gum trees behind the hut, which are mostly
still there. The hut is only accessible from No Mans Road, which, I mean, if
this was named on the basis of trying to accurately depict what to expect, it’s
kind of like calling it Immediate Death Road or something. I hope the name just
comes down to some hunting based posturing. Or maybe Mr Shute’s famous wit.
Hunting is quite a big thing in NZ, and while it does
make me feel all wibbly wobbly at the thought of it (not in a good way) I can
see how it does neatly segue with population control of certain introduced
species that might otherwise run rampant. I guess this includes rabbits. And
yes I’ve just made the connection between those two words, but let’s push past
that if we can.
There’s not a lot more to say here beyond the obvious
fact that the idea of just buggering off and living in the wilderness for
decades, when the wilderness looks like this, is more than a little appealing.
October (24/10/17)
October’s hut is Jean Hut in the Whakaari Conservation
Area, Otago.
Whakaari (meaning "to hold up to view") is
found between Glenorchy and Mount Aurum and boasts two major walking tracks –
the Mount Judah and McIntosh loops. There’s a whole heap of huts nearby, Jean
hut being one of the oldest.
This area was important for scheelite mining during
the gold rush times, hence the abundance of huts.
Jean hut was cladded using flattened drums, which has
the effect of making it look like something straight out of a Pratchett
Discworld novel. It has only 2 bunks, but is equipped with heating and a
working toilet, so far more modern than the exterior would have you believe.
Scheelite became quite an important mineral during the
two world wars in particular. It’s a pretty looking stone (known to be passed
off as diamond on occasion, apparently) but its main property seems to be its
denseness (I can identify with that) and the fact that it can be alloyed with
steel to make, well, a super hard steel. This is me trying to interpret
geological writings about it – so basically it’s like a kind of kryptonite
then? Come on scientists - why not just say that?
Of course, there is the usual amount of surrounding NZ
beauty but in my searching I came across a particularly stunning natural wonder
– the willow trees of Glenorchy in Lake Wakapitu. The photos of this I have
nabbed from a dude’s blog, which I will link to here because he went to an
incredible effort to get these shots, so credit where credit really is due.
November (30/11/17)
Jesus, I nearly forgot about this! But how could I ever fail to
come through for the 2, or possibly even up to 3 or 4 of you who are kind
enough to read it? 
November’s hut is Cameron Hut in Hakatere Conservation
Park, by the Arrowsmith mountain range, in Canterbury.
Cameron Hut was built in 1952 but then re-built in
1982 with a new pre-fabricated hut having to be helicoptered to the site. You
would think that this was due to it being somewhere particularly remote, but
I’ve seen a few helicopters being used for
similar purposes in Wellington, because everything in this land is either
surrounded by jungle or atop an insanely steep hill. The hut has 9 bunks, is
solar powered, and has a mountain radio for emergencies, but the toilet is outside
which could be a little… chilly, I reckon.
Hakatere Conservation Park is obviously stunning (do I
even need to keep noting this or can we just take that as a given now?) But
more interestingly, two of the mountains there, Mount Potts and Mount Sunday,
were used as locations for Edoras – the fortress city of the Riders of Rohan in
the LOTR films. Apparently they built a fully realised set for Edoras on Mt
Sunday. It took the production crew 9 months to build, constructing Golden Hall
on top of the cliffs along with the other buildings and a gatehouse and yet
more buildings at the bottom. It was all dismantled when they were finished and
they left it as they found it, but the area unsurprisingly attracts a good
number of fans each year. As does most of the rest of NZ for similar wizard and
hobbit related reasons. Another fun fact: the filming locations for LOTR are
clearly listed in the road maps here. We drove past the location of the Battle
of Pelennor Fields on the first trip down to Welly. Also known as Paraparaumu
to the locals.
Finally I realised that I actually have a few photos of the area
we’re talking about here – the Southern Alps and the Canterbury Plains, due to
going up on the gondola back in Christchurch. These photos aren’t quite as
spectacular as the ones of the Arrowsmith range, but they’re still quite
pretty, even if I do say so myself.
December (28/12/17)
December’s hut is the historic Cone Hut in Tararua Forest Park
in the Wairarapa region.
Cone Hut is the second oldest hut in the Tararuas. It was built by New
Zealand’s first tramping club, the Tararua Tramping Club, in 1946, and remains
one of the best surviving examples of a ‘slab hut’ in New Zealand.
By the early 1980s, the hut had fallen into disrepair. After assessing
the historical importance of the site and developing a plan, it was decided to
rebuild the hut using the same construction method and materials as the
original build. This work was undertaken by the Tararua Tramping Club with the
assistance of the Department of Conservation.
Unfortunately, in 2015, Trampers discovered that their beloved hut had
been trashed by vandals. This story was picked up by Stuff (think the BBC for
NZ, so big time news) and they reported on the damage in detail. A 10-litre can
of white acrylic paint had been tipped on the floor, mattresses had been
slashed and one dumped in the pool of paint. The hut was strewn with rubbish
and the hut book (which I’m assured is a vital safety tool when it comes to
wilderness survival) was missing and its case smashed and burnt.
Club president Paul Maxim observed that it was the worst case of hut
vandalism he had seen, saying ‘Why you would go in and do that wilful damage to
a hut in such a beautiful spot? It just defies imagination.’
Right on, Paul, it is truly bizarre that people would tramp a full 2
hours into a national park to smash up a hut. That’s a great deal of effort to
go to for a random act of vandalism. The perpetrators have not been caught
since, despite a big push for justice after the story broke. But shaking off
the sadness, the Tararua Tramping Club, together with a number of community
groups, made good the damage and returned the hut to its former glory.
You know full well that I stumbled into this writing experiment with my
tongue firmly in my cheek, because the idea of quaint back country huts is
ridiculously Royston Vasey and intrinsically amusing. But it became a thing I
was committed to, and every time I thought, what the hell could I possibly
write about this hut? There was always a story to find and something to play
off. I think the fact that the last story is one of resilience and endurance,
is very fitting, because it rings true to what I have found about New
Zealanders in a more general sense, they tend to take their knocks and roll
with the punches. Kiwis are very aware of how beautiful this country is, and
the pride they take in it and the lengths they go to to preserve and enjoy that
beauty, has never ceased to impress me. Huts will continue to be around for as
long as NZ is, because huts help to facilitate that close relationship between
the land and its people.
So, yes, to confirm, this is the last hut of 2017, and my last entry in
the series. I’ve got a whole other writing experiment to play about with next
year, the ideas for which have already amused me a great deal, so I’m looking
forward to it. But is the end of exploration into the huts of NZ? I’m doubtful
on that score, because I gave a Huts of 2018 calendar to my awesome friend,
Charlotte. And the idea of doing some kind of hot dudes in huts crossover, is
deeply funny to us. So, is the end? Yeah, nah, probably not.
Finally, to answer a question nobody has asked, have I collated this hut
series into one coherent blog post that can be shared shortly hereafter?
Well…
what do you think?
****
I was going to write some kind of conclusion here, but I
think I did that pretty well in December’s entry. From a writing perspective,
it was fun to watch something that began as a complete piss take grow into
something else, and I think you can see a distinct improvement in how I
approached this as the months wore on. The lesson here is that you never know,
once you start anything, where it’s going to take you, and writing is a
continual process of making yourself do something, no matter how arbitrary, that
forces you to find and develop different muscles that you didn’t even know you had. Yes I am still talking about writing here. Well, what do you know? I ended up concluding with another conclusion anyway. Jeez, writers, man, do they
ever just shut the fuck up? No, no we don’t.
Sources of hut images
(unless otherwise linked in the text)
Pell Stream Hut - https://tramper.nz/7275/pell-stream-hut-august-2011/
Shute’s Hut - https://www.wildernessmag.co.nz/see-stone-huts/
Jean Hut - https://tramper.nz/15833/jean-hut-roof/
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