About Remote Huts
(Top Olderog Biv in the Arahura catchment: Photo Andrew Buglass 2004)
Origins Of The Website
This site was created in 2003 to profile a number of remote
high-country huts and bivouacs in central Westland that were poorly maintained,
unmaintained, and/ or under threat of removal. An online group
called Permolat was created in conjunction with the site to coordinate
the activites of remote hut users in the active preservation of these structures.
Hundreds of these huts along with connecting networks of tracks and bridges were
built by the New Zealand Forest Service from the 1950's onward, primarily
for animal control purposes. They provided rudimentary shelter for government cullers
attempting to curb an exploding introduced red deer population that was decimating
high-country ecosystems. The advent of commercial helicopter hunting in the early
70's rendered intensive foot operations obsolete, but the facilities remained,
providing hunters, trampers and climbers with a
dream-system of remote accommodation. In the mid 80's the newly created
Department of Conservation took over management of
high-country resources from the NZFS, but under a much more stringent funding regime.
Many of the more remote or less used huts and tracks stopped receiving maintenance
and fell into disrepair and disuse in the ensuing decades.
Economic Rationalism
DOC in the early years experimented with fashionable "user
pays" models as a means of funding and managing
its high-country resources. This model doesn't work in areas of low population,
or for low-use facilities. Many huts became run down, tracks grew over, and footbridges
were washed away or damaged and not repaired or replaced.
Deteriorating access and lack of information on routes and hut conditions deterred folk
from visiting these areas and resulted in a vicious spiral of lower use that justified
continued low or zero maintenance.
DOC's 2003/ 4 Review of High-Country Facilities
In September 2003 DOC undertook a
review of its high-country resources with public input, ostensiblty to help determine
where to put its money. This resulted in a significant number of the huts in central Westland
being designated for "minimal maintenance," which had been happening by default anyhow.
Other structures considered too run down, unsafe or in some cases simply
unused, were to be removed.
The consultation process did have some positive consequences for remote hut users
and high-country lobby groups.
A number of huts, bivs, and bridges intially proposed for minimal maintenance were granted
full maintenance
status. Some strategic but overgrown routes that were going to be left unmaintained were reinstated
for maintenance.
There were losses and trade-offs of as well, some of which can be viewed in the
Archive Of Huts Removed Or Lost.
Minimal Maintenance
Around 60 huts and bivs from the Buller
down to the Haast ended up in the minimal maintenance category.
This is defined as,
"two-yearly inspections
with minor maintenance that
can be done with basic tools during inspections to keep the structures
sanitary and watertight." This comprises things like painting, repairs
to windows and sealing.
Once a hut reaches a stage at which it is no longer considered
weatherproof, safe or sanitary, DOC will remove it (by helicopter and at a cost,
commensurate to several years maintenance). Removal will also take place if major
damage were to
occur, such as a tree falling on a hut. It seems inevitable under this regime that
minimal maintenance huts and bivs will vanish by slow attrition over time.
Remote Hut Users
Over the years a small and passionate group of high-country recreationalists have continued
to use and derive considerable pleasure from remote huts. Many of the structures
are situated in stunning, rugged locations and it would be a great loss to us if they went.
We figure that if DOC isn't able or willing to look after them adequately, that the next step
is to invite the hut users themselves to take on or share some of
the maintenance role. This was occasionally happening in an uncoordinated, ad hoc fashion
at the time of the Review.
Area Covered By The Site
This website focuses on 50 huts and bivs, mostly in central Westland. If there is a
hut that you are interested in or concerned about that isn't on the site, feel free to
make contact, as there is some potential to expand the site.
Murphy's Law
Quite unexpectedly, around the time that this site was being created,
DOC received a major one-off funding package. In the
Hokitika area this was used for a maintenance initiative well beyond the
"minimal" level on a significant number of the structures in this category. Over
the summer of 2003/ 4 most of the huts on this site, and even two designated for removal,
received some kind of attention. This included painting, sealing, general floor and frame repairs,
and re-piling.
For a few of the huts it was the first maintenance of any kind in 30
years and could extend their shelf life another 15-30 years.
DOC used contractors and volunteers to
do the maintenance and in some instances the quality of the work was pretty shoddy.
Things like nailing roof iron in the troughs rather than ridges, and painting over rust and
rot without preparing it. These particular huts are unlikely to
get the 15-year boost DOC was hoping for.
The Aim Of This Website
It is unlikely that remote huts will ever have a high priority
in the greater scheme of things and as such remain vulnerable to future periods of
neglect and/ or removal. The aim of the Remote Huts Website is to raise and maintain awareness
of this wonderful resource, and encourage continued use of it by providing up-to-date
information on hut and track conditions. We also want to get people interested enough to join
Permolat and get involved in informal trackwork, hut maintenance, and hut adoption.
This already has had an immediate and measurable a positive effect. An example is
Scottys Biv in the Taipo valley which
was getting around one visit
every 3-5 years and designated for removal. This increased to around 10 visits in a
single year after the Biv was profiled, and Scottys is now a maintain-by-community project.
This turnaround is extremely encouraging and demonstrates how easily the vicious circle of
declining use can be reversed. Some folk have have expressed concerns that too many people
may end up going to these places as a result of the publicity, however this is unlikely because
of the remote locations of most huts, and the challenging nature of the terrain.
Permolat
Permolat is the name of the online group set up in conjunction with the website.
It currently has around
100 members, keeps those interested in remote huts connected, and is a great
is a medium for coordinating volunteer maintenance and preservation work. In
2005 the group entered into a "maintain by community" contact with DOC for
Scottys Biv.
Two further proposals have been submitted for
Lower Olderog Biv and
Campbell Biv
in the Arahaura catchment, which are down for removal. Approval from Mawhera Corporation
is needed for these to proceed as the two bivs sit within the Waitaiki
Historical Reserve, but DOC has said it will minimally
maintain them in the meantime.
In 2008 Permolat signed a second "maintain by community" contract for
Mid Styx Hut and in February 2009 volunteers
re-piled and re-floored the Hut with the asssistance of DOC who flew our
materials in free of charge. DOC Hokitika is open to
working with community groups and has been helpful whenever we've approached them with proposals.
Informal trackwork by Permolat members and other individuals has become commonplace on trails
no longer maintained by DOC in most of the valleys on the site, as well as some
frontal country tracks. A Permolat
project in 2007 opened up the upper Waitaha valley. Trackwork has also been done in
the Kokatahi, Toaroha, Taipo and Mikonui valleys.
How You Can Help
When visiting a "minimal maintenance" or "maintain-by-community" huts you are invited to
carry out minor repairs with any tools and materials on site, or notifying us
by email of repairs needed. Updates on route and track conditions are always useful.
In the case of "minimal maintenance" huts please inform DOC also of any repairs needed, as
they still have a maintenance
role. If it is a "fully maintained" hut inform DOC, not us. You can also help by keeping any
trails DOC has ceased maintaining trimmed and
marked. It is a familiar sight now to see trampers in central Westland
carrying loppers and a small pruning saw. DOC is currently OK with
this as long as it is a pre-existing track, that hand tools only are used, and
that their orange markers aren't used. In this area permolat
(venetian blind material) is the material historically used by NZFS in the pre-DOC era.
If you are a couch potato, or immobile and arthritic from years of scrub bashing,
help us out with a donation. Any good pictures you may have of huts
on the site are welcome if sent our way.
DOC Input
DOC Hokitika are open to providing
some materials if an individual wants to carry out
simple repairs like sealing leaks or replacing louvres, etc. For more complex
tasks (painting, replacement of framing timbers or piles etc.)
they may co-work with individuals as volunteers,
provided they are capable and can meet DOC/ local body building
code standards and DOC/ Health and Safety requirements. In
specific instances they will consider ferrying materials
to a hut site, which they did with Mid Styx. Interested individuals may also
be able to accompany
DOC staff who undertake repairs. A number went
along as volunteers on the 2003/ 4 maintenance programme and
feedback from them was positive. DOC has cooperatively co-worked with us and other user
groups on a number of projects and have acknowledged a need for better communication with
community groups.
Reconsiderations Of Hut Removals
Strong negative public responses to a number of proposed hut
removals (probably unanticipated by DOC) have captured the attention of the media.
The planned removal of a hut in
Kahurangi National park was halted as a result of public pressure.
There has been a coinciding increase in coordinated community activity, lobbying, and
requests to take on or share maintenance responsibilities for huts and tracks.
Levels of use of some remote huts has risen significantly with increased publicity,
better quality information on
track conditions, and improved access due to informal
trackwork. Westland conservancy has stayed pretty much outside of any controversy so far, and
repsonded positively to any realistic proposal made by an individual or group as
alternatives to removal.
They are currently considering retaining Serpentine Hut
in the Hokitika
(originally designated for removal by 2006) after an approach from local kayakers
who want it kept there. Two swingbridges in the Kokatahi valley
and one in the Arahura may be be reinstated to maintain, or minimally maintain
status as a result of community feedback.
Fully Maintained Huts
There are a number of "fully maintain" huts on the site, which weren't in this category when it
the site was created. They ended up being designated as such or redesignated in the Review process.
They'll remain on the site for the time being as they are still in remote areas, used at relatively
low levels, and still vulnerable over the longer term.
Remote Hut Adoption
A number of minimal maintenance huts on this site have been informally
adopted by individuals or groups over the years, kept in immaculate order,
and well provisioned with gear, sometimes even food (See Griffin Creek Hut,
Browning Biv, Koropuku Hut and
Newton Hut).
This has made a difference to their condition and probably their level of use to
some degree.
If an individual or group were to take on responsibility for
minding each of the minimal maintenance huts on
this site, their survival prospects would be greatly enhanced.
No Free Lunch
It is unrealistic to expect that taxpayers' money
be used to fully fund a resource that
get used by less than 4% of the population. True believers however,
will inform you that a remote hut is not simply a recreational facility,
but a gymnasium, movie theatre, church, mental health centre, hunting lodge, hermitage, and
much more. If they ever get around to researching it, I'm sure the evidence will show conclusively
that remote hut users live longer (if they don't peel off a razorback ridge), have less mental
and physical health issues, are more productive members of society, and spend less time in jail,
than non-remote hut users. Unfortunately this kind of financial proposition embodies an aesthetic
that is
unpalatable to bureaucratic bean-counters.
All power to those who consult,
lobby, write submissions, and follow processes and protocols. Beware though, that
while you are doing this some huts may be falling over. There is another species of human
that moans in hutbooks about
DOC doing a crap job, but leave relatively simple repairs unattended to.
They are interestingly enough, usually
the same ones who don't replace the firewood they use, leave a stack of dirty billies, and
their rubbish lying about.
These are the true free-lunchers who have managed to survive by natural selection
over the millenia. I suspect they are the descendants of those who
moaned at NZFS
about the same things 30 years back. Finally and fortunately there is a third group who,
although less patient and perhaps more cynical, have a practical and pragmatic streak that
compels them to fix that which is broken, patch that which leaks, and tend to overgrowing trails.
May the force be with you.
The Future
It is likely that demand for the remote hut experience
will continue to increase with growing outdoor, health and
environmental consciousness, and because of pressure and overcrowding
on the more popular circuits and National Parks.
The names of foreign travellers are
starting to appear more regularly in the remote logbooks, which is
gratifying and at the same time unsettling, as many of them
don't appear to have the the experience, or the gear to tackle the remote New Zealand high-country.
A few are dangerously underprovisioned and reach their destinations more by luck than anything.
Just one example was a fellow we met after he'd completed a high-level traverse in spring snow
in sandshoes with no ice axe. He'd slid off the range that we'd needed to cut
steps down, on his backside in free-fall. The majority of alpine searches
and body recoveries
in recent years have been for foreigners. This leads us to the ubiquitous disclaimer.
A Few Words Of Warning
Please digest the following.
ONE NEEDS TO BE PHYSICALLY FIT, EXPERIENCED SPECIFICALLY IN THIS TYPE OF COUNTRY, AND
ADEQUATELY PROVISIONED, IN ORDER TO VENTURE INTO THE REMOTE HUT ZONE.
If you are not, then find someone who is experienced and willing to guide you, or
try another activity.
Alpine experience in other parts of the world is not necessarily useful for the
high-country here, as not all the skills are transferable.
Many of the huts and bivs on this site are in remote
rugged, mountainous settings, and the tracks to them
may be overgrown and in
some cases, no longer followable. Some of the huts
in alpine or sub-alpine settings can only be approached
by high-altitude routes.
Serious bush or scrub-bashing
may be required to access these huts. Bush navigation
skills and good quality, appropriate gear is essential for this.
Rivers (often) and side creeks (usually) are unbridged and
rise rapidly during frequent heavy rain. Off piste river or creek
travel needs to be done with caution due to the numerous waterfalls
and gorges that characterise
the watercourses in this type of terrain. Heavy snowfalls, more common in winter,
can occur at any
time of the year, and sudden extreme weather changes are normal.
Track And Travel Times
The travel times given on this site are provisional and relate specifically
to reasonably fit, experienced persons, used to travelling this type of terrain.
They cannot be accurately calibrated against the track times provided on the more
well-maintained, benched and bridged great walks like the Abel Tasman Track.
The estimates provided for open tops travel are for the
times of the year when all but the permanent snow areas have melted.
Travel may be just as fast in
winter, or take considerably longer, depending on snow conditions. Some of the routes
described are in alpine areas above the permanent snowline and ice axes,
crampons and occasionally ropes may be needed.
Information On This Site
Please inform us if you come across any information on this site that is not
correct and we'll update the relevant section. Things change quickly in the hills (washouts,
slips, windthrow) and we rely on high-country users to keep us up to speed.
Updates will be posted as quickly as possible, but in very low use areas feedback is understandably
infrequent. We refuse to take any responsibility for those who are rejuvenated, and restored to
optimum
physical and mental
well-being by your experiences, or conversely, if you
ignore the information and warnings provided above and go into these areas when it is clearly
beyond your capability.
Contact
Information, comments and suggestions can be emailed to Andrew Buglass at
andrew@uchc.org.nz.
This is also the contact for those interested in becoming involved at a practical level.
An online group called "Permolat" has been set up for this purpose, to connect folk and organise
activities.
Hut Photos On This Site
All thumbnail photos on the Hut Pages can be double clicked to provide a full-sized
images.
Thanks
A warm thanks to everyone who
has helped so far with their time, labour, photos, support, donations and encouragement.
Andrew Buglass 2010