Category Archives: New Zealand

New Zealand Huts: Resources and Bibliography

New Zealand Huts Resources and Bibliography

by Sam Demas

(Note: this is part of the larger work New Zealand Huts: Notes towards a Country Study)

Following is a very brief selection of publications, web sites and organizations to begin delving  into the world of New Zealand huts.   There is a rich literature on huts and tramping in NZ, I recommend starting with two indispensable books:

  • Shelter From the Storm by Shaun Barnett, Rob Brown, and Geoff Spearpoint (Craig Potton Publishing, 2012).
  • Tramping a New Zealand History, by Shaun Barnett and Chris Maclean (Craig Potton Publishing, 2014).

The bibliographies and footnotes in these amazing works will immediately lead you deep into the relevant literature. 

[For those interested in more detail than is provided in the components of my own report, but are not yet ready to read a full book, check out my reviews of Shelter from the Storm.]

–>For a brief introduction, even better, read the downloadable reprint of the Introduction to Shelter From the Storm; this essay by Shaun Barnett is an excellent introduction to NZ huts.

Also by Barnett, Brown and Spearpoint A Bunk for the Night: A Guide to New Zealand’s Best Backcountry Huts, Potton & Burton, 2016(?).

Other insightful works on huts and tramping include works by Mark Pickering, notably:

  • A Trampers Journey, Craig Potton Publishing, 2004.
  • Huts: untold stories from back-country NZ, Canterbury University Press, 2010.
  • The Hills, Heinemann Reid, 1988.

Golden Bay writer Gerard Hindmarsh has written about huts in some of the essays in his Kahurangi Calling, Potton and Burton, 2010, and Kahurangi Stories, Potton and Burton, 2017.

NZ huts are best understood within the context of environmental conservation and the role of humans in this fabulously beautiful, remote landscape.

  • For a quick, informative and stimulating sense of the broader landscape/environmental history of NZ, see: Michael King’s magisterial overview Penguin History of New Zealand, Penguin Books, 2012. While a 500-page book can only skim the surface of a nation’s history, this one does it very well.  For most of us, dipping into chapters selectively is more manageable than reading the entire book.  The first few chapters set the pre-historic and early history, chapter 11 on the seminal Treaty of Waitangi is useful (even more so is the Wikipedia article), and Chapter 26, land under pressure, briefly provides invaluable historical context on environmental history.
  • Wild Heart: the possibility of wilderness in Aotearoa New Zealand, edited by Mick Abbott and Richard Reeve, Otago University Press, 2011. These 17 essays by trampers, conservationists, historians, writers, scientists, and conservationists provide useful perspective on how Kiwi’s are thinking about the nature, roles, uses and protection of wilderness today.  It gives a good sense of the many ways in which wildness is “at the nation’s psychological and physical core”.
  • Environmental historian Geoff Parks’s provocative Theatre Country: essays on landscape and Whenua, Victoria University Press, 2006. The Maori word whenua means both placenta and people, and this series of essays explores how New Zealanders – indigenous and colonial — are, and are not, connected to the land they occupy.  Parks’ thinking about wilderness and landscape seems to be in the spirit of William Cronon, but with a distinctive Kiwi sensibility.   The essays range widely, discussing the historical views of landscape and the picturesque imported from British romanticism, nature tourism, and it frames New Zealand’s approach to landscape as a profoundly and misguidedly dichotomous insistence on dividing the nation into two distinct theatrical scenes, both playing out on a national stage largely outside the critical awareness of the actors: 1. the intensively cultivated 51% of the land, and 2. the highly protected, puristic notion of “wilderness” characterized by DoC’s management regime for the 33%

A few relevant websites:

  • NZ Department of Conservation  With persistent, creative  searching, this extensive website will yield a wealth of information and perspective.
  • Tramper.co.nz  – A great site for locating tracks to walk and learning about the range of tramping and huts in NZ.
  • Remote Huts  A valuable online forum for those interested in the preservation and restoration of remote huts and tracks.  Includes information about Permolat.
  • Backcountry Trust  Information about grants and projects of this remarkable hut and track maintenance program, funded in large part by DoC.
  • Facebook sites for “Shelter from the Storm”, the Backcountry Trust, and the Federated Mountain Clubs, and other groups are great for staying up to date on developments and for networking.
  • NZ Alpine Club  source for climbers and information about a network of alpine huts.
  • Wilderness Magazine , an excellent print and online publication, also has a useful website.
  •  Federated Mountain Clubs  A key outdoors organization  representing 80 clubs,  FMC is at the nexus of outdoors activity and information.  Their brief includes advocacy and information/ publishing.  Their quarterly magazine Backcountry, available in print and online, is an indispensable source of information about huts, tramping and outdoor activities generally.  Their page providing links to other websites is a great place to start exploring beyond what is listed above.  

New Zealand Backcountry Trust

New Zealand Huts Department of Conservation, Part D:

New Zealand Backcountry Trust: adopting a home in the mountains

by Sam Demas

(Note: this is part of the larger work New Zealand Huts: Notes towards a Country Study)

[I hope someday to receive pictures from BCT to include with this post]

The remarkable chain of events that engendered increased citizen involvement in hut and track maintenance is outlined in part 8 of Notes on Ten Selected Operations.  This movement in turn gave birth to an amazing pubic/private partnership, the Backcountry Trust (BCT).  BCT is one of the most exciting hut-related initiatives I encountered in NZ.  It represents the kind of cultural and governmental convergence of ideas, energies, needs and solutions that will help to carry the rich heritage of DoC huts into future generations.  The Backcountry Trust recently published a brochure with great photos and information showcasing some of their projects.

Established in 2017, the BCT grew out of grass roots hut maintenance efforts nation-wide and the resulting three year DoC funding experiment “Outdoor Recreation Consortium”.  Allocated $1,200,000 over three years to fund hut and track maintenance projects and was effectively a successful “proof of concept” project to answer the question, ” If DoC supported volunteers for biodiversity efforts, why not for huts?”.

Based on the success of projects funded by the “Outdoor Recreation Consortium”,  DoC allocated $700,000 over two years to formalize the granting process and fund three rounds of project proposals each year.  Since the inception of the “outdoor Recreation Consortium” and the efforts of its successor the BCT, volunteers have used DoC funding channeled through these organizations to restore 100 huts and over 900 km of walking and mountain biking paths.

The BCT clearly addresses a number of DoC values, including getting more people to participate in recreation, and engaging more people with conservation and valuing its benefits.

The BCT solicits grant relevant proposals of $5,000 to $20,000, providing complete applications guidelines on its website.  BCT grants officer is activist, photographer and writer Rob Brown and the six member board has two representatives from each of the three founding organizations: New Zealand Deerstalkers Association, Federated Mountain Clubs, and Trail Fund NZ.  These three organizations represent 135 clubs and 35,000 members or affiliates.  The BCT Facebook site Huts and Tracks  is one forum for passionate backcountry hut folks, and another is Remote Huts Forum and Blog.  An April 2017 post in Wilderlife by Rob Brown and Geoff Spearpoint provides a vision of the partnership.

The BCT website explains the workings of the program.  The projects page and photo gallery give a sense of the range of projects undertaken.  I especially recommend the website section quoted below, which provides links to some excellent reading on this amazing public/private partnership and how it operates an a nitty-gritty level:

Adopting a Home in the Mountains

  • Geoff Spearpoint, Rob Brown and Shaun Barnett have dedicated the final chapter of their latest Backcountry Huts Book  – A Bunk for the Night – to our vision for protecting the hut network: Preserving the Huts
  • Geoff Spearpoint has also written a practical guide to hut maintenance which gives a good idea of the type of work typically involved in these projects. If you are considering adopting a hut it is a must read: Adopting a Home in the Mountains
  • Geoff Ockwell has prepared a simple project planning spreadsheet, which gives a good idea of the materials required for a backcountry hut restoration.
  • The Backcountry Trust recently published a brochure with great photos and information showcasing some of their projects.
DoC Intentions books

Seven questions about the future of NZ huts

by Sam Demas

(Note: this is part of the larger work New Zealand Huts: Notes towards a Country Study)

Loyal, engaged and committed to the conservation estate, Kiwis with and through their agency DoC, will doubtless be intentional, and perhaps even creative, in shaping the future of their remarkable national hut system. As contemporary society evolves, what is the future of the world’s largest hut system?  Below are a few of the questions that most interest I look forward to discussing them further with hut folks.

  • Restoration Crew

1. Will DoC stay firm in its support of the New Zealanders experience of the New Zealand back country? Will a robust system of backcountry huts be maintained, and not sacrificed to supporting the tourist experience of huts?  Will huts remain affordable and accessible for Kiwis?  These are the concerns Kiwis overwhelmingly expressed when I asked their views about the future of NZ huts. [Interestingly, few other visions or questions were expressed about the future of huts among Kiwis I asked about this, with the exception of Mick Abbott, a fount of ideas and questions.]  My sense is that Kiwi trampers have done a fabulous job of making their concerns known and are contributing creatively to ensuring the hut future they most desire.  And my sense is that DoC is fully on board with this vision as central to the future of the hut system.  Much hard work remains to ensure this vision.

2. What is the future of front country and road-end huts? DoC seems to have come full circle in its thinking about road-end huts and is no longer committed to removing all of them. Meanwhile, DoC has inherited a significant number of baches (e.g on Rangitito Island), some of which are in proximity to urban areas (e.g. Orongorongo).  Ongoing tenure review may result in inheritance of additional structures.  How can the nation benefit from these structures?  Might they become valued infrastructure for providing urban dwellers with safe nature immersion experiences and outdoor/environmental education opportunities?  School and youth groups, church groups, and families are some of the obvious potential user groups for front country “huts” and other structures.  How can they be made secure and protected from vandalism?  Might voluntary hut wardens/environmental educators play a role?  DoC lodges, hostels and cabins, which provide greater amenities, already serve these functions.  So do some huts.  Should this become a more intentional strategy?

3. What is the future of hut siting, design, and architecture? Now that the vast DoC hut system is fully built out and seemingly on track to be well maintained, what will future hut designs look like?  [Most Kiwis I spoke with fervently hope the designs won’t change in future].  While there are not likely to be a great many new huts built in future, Mick Abbott suggests huts can be designed (or re-designed) as catalysts for change and innovation in developing skills and attitudes for living well with nature, for living lightly on the land.  What we learn in huts can be brought home to inform our daily lives.  How to build huts systems that make an area more robust, biodiverse, at scale?  Will the trend towards greater amenities in serviced huts seep into standard and basic huts?  Perhaps a series of design charrettes that stimulate creative thinking about hut design may be part of determining the future roles of huts and what that means for future hut designs?

  • Chaffey Hut after restoration
  • New Waihohonu Hut, Tongariro National Park
  • Meg Hut, sheep musters hut

4. Will some huts return to their origins as conservation infrastructure? Might huts see increasing use as bases for biodiversity programs (conservation huts), including pest control initiatives, reforestation, erosion control, protection and re-introduction of native species, and for “eyes on the land” in nature reserves?

5. What is the future of private involvement in huts and walks? Today NZ has approximately 30 privately operated hut systems (by comparison, the US has about 18 hut systems, all but one of which is privately operated, some for-profit and some non-profit operated by NGOs). It seems highly unlikely that private huts and walks will even begin to approach the scale of DoC huts, but I wonder what roles/niches they might fill?  The older model, e.g. Ultimate Hikes operating a parallel glamping system on Milford and Routeburn Tracks, doesn’t seem to me like a model to expand.  But DoC seems open to trying different models of public/private partnership in hut and track management to see what works.  Two of the best known are the Hump Ridge Track and the Old Ghost Road.  It will be interesting to take stock of the lessons learned from experiments in public/private partnership.

6. What directions will Maori land managers take with huts on conservation lands? As some conservation lands (i.e. some former National Parks such as Te Urewera and Paparoa) are granted a new legal status and positioned for joint management and eventual all-Maori management, how will the tangata wenhua (people of the land) ethos manifestin management of land, water and huts?   Will huts continue as traditional recreational infrastructure for trampers?  Will they be prized primarily for revenue generation, or will they also add a dimension of education and engagement with about Maori ideas and practices about human relationship to the earth?  How will the design and roles of huts change under Maori management, and what might DoC, the nation and the world learn from this?

7. Is New Zealand developing a multi-tier hut system? Andrew Buglass articulated a concern of many trampers that a two-tier system is developing, “One is extremely well resourced, risk averse, overcrowded and out of the price range….of ordinary New Zealanders. The other is basic, remote, and has a high level of community input.”  It seems to me the hut system may actually be evolving into multiple “tiers” to serve an ever more diverse range of audiences.

The growing range of huts (and their accommodations cousins: cabins, camps, baches, and lodges) is apparent when comparing, to name just a handful: the marvelous array of historic huts on the Cobb Valley Track, the huts and tracks of the Abel Tasman Great Walk, the Ghost Trail, the Rangitoto baches, the cabins, camps and lodges and the public/private Hump Ridge Track.

It is critical that the unique, traditional Kiwi backcountry hut experience be privileged and protected as the hut system evolves.  But the system will evolve along with Kiwi society.

Starting in the 1990’s, DoC began to rationalize its sprawling system of huts in ways that resulted in the present categories:

  • Great Walks Huts – catering for Backcountry Comfort Seekers (BCC);
  • Serviced and Serviced-Alpine Huts – catering for BCC or Backcountry Adventurers (BCA);
  • Standard Huts (catering for BCA)
  • Basic Huts (catering for BCA or Remoteness Seekers (RS).

These four hut categories are a subset of the seven “visitor groups” identified in the Recreational Opportunity Spectrum work reported in the 1996 “Visitor Strategy” document.  The three not applied to huts are: Short stop travelers (SST), Day Visitors (DV), and Overnighters (ON).

This sensible subset of categories appears flexible enough to encompass most uses/users of huts per se, and may serve NZ well for years to come.

However, as a thought experiment, lets imagine that DoC might in future decide to review its hut categories as part of an exercise in examining how best to address changing user groups and uses.  In such an exercise, what other uses/user groups might be considered in categorizing (and designing and operating) huts and other accommodation types?  This may involve re-visiting the original seven “visitor groups” and thinking about how huts relate to the other groups and accommodation types.  For example:

  • Recreational users: e.g. BCA and RS huts, which form the core of Kiwi tramping, hunting and fishing. Other recreational user groups, which may well bleed into BCC category, include bicyclists and boaters, kayakers, snorkelers and other marine reserve visitors.
  • Conservation volunteers: Huts used extensively for conservation work in programs designed to foster a connection with nature through hands-on work (of course there are already huts set aside for agency scientific and backcountry work purposes);
  • “Voluntourism”: (a subset of the above) huts designed to provide international tourists with an opportunity to experience NZ nature first-hand through participation in volunteer conservation projects.
  • Urban newcomers to nature: Huts catering to NZ’s increasing urban population, providing introductory nature immersion experiences and teaching outdoor skills to those who haven’t learned them;
  • Environmental/outdoor education: huts designed for use with youth groups and schools;
  • International tourist tracks: catering to foreigners who are willing to pay for a high-end recreational experience with the proceeds allocated to conservation programs and maintenance of backcountry huts, rather into the pockets of concessionaires.
  • Bach vacationers: urban and suburban Kiwis who are not up to “roughing it” in a hut, but happy to stay in pre-existing rustic accommodations inherited by DoC on the conservation estate.

Perhaps this thought experiment is an exercise in comparing apples and oranges, and perhaps it could veer into a dangerous muddling of what should remain distinct categories.  But as the uses and users of huts (and the other accommodations on the conservation estate) continues to expand, inevitably the lines will begin to blur.  The role(s) of the hut system per se will likely need to be reaffirmed and/or clarified over time.

The hut system may in fact become multi-tiered over time, but that should be a part of a deliberate, values-based decision-making process.  It should not be simply a function of mission drift and a reaction to mounting pressures (e.g. constrained budgets, tourism pressures, etc.).  If the traditional Kiwi backcountry hut experience is to be protected and privileged in future, it will be within the context of a growing diversity of hut/backcountry/outdoor experiences and accommodations.

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challenges and opportunities

Challenges and opportunities for NZ and its huts: observations and questions

Challenges and Opportunities for NZ and its Huts: observations and questions

by Sam Demas

(Note: this is part of the larger work New Zealand Huts: Notes towards a Country Study)

Note: These jottings on challenges and opportunities are one way of wrapping up loose ends and finishing this phase of my study of NZ huts, conservation, and tramping.  These are notes on topics about which I hope to learn more in future.  As observations, questions and opinions of an outsider with large gaps in his understanding NZ,  I apologize in advance for mistakes, misunderstandings, cultural arrogance, and/or naïveté; and invite elucidation, constructive criticism and alternative views.

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With one of the most extensive, well supported and successful hut systems in the world, what challenges and opportunities are faced by those using and operating NZ huts?

  1. Engagement: A major theme and opportunity for DoC and the tramping community today is “engagement”.  There is a groundswell of voluntary hut maintenance activity, with the Backcountry Trust as a flagship program.  As the DoC tradition of relying on conservation volunteers extends increasingly to huts and tracks, my sense is that more Kiwis will begin to use huts as infrastructure for conservation, track maintenance, outdoor education and other purposes in addition to recreation.  The DoC Director General, Lou Sansom, seems committed to and practiced at removing bureaucratic roadblocks to citizen engagement.  I heard reports of DoC rangers in the field who have come to appreciate serious voluntary hut maintenance efforts.  By working together volunteers and rangers come to realize they are on the same team.  Rangers come to recognize the good will and practical value of these voluntary efforts.  It seems the Kiwi public is very supportive of hut restoration work and increasingly values its heritage of huts and tramping.  Of course there are real challenges in organizing and managing a large-scale program of voluntary efforts, including getting a new generation of trampers involved.  There will be a series of tramping club centenaries over the coming decade and these seem likely to generate further “engagement”, a long tradition of NZ tramping clubs.  In addition, clubs are no longer the exclusive gate-keepers for new trampers, and DoC will likely find ways of working with a new generation of trampers.
  2. Realizing ambitious goals: Many New Zealanders appear to have embraced mottos such as “100% Pure” and “Clean and Green” as proclamations of the nation’s environmental consciousness.  On the other hand, many Kiwi’s suggest this is primarily about public relations and that much more substance is needed to justify these claims.  DoC has announced a number of amazingly ambitious goals (e.g. “Predator free by 2050”, “Restoring the dawn chorus”), and has injected a highly controversial/divisive program of using of the pesticide 1080 to advance these programs.  In the huts arena, caring for the world’s largest collection of backcountry huts, along with the Great Walks-style accommodations is a major challenge.  Fortunately DoC appears to have widespread public support for its mission and programs.

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New Zealand Tramping Culture: questions for further study

(Note: this is part of the larger work New Zealand Huts: Notes towards a Country Study)

The unique features of NZ extremely robust tramping cultures grew out of: the nation’s colonial history and its pioneer and exploring culture; the close connection of its people to the land; the valorizing of versatility, self-sufficiency and individualism; the unparalleled scenery; the great number and diversity of tramping clubs; an egalitarian outdoors culture; an ethos of access to crown lands as a civic right; a preference for simplicity and eschewing of “flash” amenities; a sense of tramping as a social experience and of huts as a key component and connection to heritage; a well-developed publishing industry; and of course the remarkable government operated infrastructure of huts and tracks.  These (and other) roots and causes are explored in Tramping: a New Zealand History (Potton and Burton, 2014) by Shaun Barnett and Chris Maclean, and in many other publications adding detail and nuance.  Tramping remains a major national pastime today and is increasingly an antidote to urban life.

I hope to learn more about how tramping is evolving in the 21st century in response to societal changes and needs. Specifically, I’d like to explore current trends and issues on the following topics to make cross-cultural comparisons and understand better what the USA might learn from NZ tramping culture:

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Private Huts

Private Huts in New Zealand: questions and reflections

(Note: this is part of the larger work New Zealand Huts: Notes towards a Country Study)

Privately owned and operated huts in New Zealand have not been studied, except by Walter Hirsh, who identified 25 private walking tracks in 2007. My interest in these private tracks was piqued at the end of my 2018 visit when I walked two of the best established, the Banks Peninsula Track and the Tuatapere Hump Ridge Track. I realized that American backcountry entrepreneurs might be able to learn something from these New Zealand small businesses. While I don’t have time to write reports on the two private walks I took, they stimulated some of the questions noted below.

While the privately owned and operated NZ hut systems are dwarfed by the single government operated system of 962 huts, these small business enterprises may resonate with the intensely capitalistic inclinations of Americans. In the U.S. there are 17 hut systems (comprising about 105 huts), of which two systems (comprising 8 huts) are operated by the federal government (one, in Yosemite National Park, as a concession). Twelve of the 15 other hut systems are privately operated as small business enterprises, mostly on government lands.

  • Spectacular views
  • Comfortable lodges
  • Full kitchens
  • Private Huts
    Store for snacks and food

How many private walking tracks exist in New Zealand, what forms do they take and how are they doing? How do they survive in a nation with so many comparatively inexpensive huts? Is the notion of private huts compatible with Kiwi culture and what are their prospects for the future? What might we in the USA learn about and from NZ private huts? These are a few of the questions I’d like to explore in more detail in future. Following are some observations, reflections and questions that will guide my explorations on a return trip.

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New Zealand Huts: unique features and loose ends

This is a miscellany brief notes on topics about which I’d hoped to learn and write more fully. Alas, this is the best I can do as I’ve run out of time for this phase of my report on NZ huts. Hoping to revisit some of these topics in future, these are simply place-holders/reminders to spur further inquiry on interesting topics, by myself or, I hope, by others.

(Note: this is part of the larger work New Zealand Huts: Notes towards a Country Study)

Unique features of New Zealand Huts:

  1. Literature, journals and publishing. The world of writings about NZ huts and tramping is large for such a comparatively small nation. This is a reflection of the depth of engagement of Kiwis in thinking about the outdoors, in addition to experiencing it! I fantasize that I’ll have time in future to luxuriate in some deeper dives into this rich vein of outdoors literature. If and when I do, some of my obvious guides will include:
    • An overview article by writer, reviewer, and bibliophile Shaun Barnett in June 2016 FMC Bulletin, p. 20-26, “Rucksack of Knowledge: New Zealand Outdoor Literature”. Shaun covers highlights of the early mountaineering, hunting and tramping literature, features the top five choices of five avid readers of NZ outdoor books, lists some key club histories and anthologies, and lists general histories by topic.
    • The rich literature of newsletters and histories created by tramping clubs.
    • Perusing back runs fo periodicals such as Wilderness; Backcountry (formerly FMC Bulletin), published by the Federated Mountain Club; and the glossy journal Walking New Zealand. 
    •  The publications of Potton and Burton (Nelson), the premier publisher of tramping books in NZ.
    • Outdoor recreation in New Zealand, vol. 1 A Review and Synthesis of the Research Literature, a joint publication of the NZ Department of Conservation and Lincoln University, 1995.
    • And of course the books and articles of Shaun Barnett, Rob Brown, Geoff Spearpoint, Gerard Hindmarsh, and Mark Pickering.
  2. Libraries and archives. As a retired librarian, I spent very little time in NZ libraries while there in 2018, opting instead to walk the walks and talk with folks. One day I hope to spend many days browsing the collections of at least some of the major collections, e.g.:
    • National Library (Wellington)
    • Alexander Turnbull Library
    • Lincoln University Library
    • Archives New Zealand (Wellington and other locations), and
    • Department of Conservation Library (the hours I spent there were somewhat disappointing due to the lack of funding allocated for library collections and services, but certainly worth more time).

3. Hut bagging. Is NZ the only nation with a “hut-bagging” culture? I’m interested to learn the extent to which other nations have developed a semi-formal outlet for those obsessed with visiting and recording their visits to as many huts as they can, aka “hut bagging”. In New Zealand the cool website Hutbagger is: 1. a forum in which trampers can record the huts they have visited and look at a list of the top 100 hut baggers, and 2. a source others can search by hut name and find photos of the hut and information about the its amenities and location, including GPS coordinates. While there can be a competitive dimension to this enterprise, it seems primarily to be a way of keeping track and sharing information among the hut nuts. It is understood that many NZ trampers, including the legendary Mark Pickering (who at more than 1,250 huts, according to a 2016 article by Shaun Barnett, appears to be the record holder) and Paul Kilgour, (at 1,174 huts as of Nov. 2018) do not list their huts visited on the site. Kilgour claims to eschew “hut bagging” as mere hut bragging. None of this detracts from the good fun of the enterprise for those keen on hut bagging. The universe of NZ huts is large, providing hut baggers a lifetime of opportunity!

Check out a 6.5 minute You Tube slide show of 76 of the 80 huts along the Te Araroa Trail.

Check out a 6.5 minute You Tube slide show of 76 of the 80 huts along the Te Araroa Trail.

4. Huts and the Te Araroa Trail. The 3,000 km long distance trail, officially opened in 2011, is on the international trekking radar as a premier destination. It is popular as a way to test the mettle of folks who have already completed other major walks. For example, among the hard core Americans who have completed the “Triple Crown” (Appalachian Trail, Continental Divide Trail, and Pacific Crest Trail), quite a few seem to set their sights on Te Araroa Trail as the next logical challenge. Use of the trail has grown dramatically, and is projected to grow about 9-10% per year in coming years. DoC has studied the significant environmental impacts of increased use of the trail and associated tramping infrastructure including huts, bridges, campsites, toilets, and streams and lakes (See Te Araroa Visitor Growth: visitor demand report, Draft 2016, DoC Recreation, Tourism and Heritage Unit). About 80% of use is by international tourists. Other very popular long distance trails suffer similar environmental impacts. There are 44 huts along the TA, most of which were not designed for the level of use they are experiencing. Hut usage is up by as much as 300% in some cases. While serving as hut wardens in Nelson Lakes National Park we met lots of millennials (and other age groups) tramping Te Araroa, and were struck by the fact that for the many Americans this was their first introduction to huts. Accustomed to thinking of huts as “cheating” for long distance walkers, Americans embraced huts as destinations and gathering places, but were mostly disinterested or uncertain about how they thought huts might fit into the American hiking scene. It will be interesting to try to track how this significant experience of NZ huts by Americans and other international TA hikers affects their views of huts in the long term. The TA Facebook site may be a place to solicit observations about huts from TA through hikers.

5. Gear designers. New Zealand has had a robust outdoor gear industry for a century now, and is known for its focus on durability and innovation. I have not made a study of NZ gear design, but to me the three most interesting companies I encountered are committed to manufacturing their products in New Zealand and employ designers dedicated to innovation and durability to meet the needs of Kiwis tramping and climbing in rugged NZ terrain. These include: 1. Canterbury-based Cactus Outdoor has been manufacturing rugged work and outdoor clothing and gear for over 25 years. They favor rugged canvas and privilege durability over light-weight. I bought a pair of their gaiters, which I think will last a lifetime! 2. Canterbury based Earth Sea Sky is a family owned business that has been involved in manufacturing for six generations and owns and operates the two NZ-based factories that produce the designs for which they are famous. I bought a knee-length raincoat that is remarkably effective in a veritable deluge. 3. Aaran Bodypacks specializes in ergonomically sophisticated backpack design that distributes the load on the musculoskeletal structure in a naturally balanced, body friendly way. These award-winning designs are becoming popular world-wide. What makes these companies notable is their commitment to local manufacturing, design for local conditions, and commitment to high quality. That such comparatively small, locally owned businesses can thrive in today’s international marketplace is a testament to both their values and their commitment to quality, and equally to the recognition and valuing of those qualities by Kiwis.

New Zealand Huts
Derry Kingston, courtesy nz radio

6. Car relocation services. A unique feature of several car relocation services is that the owners/operators, serious trail runners, is to use the return trip as training. For example, TrackHopper in Glenorchy will drive your car several hours from the beginning of the Routeburn Track (east end) to the end and leave it for you. Then they will run the 33 km Routeburn Track back to the beginning (usually in 3.5-4.5 hours), near where they live. Trackhopper owners, Mike and Kiyomi, were inspired to do this when they met Derry Kingston, who ran a similar service on the Heaphy Track for years. Kingston — who recently retired at age 73 after walking the 78 km Heaphy Track over 400 times — appears to have invented this model. We met his daughter, a guide on the Heaphy Track, and learned that years ago he decided he needed get fit after a heart attack. He thought doing the 20 hour Heaphy Track walk on a regular basis, which most trampers do over 3 or 4 days, was just the thing. Over the years he became a legendary walker and has walked the Appalachian Trail and Lands End to John O’ Groats in UK. And he invented what may be a uniquely Kiwi business model along the way!

Loose ends:

  1. Cobb Valley Pilgrimage and Asbestos Cottage – I’d hoped to write a trip report on the incredibly rich tramp we experienced in the Cobb Valley Hut, and the wonderful people we met. In addition, I wanted to write a piece examining the widespread appeal of the unlikely story of Henry and Annie Chaffey of Asbestos Cottage fame. Like so much else, these topics have already been covered by others!
  2. Meeting with people and better understanding the work of the Walking Access Commission, NZ Alpine Club, and Federated Mountain Clubs is a future goal.
  3. While visiting NZ the first three months of 2018, we tramped for x days, covering xxx km, and we visited y huts. Here are the lists:
    • List of tramps 2018
    • List of huts visited 2018

cross cultural comparisons

Cross-cultural Comparisons of Huts: methodological notes

Cross-cultural Comparisons

as a Component of Country Studies of Huts: methodological notes

by Sam Demas

(Note: this is part of the larger work New Zealand Huts: Notes towards a Country Study)

While learning basic facts about NZ huts (e.g. how they are organized, operated, funded, and used), I was quickly drawn to trying to understand the cultural context of huts and long-distance human-powered travel in NZ.  While I made progress in learning the facts, developing even a slightly nuanced understanding of the broader context for NZ huts will take more time, travel, tramping, talking and reading.

This “NZ country study” – still a work in progress — is one building block in a larger project to compare and contrast huts across 6 – 8 nations.  Tramping, traveling and talking in NZ informed my approach to country studies in part by stimulating many questions of cross-cultural comparison.  I found myself trying to compare what I was learning in NZ with what I knew about the topic in the USA.  Wow!  Confronting my incomplete and idiosyncratic understanding of my own culture was a useful, if humbling, experience!  Travel abroad can certainly help us understand ourselves and the place we call home, as well as a bit about other peoples and lands.

I’m just beginning to learn how to think about cross-cultural comparisons and have a long ways to go……. 

So what follows is not a cross cultural comparison of NZ huts with US or other nation(s); I simply don’t know enough yet to go there.  Rather these are thoughts and questions, using NZ as an example, towards a more intentional method of cross-cultural comparison as a lens for studying and comparing hut systems.

The hope is that these notes will stimulate useful comments and criticisms, and perhaps even lead to collaborations in exploring this arena of comparing hut systems around the world.

1. In beginning a country study, I focus on ascertaining the obvious facts about a hut system so I can begin to draw comparisons with huts in other nations.

2. This leads to identifying the unique features of each nation’s hut system, comparing and contrasting them. What makes this hut system different from others in the world?  For example, in NZ this includes:

  • Historical development of tramping and huts
  • Tramping culture and tramping clubs of New Zealand
  • The large DoC government-owned and operated hut system
  • Great Walks and other categories of tramps and huts
  • Hut architecture and design
  • Private walks and huts
  • Maori operated huts and tracks
  • And small but interesting topics such as: the innovative gear industry of NZ, car relocation services, the Kiwi bach as a related architectural type,
  • Overview of the relevant literature, including books, magazines and websites; and a sense of the state of relevant publishing, maps, libraries and archives.

3. Next, I try to drill deeper, looking at key attitudes, metrics and indicators of land use, environmental awareness, and recreational culture. Most nations do not have book like Shelter from the Storm, which provides a starting point for such analysis.  Among the topics in this arena are:

  • Land use and environmental attitudes:
    • What are the historical patterns of land use and how do they influence environmental attitudes today? It was invaluable to have a broad overview, such as that provided in Chapter 26 “Land under Pressure” in Michael King’s Penguin History of New Zealand.  This includes a sketch of the historical patterns of land use, the dawning of environmental awareness, the arc of environmental activism and legislation, and key environmental organizations.  This background informs questions I ask in interviews and casual conversations.  Geoff Park’s Theatre Country is another example of environmental history shedding light on present attitudes and challenges.
    • What percentage of land is in public ownership and how is it administered for recreation and conservation?
    • What is the role of private land and of land owners in recreation and conservation?
    • Extent, operations and changing attitudes towards wilderness, national parks, and other lands with conservation value? Wild Heart edited by Mick Abbott and Richard Reeve, for example, brings together differing perspectives, and points to areas where Kiwi attitudes converge and diverge from those in the USA, Australia and elsewhere, and specifically addresses ideas about huts and wilderness.
    • Key features of the culture’s attitudes about and engagement with environmental issues such as protection of natural resources, recycling and consumer habits, environmental education programs.
  • Recreational culture in general:
    • What is the historical arc of recreational culture over time? For example, in former British colonies, how were British attitudes to alpinism, rambling, outdoor clubs, and hunting absorbed, transformed and/or rejected. The prevalence and extent of elitist vs. egalitarian ethos of tramping and tramping clubs, and of alpinism, for example.  These evolved differently in New Zealand than in Ireland, Canada, and the USA.  These differences may shape and can help to understand cultural differences in recreation in these nations.
    • Roles of clubs and other mechanisms for promoting and supporting participation in tramping? Extent of permission and overlap with conservation organizations?
    • What are the recreational motivations and values of a culture (e.g. solitude, not seeing others, tolerance for crowding, etc.) and how do they shape huts, tramping and camping? How and why have the relationships of hunters and trampers evolved?
    • What is the history and culture of long distance, human-powered travel in a nation? Extent and nature of trails and of accommodations for skiers, walkers, and cyclists?  How are hospitality traditions of a nation reflected in modern recreational culture?
    • Miles/km of tracks/trails and nature of the trails? Nature and difficult of the terrain? Trends in trail maintenance?
    • General health and fitness of the populace, rates of participation in long-distance human-powered travel, preferences for terrain, accommodations,
    • Trends in camping, hiking, cycling, etc.? How do these affect interest in/use of huts and other accommodation systems?
    • Rights of access – NZ, USA and Ireland have similar laws around legal rights of access for walkers on private land; these are based largely on English laws that have long since been changed in the UK. Most other European nations seem to recognize traditional rights of way to a greater extent than the former British colonies.  Similarly rights of access to coastal lands (e.g. Queen’s chain in NZ) differs among nations and can affect the extent of tracks by rivers/seas/ocean.  The overall impact of these legal differences is of course affected by the extent of publicly owned lands, by other relevant legislation.  Is there a Walking Access Commission or other entity advocating for the rights of walkers?
    • Laws related to recreation – For example, in NZ the laws providing for health care for trampers injured in the backcountry, combined with laws prohibiting recreationists from suing a company or government for liability in case of death or injury create a more relaxed and creative approach to outdoor recreation than in the USA.
    • Tourism and impacts on nature
  • Attitudes toward, use, and role(s) of huts:
    • Societal attitudes towards and extent of knowledge of, huts as recreational infrastructure?
    • Hut etiquette varies among cultures, and differences can be sources of tension in the remarkable experience of communal living that huts provide.  It will be interesting to study differences among nations and how they relate to deeper cultural traits, preferences, and values. 
    • Level(s) of amenities and how this reflects cultural preferences and traditions? Nature of the terrain?  Demographics of use (age, gender, race, education, domestic, international).  Rates of participation compared with other recreational opportunities?
    • Use of huts for educational, conservation, therapeutic purposes?
    • Affordability of huts?
    • Categories of hut visitors catered to? For example, in NZ huts are categorized as catering to Backcountry Comfort Seekers, Backcountry Adventurers, Remoteness Seekers, and Thrill Seekers.  In the far less developed hut systems of the USA, there is no guidebook to hut systems (I’m working on one now!), and there are no equivalent categories signaling the comparative level of amenities/difficulty/challenge of a hut system.

4. Finally, I hope to understand some of the broad historical and socio-economic context, the key challenges of a nation that condition efforts to create its environmental future, and how these factors may influence the present and future roles of its huts. In the case of New Zealand, some of the fascinating broad features of Kiwi culture that resonated with me include a set of conflicts and conundrums that arise in part from its unique position as the last large land mass to be settled by Europeans.  In his Penguin History of New Zealand, Michael King opens the book with a quote from Geoff Park that summarizes a central conflict of the nation’s identity and future: 

New Zealand’s fertile plains were the last that Europeans found before the Earth’s supply revealed itself as finite.  Our relationship with them has been completely unsustainable…..[We] have exploited these islands’ richest ecosystems with all the violence that modern science and technology could summon….We must live with the rest of nature or die with the rest of nature.

While the environmental challenges faced by Kiwis are certainly not unique, they create a set of salient characteristics of NZ culture that influences attitudes to huts, tracks, tramping and outdoor culture.  This seems particularly so due to the rapidity of environmental degradation in this young nation, the broad awareness of the populace of the issues, the comparatively large amount of land in the conservation estate, broad popular support for DoC and its brief to protect and conserve natural resources, and the apparent strength of the environmental movement.

A few of the remarkable contradictions, conflicts and conundrums that struck me as central to NZ’s current challenges and environmental futures:

  • The rapid deforestation of over 50% of the land in pursuit of the goal of creating the Great Britain of the southern hemisphere, complete with a pastoral landscape aesthetic creates ongoing environmental challenges.
  • The designation of 40% of the nation’s land mass as part of the conservation estate sets up a stark dichotomy in land use: developed and conserved.
  • These islands with no native terrestrial mammals have established an economy based on animal husbandry.
    • An island of 3.5 million people, produces food (especially particular dairy and meat) to feed 40,000,000 people per year, which incurs internal environmental costs.
    • Kiwis have among the highest annual rate of consumption of meat per person in the world.
    • The growing export economy for dairy products is utilizing water resources at a stunning rate. A very wet nation appears to be facing issues of water quality and, in some areas, sufficiency.  Resolution of this issue may open a Pandora’s box of issues, including Maori water rights.
  • The role of Maori citizens in civil society in general, and in conservation and tourism issues in particular is a major challenge and an opportunity.
  • The legal personification of former national parks, such as Te Urewera, is a remarkable development, introducing a parallel system of land rights and management. It will be fascinating to see what the Maori do with the dozens of huts for which they are now responsible.
  • An island nation with a sense of isolation from the rest of the world, Kiwi’s are in fact very much tied into the rest of the world. They are: curious about and engaged with the larger world, while mindful of the fact they have created something special that they don’t want to spoil, and simultaneously always looking elsewhere for answers, affirmation and a sense of what is worth paying attention to.  This brings to mind the aphorism “be careful what you wish for”, and is encapsulated in Allen Curnow’s warning,

Always to islanders danger, 

Is what comes over the sea.

  • New Zealand is “Clean and Green” and “100% Pure”, and also competing in the international economy with nations that have no such aspirations.
  • An important part of NZ economy is international tourism, which inexorably veers into “mass tourism”, and
    • strains the patience of Kiwis and threatens the natural beauty and integrity of the very ecosystems that make the land so appealing; and
    • strains DoC’s ability to cater to a broad range of recreational uses of the conservation estate, while also pursuing its lofty conservation goals;
    • prompts the question: who benefits and what suffers from the seemingly inexorable growth in international tourism. Is it sustainable over time, and at what costs?
  • Conservation conundrums: for example, use of the pesticide 1080 as a divisive issue; viewed as “correcting a blunder with a crime”.

Most of the items on this short list of major challenges certainly have analogs in other cultures.  While I can’t get lost in the deep weeds of these issues, I am fascinated by discussing with colleagues:

  • How do these cultural particularities inform national environmental values and aspirations? and
  • How do they condition attitudes and programs in environmental education, recreational culture and in the roles of huts in a particular culture, and across cultures?

In the end, the real fun will come in trying to look across what I learn about Ireland, New Zealand, USA (and eventually other nations such as Switzerland, Austria, France, Norway and Japan), to see if I can detect patterns, anomalies, unique features, trends, and interesting ideas.  To the extent this comparison of hut systems might be grounded in some level of cross-cultural comparison and understanding, the work may have greater meaning.  Ideas travel far and wide and find new meanings as they go……

New Zealand Hut Heroes: John Taylor, master of hut restoration

Photo above of JT (John Taylor) and Max Polglaze working on restoration of Riordans Hut

New Zealand Hut Heroes: John Taylor, master of hut restoration

by Sam Demas

[Photos Courtesy DoC Takkaka, Neil Murray & Tony Hitchcock]

(Note: this is part of the larger work New Zealand Huts: Notes towards a Country Study)

Antarctica, one place John Taylor works on hut restoration, is the only continent on earth where human’s first dwellings still stand.  Less than 12 hours after he returned from work on an ongoing project in Antarctica (this was the only time we could find to get together, and he insisted we do it!),  JT related this remarkable fact over breakfast on a Saturday morning.  Before we started talking about him, he regaled me with stories of huts in Antarctica, where he is currently helping establish a base camp for hut restoration work, and gave me a marvelous booklet Antarctic Historic Huts of the Ross Sea Region (Antarctic Heritage Trust, n.d.).  I knew immediately that his would be a fun and informative conversation.

JT on the job restoring Riordans Hut

JT is really excited about his work in multiple arenas.  He is a talented, energetic, dedicated and wide-ranging public servant; in my humble opinion, an exemplary DoC ranger.  This man is fascinated by history, full of inspiration and a natural teacher.  Its not surprising that through his energetic and visionary work in the Golden Bay DoC he has quietly led by example — just doing it — in restoring historic huts.  He is a key link in the transmission of the skills and techniques of hut restoration from one generation to the next.

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Paul Kilgour

New Zealand Hut Heroes: Paul Kilgour: story and video

Kilgour Was Here: the story and a video of a hut nut 

by Sam Demas

(Note: this is part of the larger work New Zealand Huts: Notes towards a Country Study)

Talking about huts, Kiwis I met often spoke with awe about Paul Kilgour, the Golden Bay tramper who has “visited more huts than anyone else in New Zealand”.  We ended our Cobb Valley tramp just ahead of Cyclone Gita and drove to Takkaka, where we hoped to meet Paul and others.  Very soon, in talking with Gerard Hindmarsh (whose books are a delightful trove of Golden Bay stories, including some about huts and about Paul) we learned that Paul is his  friend and neighbor. We got through to Paul and invited him for dinner or a drink, he turned the tables, inviting us to his house since Takkaka was essentially closing down for the cyclone and he really didn’t want to go out.  So we brought along beer and pizza, and Paul’s partner Janet provided a garden salad and a super-delicious southern-style apple pie (she is from Tennessee!).   [They met on the Heaphy Track where she was a hut warden, at the end of his “great walk”, but thats another story].  We spent a wonderful evening talking, spent the night in our camper parked in their driveway, and had coffee with them in the morning.  A memorable visit from which I learned a great deal.

Paul Kilgour

Paul Kilgrour and Janet Watchman

However, after dinner that night, when our partners had grow weary of all the hut talk and retired for the night, I took out the video camera and recorded Paul telling his story.  He was on a roll!  What follows is a brief written profile of Paul and a link to the video.  You may want to skip the writing and go right to the video at the end of this post!

With his Gandalf beard, bright eyes and glowing good health, Paul has a beatific presence.  His elfin whimsy, great energy, and thoughtful, loving affect, make it clear he loves people and is genuinely compassionate  He seems the sort of person who can talk with anyone.  He connects with people in part because he is quietly alert, endlessly curious, and seems knows at least a little about a-lot of things.  For example, trained in the air force as an airplane mechanic, he seems to know lots of folks with planes, a handy thing when getting around in the backcountry.  He loves the “old ways” and has great respect for the self-reliant Kahurangi folks who “make do with what you got”.

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