NZ Huts Notes for a Country Study: Introduction

By Sam Demas, hut2hut.info

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

What and why? (purpose, scope, and audiences)   

The immediate purpose of this series of web posts, which are knit together by an annotated Table of Contents, is to provide a substantive overview of the world’s largest hut system.  This is an invitation to learn more about the remarkable culture and system of huts and tracks in New Zealand.

The perspective is that of an outsider (an American hut-nut) and the audience is outsiders, i.e. primarily American and hopefully some other non-New Zealanders (and perhaps even some curious Kiwi’s).

Specifically, the aim is to provide — in one place, free of charge — a sense of the origins, purposes, operations, unique features, challenges, people who care about, and cultural meanings of this amazing, collectively owned system of approximately 962 huts.  The hope is to create an efficient point of entry to serious study of NZ huts, with pointers for digging deeper.

These are essentially shared field notes for work in progress.  In them I am beginning to piece together what I have learned.  The hope is to return to NZ to walk and talk further, fill in gaps and deepen understanding.  These notes may form the basis of some more polished writings in future.

Please note a few important topics not included here (for reasons of time and bandwidth): The focus is on tramping (walking) and ignores the amazing surge in NZ activity in cycling huts and tracks.  Similarly,  Maori perspectives on huts, recreation, education and land management are largely absent here.  I began to study the 30 or so privately-operated hut systems, but ran out of time and energy.  These topics are for next time!

Longer term, this work will be part of a larger set of 5-8 country studies providing data for a cross-cultural comparison of the roles and operations of huts (and other accommodation systems for long-distance, human-powered travelers) around the world.

Americans know almost nothing about huts.  As a nation we will likely not copy others, but instead will create huts systems that reflect our culture.  Hopefully we will do so with at least some understanding of the experience of other nations.

Thus the audiences for this set of posts is primarily American:

• recreation and education (environmental/outdoor) practitioners and planners,
• land management professionals at local, state and federal levels,
• folks who operate or are dreaming of building/operating hut systems in USA, and
• others interested in the ancient and evolving phenomenon of hut-to-hut travel.

Where we walked and talked (methods)   

For me, the best ways to learn about a nation’s hut systems are to walk (or bike, ski, paddle) the walks and to talk with lots of people.

My partner Laurel and I spent three months in New Zealand, traveling north to south (often in a camper van) on both islands.  We spent 53 days tramping and walked about 627 km.  This included 13 multi-day tramps (the longest was 7 days) and 8 day-hikes.  We spent 34 nights in huts, and visited another 21 huts along the way.  This included a week as hut wardens on the Travers-Sabine Circuit (Nelson Lakes National Park), three Great Walks, tramps in a number of Forest Parks and National Parks, two privately operated hut-to-hut walks, and two urban walks.  This research trip was occasionally exhausting, but always exhilarating and edifying!

Throughout the three months we talked (especially I talked, often testing my partner’s patience) with hundreds of trampers (Kiwis and international visitors), dozens of DoC officials (including hut wardens and track workers), writers, photographers, publishers, scientists, farmers, entrepreneurs, bush pilots, one academic, and random folks we met in restaurants, bars, grocery stores and, occasionally, hitch-hiking.  In a few cases I wrote Profiles of folks who seemed particularly keyed in to NZ huts and tramping.  Finally, it evolved that a key to my method was to talk with interested, informed folks, and they in turn very often put me in touch with other folks to talk with.  Thus a web of connections branched out like the inter-communicating roots of a living forest, full of wisdom, nurturing and sheltering curiosity.

This research strategy is sometimes called “participant observation”.  Used in sociology, anthropology, and human geography, the idea is to study the life of a group by sharing its activities.  We certainly did this with trampers, and attempted to share in the perspectives of others through “interviews”, i.e. talking to folks from all walks of life.  But I should be clear: this methodology was not applied with scholarly rigor, doesn’t lend itself to statistical analysis, and couldn’t be replicated.  Nevertheless, we learned a lot and are sharing it here.

Where we followed (acknowledgements and gratitude)   

What could an outsider possibly add to the wealth of published information and embodied knowledge of generations of Kiwis about huts?  At best, perhaps a useful synthesis, possibly infused with some different perspectives.

Some of them will say, seynge that I graunte that I have gathered this booke of so manye writers, that I offer unto you a heape of other mennis laboures…..To whom I aunswere, that if the hoenye that the bees gather out so manye floure of herbes, shrubbes, and trees, that are growing in other mennis meadowes, feldes and closes:  maye justelye be called the bees’ honye….so may I call it that I have learned and gathered of many good autoures….my booke.— William Turner [A New Herbal, 1551]

While not a ‘booke’, this work is definitely a compilation/synthesis gathered from and building on many wonderful published sources.  Many thanks to all the Kiwi writers about huts and tracks.  You have produced an unusually rich hut literature!

I am deeply indebted to the writings of the Dream Team of Shaun Barnett, Rob Brown and Geoff Spearpoint for their many insightful writings (especially their incomparable Shelter from the Storm) and for our conversations.  Mark Pickerings’ works have contributed invaluable perspective on huts and tramping, as has Barnett and Maclean’s Tramping: a New Zealand History.  I am grateful for the many other writers and writings mentioned throughout the report, and for the many writings not specifically mentioned which also informed my understandings.

One constant source of information was the pleasant evenings spent reading many years of back issues of FMC Bulletin (and its successor Backcountry) that are so liberally sprinkled in backcountry huts all over New Zealand.  What a wonderful way to get to know more about mountain culture, history and issues!  See Resources, Bibliography and Websites for more of the sources providing the foundation on which this work rests.

Equally important are the people who took the time to educate and engage me in person.

Special thanks to my DoC liaison, Brian Dobbie, who provided invaluable background information and perspective, and introduced me to many of his colleagues around the country.  Wherever we went, with or without prior appointments, DoC rangers and other staff were unfailingly welcoming and informative.  While I won’t even try mention them all by name, a few who went beyond the call of duty to advise, assist, educate, correct and stretch me were: Grant Tremain in Fiordland District, Te Anau, and Neil Murray and Tony Hitchcock of the Takkaka District Office.  Toby O’Hara in Tongariro National park was helpful in understanding how huts operate on the Great Walks.  My conversation with Grant Timlin, former DoC and NZFS employee, was enlightening in providing historical perspective, a better understanding of front country huts,  and a sense of the energy and capacity of citizen volunteer efforts in backcountry huts.

I am extremely grateful for the time and wisdom contributed by all the folks I interviewed and about whom I wrote Profiles.  And without all the wit, wisdom and perspective of all the folks we met along the way, on and off track, this report would be shallow and lifeless.

Where I strayed…..

Apologies in advance for any factual errors or misunderstandings.  Any mistakes are mine.  I would like to hear about them and have the opportunity to correct/clarify.

I haven’t allowed enough writing time to do the topic justice.  I hope over time to go back and polish the work, fill in gaps, and provide more thoughtful perspective on what I’ve observed and learned.  Advice welcome!

To make the work easier to read I avoided using footnotes and citations.  As a result I may have erred on the side of not giving enough credit here and there, and/or not providing sufficient pointers to additional resources.  Apologies in advance if this is the case.

I trust readers will point out areas for improvement to: sdemas@carleton.edu