A roof over your head
From New Zealand’s northernmost island, Raoul Island to the subantarctic Auckland Islands, Dulux and the Department of Conservation have been working together to protect backcountry DOC huts, historic buildings and other facilities for future generations to enjoy.
Ivory Lake Hut
This alpine hut on the West Coast was set up to house glaciologists, but as the ice has melted, it has been sought out by intrepid trampers.
Tunnel Creek Hut
This small six-bed hut on the West Coast of the South Island offers intrepid trampers a welcome respite.
Shutes Hut
This four-bunk stone hut in the Ruahine Forest Park is unique and full of stories.
Cecil King’s Hut
Once, trampers emerged from the bush on the Wangapeka to the offer of a cuppa and a yarn.
Sunrise hut
The view from the top of the Ruahine Range is a good one to wake up to.
Roaring lion, hidden gold
By the time Choie Sew Hoy arrived in Dunedin, Otago’s first gold rush was sputtering out. The supply of alluvial gold that could be extracted by pans, cradles and sluice boxes was gradually dwindling, yet large deposits remained, buried in river gravel. Sew Hoy was a merchant rather than a miner—his Dunedin store imported and exported goods to Australia, China, the United States, and Great Britain—and in the late 1880s, he persuaded other Otago investors to try a new type of gold extraction. His steam-powered bucket dredge on the Shotover River was so successful that, in 1889, it launched a second gold boom in the area. After the Shotover, Sew Hoy started looking for new claims.
Waingaro Forks Hut
The historic Kill Devil Pack Track leads to a restored miners’ hut.
Cape Brett Hut
Where lighthouse keepers once held watch.
Asbestos Cottage
The legendary recluses of Cobb Valley.
Brewster Hut
A short day’s walk with a large reward.
Syme Hut
The North Island’s second-highest hut is perched on Fanthams Peak.
Adelaide Tarn Hut
Off the beaten track in Kahurangi National Park.
Howletts Hut
Howletts Hut lies in a sheltered hollow on Daphne Ridge, an offshoot of the main Ruāhine Range. An appealing hut with an orange roof and blue walls, it has fine views of Black Ridge as well as an expansive vista of the Hawke’s Bay hinterland. In summer, it’s a place of golden tussocks, khaki beech fringes and rugged mountains streaked with grey scree slopes. From the hut, an hour’s tramp along Daphne Ridge leads through a stunted patch of mountain beech, over scree and tussock slopes, and up to a knoll beneath Tiraha, from where there is a stunning view of the Sawtooth Ridge. From this angle, the ridge certainly earns its name, with a broken spine that drops sharply to very stee
Chancellor Hut
One of the most important historic buildings in the New Zealand mountains.
