#23 - Extreme Makeover: Hut Edition, Lucky Rescue, Topo Map Tip, & More.

And we are back with the 23rd NZ Hiking Newsletter, sent every Thursday (which ends up being Friday sometimes).

I'll let you know what’s going on in the hiking scene in New Zealand, along with other related bits and pieces I find interesting.

Thanks to those who reply to the emails with their thoughts, and share other interesting info. It’s fun to read!

Alright, let’s get into it.

💄Two Extreme Makeovers #HutCribs

I came across two awesome hut renovations this week.

Feel Free To Skip This Pointless Paragraph: And in doing so I got the catchline “MOVE THAT BUS!” from Extreme Makeover: Home Edition TV show in my head (hopefully someone remembers this show). Then I was thinking of MTV Cribs, and how there could be a fun series of hut tours.

Back on topic…the first one is:

Rockslide Hut (great name) in The Ruahines:

The Whanganui Search and Rescue went in on a 3.5-day renovation mission and made an amazing difference. As Eleanor Arnst posted “…the team transformed it inside and out from a bit of a grotty orange shed with a dirt floor to a pimped-out refuge with a whio-inspired colour scheme.”

That seems accurate when you see the result below. While a team of five did the work, plenty of other businesses and pub charities contributed towards the project getting the go-ahead to start.

Dougles Hut In The Takatimu’s:

Seven volunteers headed into the Takatimu’s for 4 days to help give Dougies Hut a refresh. What I like about this hut renovation is that they managed to use a lot of thrifted materials (such as corrugated iron and paint) to get the hut looking so fresh and so clean. It must have been an awkward finish with the hut as a couple of Te Araroa hikers were ready to claim a bunk while they finished the last couple of jobs. Again though, while the volunteers did a lot of the hard work, there are other individuals and businesses that help bring it all together.

While there weren’t any before photos of the hut in the thread, you can see just how old the previous hut materials were getting in a few of them!

A couple of shoutouts:

• Four volunteers from the Greater Wellington Backcountry Network (GWBN) went and did a track maintenance over a few days. And the average age of them? 75! How good. Trip report here.

• Rapid Creek Hut on the West Coast got a bit of a makeover as well. Again, it’s awesome how many different stakeholders are involved. Maybe if this newsletter ever makes a few cents I can buy some paint). Photos and details here.

To carry on the good momentum of these hut renovations, it has been confirmed DOC received $4.2 million for what is called the “Community Hut Programme”. The Back Country Trust are stoked to be in charge of what the funds will mean in terms of purchasing materials for a series of hut stuff that’ll involve volunteers. These funds will be spread out over the next few years. These funds come from the International Visitor Levy, but I need to have a deeper look as there was an article published (behind the NZ Herald paywall) about whether or not the IVL fees are going towards conservation in the proportions they were said to be.

😹 Hiking Funny

🗒️ Other Track News Etc.

• If you’ve got the NZTopo50 app (100% worth it), you might know about this feature already…but I just learned about it over the weekend. You can use the camera button on the left-hand side to help find peaks around you. I’ve heard of these peak finder apps but never used them (app overload). This will be a feature I’ll use for sure…I’m sure I’ve told many a lie about what peak others are looking at from various summits.

• This rescue story from DOC last Tuesday is a good read. The lady rescued probably should have purchased a Lotto ticket as there was lots of luck involved in her being found as quickly as she. While the rangers were awesome, I’ll shout out to the hiker who saw the empty bunk in the hut and put two and two together having passed a hiker in low visibility earlier in the evening. He may not have spoken to the fellow hiker, but he at least made a mental note he passed someone. It always amazes me how so many people barely acknowledge other trail users when you walk so close to them in somewhere that people are supposed to be happy.

• I’ve read a lot about how DOC is adopting technology for conservation projects, but it’s good to see the ole pen-and-paper trick still gets the go-ahead at times. DOC is manually recording the number of people on the Mautohe Cathedral Cove. Since December 19th (the track reopened last month), they’re seeing visitor numbers close to pre-covid levels, with over 800 a day on a couple of occasions. That’s great to see, and it seems like overall they’ve been happy with the behaviour of visitors (a.k.a. no one taking a dump at the beach). (source)

• If you know someone who would be a great person to nominate for a position on the Conservation Boards, applications close on Jan 31st. And who should be the ‘Human Face and Voice’ to represent the legal person, Mount Taranaki (hopefully we don’t somehow end up with an AI nominee).

• An opinion piece about getting TA walkers to pay more fees got some discussion. I think the writer just made a mistake going to the huts he did at the time of year when everyone knows they’ll be slammed with TA walkers…and he’s just been a little annoyed by it?

🎁 A Couple Of Competitions To Enter

I’ve been struggling to find competitions/giveaways etc. lately…and my usual tricks aren’t working. Can be people annoying and tag me on IG @heyitsjub on them 😀 

🧔‍♂️ What I've Been Up To...

There were no new trails for me over the past week. But I did get out to the Routeburn (has to be one of the best 30km-ish trails worldwide - thoughts?) for the first time this summer.

It was cloudy leaving Queenstown, but once we got out onto the trail the weather was stunning. I’ve never seen the Routeburn carpark so busy…there were lots of day hikers out between the carpark and Routeburn Falls. Good times.

Have a great week, hike it up.

As always, reply to this email (or message me on Whatsapp +642041702764) with anything and everything…I’m happy to chat.

Chur,

Jub

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