Episode 10 - Huts: Untold Stories from Back Country NZ
Ep 10- 'Huts: Untold Stories from Back Country NZ' -
Mark Pickering
Publisher: Canterbury University Press
Huts: Untold stories from back-country New Zealand, written by Christchurch-based outdoor enthusiast Mark Pickering, looks at the place these iconic dwellings hold in New Zealand's social and mountain history by telling the stories of 15 of these modest refuges.
About 1500 huts are scattered around New Zealand's rugged
landscape. At least 30 of them are more than 100 years old and,
says Mr Pickering, if they could talk they could tell the history
of the back country - of the Scottish shepherds fleeing the
Highland clearances; of the gold-miners seeking their fortune in
Central Otago; of the boundary keepers, musterers and roadmen who
lived in these tiny huts; and of the many trampers and climbers who
have sheltered in them.
The author of 20 walking and tramping guidebooks, Mr Pickering has
visited 1170 of these buildings.
"I have a great affection for mountain huts but no one has ever
done a book dedicated to them that tells their stories and brings
out their history and relevance to New Zealand," he said.
Mr Pickering said during his research he found back-country huts
fell into two categories - workers' huts and recreational huts -
and those that are highlighted in his fully illustrated book are
representative of these categories as well as being among the more
memorable.
Among them is Sutherlands Hut, located by the Mowbray River in
South Canterbury, which was built in 1867, making it the oldest
surviving hut in the country; the remote Shutes Hut in the Hawkes
Bay, built in 1920 by rabbiter Alex Shute who, for more than 20
years, lived a solitary life in this stone building; Sefton Biv,
dating from 1917, which is perched on the edge of a bluff in
Aoraki/Mt Cook National Park; and Rogers (Te Wairoa) Hut in Te
Urewera National Park, built in 1952 for hunters working on
government deer culling operations.
"I hope the reader finds these stories interesting and that the
book encourages them to visit these huts themselves."
