PILGRIMS PROGRESS:
Halfway through our three month pilgrimage in hut heaven, we’re hunkered down in our cozy camper van waiting out the fierce wind and rain of a passing cyclone. Organizing notes and reflecting on our journey thus far, I find we’ve tramped about 29 days on 12 tracks covering 296 km, and visiting 31 huts.

Best of all, along the way we have met many friendly, knowledgeable and kind people. It’s been a blast and we’re looking forward to the next six weeks. And I’ve started a list of people, places and things for the next trip to New Zealand.

Next we’re off to serve as hut wardens for a week on the Travers Sabine Circuit in Nelson Lakes National Park.

The journey thus far has included walking a variety of tracks/trails:

•Two Great Walks: Tongariro N. Circuit (3 days) & Heaphy Track (5 days), and one day on the Abel Tasman Coastal Track.
•Several classic NZ tramps:
•S. Tararua Crossing (4 days)
•Queen Charlotte Track (3 days)
•Cobb Valley historic huts (4 days)
•An urban walk: Coast to Coast in Aukland
•Coromandel Coastal Walkway, and a number of other one or two day walks, including some in Kaweka Forest Park and Ruahine Forest Park.

Some other fun and instructive highlights include:

•A marvelous four hour lunch talking with Shaun Barnett,
•Meeting with Robbie Burton of Potton and Burton publishers,
•Attending a BBQ of the Tararua Tramping Club,
•Two highly instructive meetings in Wellington with Brian Dobbie, the DoC official in charge of huts and my DoC liaison,
•Spending time in the DoC library, such as it is after massive downsizing,
•Gathering a wide range of perspectives and interesting hut-related documents from a number of the unfailingly helpful DoC rangers we’ve met,
•Spending two weeks in the Golden Bay/Kahurangi National Park area and meeting lots of interesting people, including writer Gerard Hindmarsh, tramper and hut user extraordinaire Paul Kilgour, DoC rangers Neil Murray, Tony Hitchcock and John (JT) Taylor, hut restoration pioneer.
•Recovery from a ski knee injury and revolutionizing my walking gait after advice from a Wellington physiotherapist,
•Beginning to learn about the other categories of NZ huts beyond the 970 run by DoC, including more than 30 privately operated multi-day walks, a variety of ski and tramping club huts, groups of front country huts and bachs (such as the Orongorongo Valley), and more,
•Beginning to learn about some of the many community-based hut restoration and maintenance initiatives, and the Backcountry Trust formed to support such public/private partnerships, and of course,
•Lots of swimming in lakes, streams, tarns and rivers wherever we tramp.

On, on!

Sam Demas, February 2018