Huts: Untold stories from back-country New Zealand
by Mark Pickering
Canterbury University Press,
RRP NZ$49.95,
Paperback, 384pp
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 Mark 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, the auhor 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.
He went on to say that 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.
It is the author's hope that the reader finds these stories interesting and that the book encourages them to visit these huts themselves. Let me assure him that although I doubt I will get to visit many of them I certainly found his book interesting, indeed fascinating .
The author and the publisher are to be complimented on a fine piece of publishing, recording as it does an important part of our social, agricultural and recreational history in a beautifully designed and prolifically illustrated book which I am delighted to have on my bookshelf.
A small selection of photographs follows.
Huts: Untold stories from back-country New Zealand will be launched on 7 November at Riccarton House in Christchurch.
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