New Zealand Hut Wardens —

paid and volunteer, roles and responsibilities

by Sam Demas

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

Hut Wardens are present in Great Walks and Serviced Huts.  Such huts are heavily used and often host less experienced trampers, in particular international visitors and beginners.  The purpose is to help ensure a safe and enjoyable experience; and they work to minimize environmental impacts in areas of high tramper traffic.  The presence of Hut Wardens in busy huts can deter vandalism. and help to set and maintain a positive overall tone within a group of people sharing living space, particularly if guests do not have experience with hut etiquette and sharing space with others.

Paid hut warden positions are financed directly from the revenues collected.  An important role is to ensure guests have reservations when needed, and to check compliance in payment of fees and/or use of hut tickets. At Backcountry Comfort huts wardens are present “only where the revenue gained (from increased hut fee compliance) is greater than the full cost of providing the warden and running the warden’s quarters”.  At Standard Huts, (i.e. catering to Backcountry Adventurers), “wardens shall be provided only at times of year when the revenue gained (from increased hut fee compliance) is greater than the full cost of providing the warden and running the warden’s quarters” (quotes from DoC Hut Service Standards, p. 20).

Huts challenged due to growing use (e.g. degradation of water quality in nearby lakes or streams, vandalism, or other misuses of the hut) are assigned Hut Wardens as needed.  An example is Blue Lake Hut in Nelson Lakes National Park, where a volunteer Hut Warden was fairly recently assigned.  This hut has become a bottle-neck due to increase in use due to traffic on the Te Araroa Track, and overuse of campsites at Blue Lake threatens  water quality in its famously clear lake.

Roles and responsibilities:  Responsibilities include (adapted from “Hut Service Standards”):

• maintaining daily radio contact and supplying weather forecasts (where they have a radio),
• checking compliance with hut and camp fees,
• providing information to trampers on track conditions, side trips and safety,
• cleaning and tidying huts and toilets,
• emptying ash bins as needed,
• assist search and rescue staff as needed,
• track maintenance,
• maintenance around the hut as needed, and
• interpretive services for hut users, usually in the form of nightly “hut talks”.

Hut talks are generally given about 7:30pm.  Content of the brief (5-15 minute, depending on the track and warden) hut safety talks varies, but always includes:

• Welcome the trampers and introduce self,
• Ask trampers to fill in intentions book (hut logbook) and read safety information,
• General information about the track/area, especially about the next days walk,
• Fire evacuation details,
• Fire and personal gas cooker safety,
• LNT, pack-it-in, pack-it-out policy,
• Reminder to tidy up after themselves and to show consideration for other hut users,
• Wether forecast for next day, which will be updated in morning,
• Answer any questions, and then
• Check hut passes and/or collect hut tickets.

Training for Hut Wardens includes health and safety, radio use, safety communication protocols, and hut and track information.  Separate quarters are often provided, varying from small attached rooms to larger, separate buildings.

Paid Hut Wardens:  The NZ DoC provides Hut Wardens during the peak season in Great Walks Huts (a Hut Warden may be assigned responsibility for more than one hut) and in Serviced Huts.  Hut Wardens are generally permanent, paid, seasonal positions in the Great Walks Huts.

Paid Hut Wardens contracts are generally 6-8 months in duration.  The work schedule is generally 8 days on, 6 days off.  Wardens often rotate among the huts on a track, but sometimes are assigned to a single hut for the season.  Occasionally a Warden’s family is also in residence for the season.  Training for paid hut wardens is more extensive than that of volunteers and responsibilities are more in-depth.  Paid hut wardens generally wear a DoC uniform with a badge.

DoC staff are often asked for information on where and when to tramp, and whether its safe.  The guideline DoC offers staff is to “offer information, not advice”.  We watched DoC staff handle these questions with tact, steering people away from tramps they do not prepared for , but usually stopping just short of saying, “Don’t do it! You are not up to the job.”  Instead they repeatedly and pointedly offer better alternatives.

See sample job ad for a paid Hut Warden.  Qualifications generally include significant tramping experience and expertise, practical know-how, knowledge of the area, first aid certification, and demonstrated abilities as a team-player and resourceful person able to think on their feet.  In talking with several hiring rangers, I learned that what they look for, in addition to the preceding qualifications, includes: outdoor leadership skills, strong interpersonal skills and customer focus, problem-solving skills, solution-focused orientation, mechanical skills.

It seems the positions are generally not difficult to fill.  While Kiwis are most often encountered, others with proper work papers are also hired as Hut Wardens. At one national park they tend to get about 35 applicants for 6 vacancies; each year about 50% of the Hut Wardens from the previous year return.  Hand-picked locals are usually the best Hut Wardens; they know the local scene and area, including terrain, weather, and others working in the area.  Several Hut Wardens I spoke with indicated DoC is a humane, family-friendly employer.  Many Hut Wardens work other jobs within DoC or in the private sector in the off-season.  A number have worked as guides and/or in biodiversity projects.

For a fun glimpse of the life of a Hut Warden (from Colorado), check out this five minute video:  Tanya the Hut Warden

Volunteer Hut Wardens:  Hut wardens in Serviced Huts are generally volunteers, usually working for a week at a time.  Some find the work rewarding and work year after year, developing useful skills and knowledge.  Perhaps 10-20% are repeat volunteer Hut Wardens.  Specifics of hiring, training, and scheduling may vary somewhat from district to district within DoC.  Volunteers are from New Zealand and from around the world.  Volunteer openings are included in DoC’s volunteer activity web page. 

Volunteer hut wardens, a personal perspective:

Laurel and I served as volunteer Hut Wardens on the Travers Sabine Circuit for 8 days and enjoyed the experience.  Along with another Volunteer, Caesar from USA, we got a good 2 hour training from Jake, a seasonal DoC Ranger with lots of experience in training and supporting hut wardens, and, off season, an inveterate snow-boarder.

After meeting some of the friendly park staff we set out for our first hut.  Here is the information we received in advance of our tour of duty:

Traveling each day to a new hut on the circuit, with a rest day in the middle, and then taking up our duties made for a good schedule and mostly rewarding connection with other trampers.  Walking anti-clockwise we encountered a new group of trampers each evening.  A new Hut Warden Volunteer starts out each week on the same route throughout the high season.  The 8:30 AM radio call to get weather and report, along with the evening hut talks and cleaning the toilets definitely added additional structure to the day.

We felt connected to the other Hut Wardens and park staff we met, and made a great friend that way.  Our work resulted in a different relationship to the park and a different way of looking at hut dynamics.  Usually we stayed in the hut, but sometimes there were separate staff quarters.  The hut wardens quarters were very small (built on to the main hut) but quite nice overall.  We generally prepared our food in our quarters and then ate in the dining area with others.

We talked with lots of trampers from all over the world.  The younger Kiwis tended to keep to themselves, playing games, reading, and chatting; though the older Kiwis were generally quite gregarious.  The international trampers were a bit more gregarious.  The international folks tended to be less clued in to hut etiquette and need a bit more prompting to tidy up after themselves.  Altogether it was a great opportunity to meet lots and lots of trampers, hear their views, questions and concerns, and get a deeper sense of the rhythms of hut life.  On the Travers-Sabine there happened to be a-lot of trampers doing the Te Aroroa trail; it was interesting to get a glimpse of this sub-culture, comprised of both Kiwis many international trampers.

Another Hut Warden taught us a good technique for encouraging trampers to clean the hut each morning before leaving: tell them we will clean the toilets if they will tidy up the huts.

They generally thought this was a good deal!  Besides toilet cleaning, some memorable moments were trapping mice and working with trampers to help curtail a serious infestation of rats in one hut, getting to know a home-schooling family out on an environmental education lesson, some fun evenings of wide-ranging conversations with folks from many nations, a lovely birthday party, and anniversary celebration, and an impromptu ukulele concert!

Discussion:  Some folks harbor a bit of resentment towards hut wardens.  Experienced trampers, Kiwi’s in particular, can understandably find the hut talks a bit annoying after they have heard them repeatedly.  Also, in some cases, for a Kiwi to hear a foreigner holding forth about NZ huts can be off-putting.  I’ve heard Kiwi’s complain that Hut Wardens are not needed and detract from the experience.

On the other hand, for us as visitors to NZ, the warden talks often provided very useful local perspective and information for which we were grateful. In my opinion, hut wardens with good story-telling skills add important nuance to the trampers appreciation of the landscape, and deepen the sense of connection to the conservation mission of DoC.  This NZ tradition reminds me of the elaborate hut skits and talks that are traditional in the Appalachian Mountain Club huts, and of the very informative sustainability tours offered by Maine Huts and Trails.

I believe the educational role and potential of hut wardens is important.  In my opinion, storytelling, one of the key roles of hut wardens in helping trampers appreciate the history and ecology of the place, has great potential in serviced hut systems worldwide.

I’ve read and heard some visitor comments to the effect that volunteer hut wardens are uneven in quality, not as professional and uniformly prepared and professional as the paid wardens.

The idea of a person stage-managing the hut experience can seem antithetical to self-sufficiency associated with traditional tramping.  To some Kiwi’s, Hut Wardens are seen as part of DoC’s program of catering to a less rugged, inexperienced crowd.  They are seen as part of larger risk-management strategy to deal with keeping a high volume of visitors moving safely and speedily along the track as if it was a conveyor belt.

The Hut Warden as fee collector is certainly not the most popular role!  Alas quite a few Kiwis, and, shamefully, even some international visitors, prefer not to pay for a bunk for the night.  While this is usually not really possible in a Great Walk, it does happen in other hut categories.   Apparently some Kiwis think of paying for huts as an “honesty tax”, by which I think is meant that they pay once through their taxes and again if they are honest about it.

While these objections are understandable, they seem to me to be prudent measures for an agency that is putting thousands of people through the backcountry.  In USA the rough equivalent is the hut-masters and hut crew in the Appalachian Mountain Club Huts and in Maine Huts and Trails.  In Europe hut warden positions are often filled by families, sometimes handed down over generations, and resemble hoteliers or hostel guardians.