New Zealand Huts Country Study – Overview & Table of Contents

New Zealand Huts Country Study: Annotated Table of Contents 

by Sam Demas, December 2018

Table of Contents

1. Context for this work

These notes begin to piece together a substantive overview of facts about New Zealand huts.  The plan is to return to NZ in the next few years to deepen this “country study”, focusing on reflections, cultural context and larger lessons learned from the world’s largest hut system.  Long term, the aim is to compile 5-8 country studies (this is only my second), supporting a systematic look across cultures to identify patterns, unique features, and interesting ideas about huts.  The purpose is to identify possible future roles for huts (broadly defined), in arenas such as environmental education, as infrastructure supporting nature immersion experiences for urban dwellers, and for use in reciprocal conservation stewardship opportunities in the USA.  How might huts be thoughtfully located and designed, and how they might contribute to human understanding and activities in environmental stewardship?  The hope is to contribute a few thin but strong threads to the larger fabric of a lifeline for humans: rapid civilizational development of a guiding ethos of biophilia — a conviction that we are part of nature, not apart from it.  See Hut2Hut Country Studies.

⇒⇒ Note: Sections that are complete are bolded and underlined below and one can link directly to these posts to read the full text by clicking on the title.  Incomplete sections will be linked as they are completed.]

2. Introduction

Purpose, scope, audiences, where we walked (methods), who we followed (acknowledgements/gratitude), and where I strayed (apologies in advance for any errors).  Please send corrections, comments, concerns, advice and areas for improvement to sdemas@carleton.edu.

3. Historical Perspectives on NZ Huts

One cannot grasp the meaning, extent, challenges and opportunities of huts in NZ without some historical perspective.  Huts and tracks everywhere reflect the culture and terrain of the nations in which they evolved; these connections are vibrantly evident in New Zealand. These historical notes cover the range of “infrastructure lying in wait” from which the hut system originated, and discuss how DoC consolidated these disparate sets of huts (mostly designed for other purposes), into a coherent system that is collectively owned by the citizens of New Zealand. Briefly touching on contemporary hut history, it concludes with suggested resources for further study.

4. NZ Department of Conservation (DoC) Hut System

Brief discussion of key operational components of the DoC hut system, including: 1, Tracks,  2, Waste management, 3, Water supply, 4. Economics of DoC huts, 5. Intentions/log books, 6. Historic huts and hut conservation, 7. Hut maintenance, 8. Hut wardens, 9. The Backcountry Trust, and 10, Booking system and web site

5. Private huts and Tracks – questions

Which ones, how many, what kinds, and what can we learn from the thirty or so privately operated hut systems in NZ today?

6.  Tramping culture: questions

How might the culture of tramping evolve in New Zealand and what can we learn in USA from current trends and issues?

7. Unique Features and loose ends 

A miscellany of notes on topics about which I’d hoped to learn and write more fully, including:

  • Literature, journals and publishing,
  • Libraries and archives,
  • Hut-bagging,
  • Huts and the Te Araroa Trail,
  • Gear designers,
  • Car relocation services,
  • List of tramps taken and huts visited in 2018.

8. Shelter from the Storm: the making of the book and its impact

How this seminal book came to be written, the remarkable impact it is having on the awareness of New Zealanders of their remarkable, collectively owned and operated hut system, and how it is evolving.

9.  The Kiwi Bach

Three posts by Jane Abbott:  Three essays by and art/bach historian explicating this fascinating genre of NZ architecture, a cousin of huts and equally beloved as rustic shelter and connection to Kiwi past:

New Zealand Vernacular Architecture

Typology of the Baches of Taylor’s Mistake

A Rough History of Bach Legalities

10. Profiles of Sam’s New Zealand Hut Heroes: 

Hut systems are intentionally shaped and sustained by the people who love and use them.  I was fortunate to meet many such people while in NZ.  I’m affectionately calling a few of them –these nine writers, photographers, trampers, architects, publishers, and DoC rangers — my “hut heroes”. Alas, this personal selection omits so many others making great contributions to New Zealand’s national hut system.   These are my personal hut heroes because I happened to meet them and they took time to help me learn and begin to understand something about NZ huts.  And because they are clearly doing notably good work for the collectively owned hut system of their nation.  My hope is that these profiles illustrate some of the ways in which this important civic work is advanced in New Zealand, and that it inspires some Americans to undertake similar work in the USA.

  • Mick Abbott – tramper, landscape architect, academic, dreamer

  • Shaun Barnett – writer, photographer, editor, advocate and tramper

  • Rob Brown – chair of Backcountry Trust, tramper, writer, photographer, advocate

  • Robbie Burton – publisher, advocate and tramper

  • Brian Dobbie – DoC ranger in charge of huts, tramper

  • Paul Kilgour – Tramper extraordinaire and hut advocate and aficionado

  • Ron Pynenburg – hut architect and tramper

  • Geoff Spearpoint – writer, photographer, tramper, mountaineer, advocate, and man of gentle and strong spirit

  • John Taylor – DoC ranger pioneering in hut conservation and maintenance work

11. Challenges and opportunities for NZ huts

An outsiders observations and questions about the challenges and opportunities facing the world’s largest hut system, including increasing engagement of users in helping to operate and maintain the system; realizing ambitious goals with budgetary constraints; continuing growth of international tourism and its impacts on huts, tramping and the Great Walks; research needs, particularly on environmental impacts; and opportunities for international leadership and cooperation.

12.  Cross-cultural Comparisons in Country Studies of Huts: notes towards a methodology

Learning about huts and tramping in NZ raised lots of questions for me about how we approach and how I understand the same topics in the USA.  These are some 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.

13. Seven questions about the future of NZ huts

Will the commitment to classic Kiwi tramping and huts hold in future?  What is the future of road end huts and of hut siting, design and architecture? How will Maori management of huts in conservation lands manifest ethos of tangata wenhua, the people of the land?  Will some huts return to the role of conservation hubs/infrastructure?  What is the future of private huts and tracks?  Is NZ developing a multi-tier but system and what might it look like?

14. Resources and Bibliography 

A small selection of books, magazines and web sites to use in delving into the world of NZ huts, tracks and outdoors.