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

Privately owned and operated huts in New Zealand have not been studied, except by Walter Hirsh, who identified 25 private walking tracks in 2007. My interest in these private tracks was piqued at the end of my 2018 visit when I walked two of the best established, the Banks Peninsula Track and the Tuatapere Hump Ridge Track. I realized that American backcountry entrepreneurs might be able to learn something from these New Zealand small businesses. While I don’t have time to write reports on the two private walks I took, they stimulated some of the questions noted below.

While the privately owned and operated NZ hut systems are dwarfed by the single government operated system of 962 huts, these small business enterprises may resonate with the intensely capitalistic inclinations of Americans. In the U.S. there are 17 hut systems (comprising about 105 huts), of which two systems (comprising 8 huts) are operated by the federal government (one, in Yosemite National Park, as a concession). Twelve of the 15 other hut systems are privately operated as small business enterprises, mostly on government lands.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

How many private walking tracks exist in New Zealand, what forms do they take and how are they doing? How do they survive in a nation with so many comparatively inexpensive huts? Is the notion of private huts compatible with Kiwi culture and what are their prospects for the future? What might we in the USA learn about and from NZ private huts? These are a few of the questions I’d like to explore in more detail in future. Following are some observations, reflections and questions that will guide my explorations on a return trip.

Definition? Are these huts and tracks wholly owned and operated by private enterprise on private lands? Or do they also include privately owned huts on public tracks, for example concessions such as Ultimate Hikes on the Routeburn Track and the Milford Track? And how do tracks that mix government and private support, such as the Old Ghost Trail and Hump Ridge Track, fit into this picture? A hybrid set of circumstances appears to be emerging that would be interesting to examine in more detail.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

What is the current situation? Walter Hirsh, an Aukland Race Relations Conciliator and Human Rights Commissioner, began writing about private walking tracks with his 1999 book Secrets Worth Sharing, in which he described 9 walks. In future editions the numbers increased gradually, and the 4th and final edition, last reprinted in 2007 (?) is titled Hidden Trails: 25 private walking tracks in New Zealand. My own cursory, back-of-the-envelope count from web sites and from ads in Walking magazine, identified about 30 private tracks that seem to be active in 2018. While a number have been operating steadily for several decades (e.g. Banks Peninsula started in 1989, Hump Ridge 2001, Kaikoura Coast Track, 1994, & Tora Walk, 1995, to name some of the oldest), others have come and gone. There is no association or organization of private track operators, no data collection on them, and Walter Hirsh appears to have moved on in his interests. (I tried unsuccessfully to track him down while in NZ, but did find an online blurb [reprinted below ***] from a 20017 memoir “Out Of The Shadows : My Life’s Journey From Mnchengladbach To Milton And Beyond”).

It would be interesting to know more about the numbers and how they operate: i.e. the comings and goings of these operations, profitability, costs and demographics of use, the kinds of pubic/private partnerships they engender, their environmental impacts, and any educational programming associated with them.

For example, Banks Peninsula Track grew out of an attempt by a group of farmers to remain on the land by diversifying income sources through tourism. It is a beautiful walk and an interesting example of agro-tourism that supplements farm income and allows families to stay on the land. Hump Ridge Track, a great mountain, woodlands and seaside walk, has a fascinating history as a non-profit, community-based effort to re-build the economic base after logging operations were shut down in the Tuatapere region. It has struggled towards sound financial footing, and is now in the running for possible designation as a new Great Walk. There are other interesting stories to be learned.

What can we learn from and about these private tracks? How do they survive in a nation with so many comparatively expensive huts? Some say they are inconsistent with Kiwi tramping values, but a number seem to persist and even thrive. What are the appeals of these enterprises? What are their operational challenges? Will this small sector continue to exist, and/or expand as some Kiwi’s gravitate towards a taste for more amenities with their tramping? What are the factors that make them appealing, e.g. booking in advance, willingness to pay for more comfort, bags portered, culinary component. Some international tourists, baby boomers, girl groups, and families seem to seek them out; why and what are the implications of this trend? Can such small businesses stand alone, or do they need to be operated in association with a farm, restaurant, or other business? How does a group of farmers, a community, or a single family, handle generational succession planning over time in such enterprises (Banks Peninsula has managed to make some transitions in response to interest/ownership changes)?

What other models might be emerging and what can we learn about them? In addition to those mentioned, there are public/private operations on the Hollyford Track, the Greenstone Track, and elsewhere. Maori operation of huts and tracks is an emerging area that may offer some innovative ideas. What serves the public interest and how does one balance public and private interests in operating private track/hut systems? How, if at all, does the management of baches on public (and private) lands relate to the experience of managing these private tracks?

***End note: quote from the back cover of a memoir by Walter Hirsh: “Wally (Walter) Hirsh O.B.E; JP is a keen potter, tramper, environmentalist, author, adventurer and tour leader. He has been an educator for most of his life but is probably better known in New Zealand for his work in the very high profile position of Race Relations Conciliator and Human Rights Commissioner. He has had a lifetime of involvement in ethnic affairs and community work and still, in his 80s, is a Trustee of several community based trusts. In association with his wife Adele, he still plans and leads educational travel tours for senior citizens, in New Zealand, Australia, The Pacific and South East Asia. Like so many people in this era Wally was encouraged to write his story. His has been a very diverse life. It began in Monchengladbach in 1936, continued in Milton New Zealand from 1938 and has flourished in this land of milk and manuka honey ever since. In writing the story of his life, Wally acknowledges his many forebears who were denied the fulfillment of their lives in the worst chapter of man’s inhumanity to man in our history, the Holocaust; while also writing of the energy put into rebuilding a united family spread over five continents. Wally and Adele live in Stonefields Auckland. They have three adult children and seven grandchildren, and a large extended family living in New Zealand, Australia, England, Scotland, the United States of America, Israel, France, and South Africa”