Making the Great Walks Really Great

As covered previously, our recent tramp around Lake Waikaremoana lived up to the Great Walk title, but was slightly let down by not so great huts.  People we spoke to on the hike had similar stories: no water on the Tongariro Northern Circuit, no firewood (the only way to warm the huts), poor maintenance etc.  This is despite many huts being booked out for weeks or months.

Here is my solution to the above and other issues:

Create a 'Deputy Warden' system of volunteer backpackers and students to undertake basic tasks at the huts year round - checking hut tickets, cutting firewood, sweeping floors, basic maintenance etc.  They would get free accommodation and food provided.  Would backpackers and students be willing to volunteer to do this?  Thousands of people worldwide do WWOOFing and similar volunteer work for an experience like this.  A mandatory training course would enable qualified deputies go from area to area experiencing NZ's beautiful scenery on a minimal budget and with some great stories to take home.


Create similar volunteer groups to undertake weed and pest control during the off-season.  School tramping groups should at least have to do a half day of work to teach the students about invasive species and ecology.

Build small (approx 10m2) 4-6 bed pre-fabricated sleep-out style huts which can be transported by road, boat or helicopter to immediately supplement the existing overbooked accommodation.  These would be available at a higher rate than the dorm beds and could be booked by families or groups wanting privacy and a good night's sleep.  They could be equipped with solar lighting and secure doors, but cooking would still be done in the main building for the communal experience and atmosphere of the traditional hut.

Photo by Eric Martinot

Hold architectural competitions to design new landmark viewing platforms and footbridges to create discrete but memorable photo opportunities for people to take home and for journalists to feature in travel articles.

Roost Treehouse by Antony Gibbons Design

As a structural engineer I also couldn't help but notice that all of the smoke alarms had been removed from the Lake Waikaremoana huts, presumably because of false alarms from the wood burners and food cookers.

Surely this is a major safety issue with everyone bringing their own cooking equipment into the huts (no burners are provided).

This, coupled with somewhat meaningless 'box ticking' signage for exit routes from large single room dormitories highlights a disconnect between Building Code compliance and reality.

Lake Waikaremoana, Great Walk!

While the malls were heaving with zombie shoppers just before Christmas we escaped to the remote Te Urewera National Park to tramp for four days around Lake Waikaremoana.  As with the other NZ Great Walks, the scenery was spectacular.

The track climbs up the Panekiri Range then descends back down to lake level to follow the western shoreline.

What was perhaps less than spectacular was the condition of the Department of Conservation (DOC) huts along the way.  We were told that there are now no hut wardens until Boxing Day meaning there was nobody to check to see whether we had paid the $32 per night fee, or to keep the huts in some semblance of order - no firewood or toilet paper, unswept floors and filthy toilets.

The nine "Great Walks" showcase New Zealand's spectacular environment to the world, but I think the experience of noisy 30 bunk dormitories and dirty facilities may be putting many people off the great outdoors, tourists and New Zealanders alike.  

I certainly don't blame DOC for this.  They struggle with insufficient funds and shrinking budgets, but I think there is room for improvement in a way that would benefit DOC, tourists, Kiwi trampers and the environment and I will cover this in a separate post.

Back on the Air

December has been quiet on the blogging front.  I was preoccupied with the final conclusion of a very stressful three year long battle which I am happy to say is now over.  I hope to be back to posting more regularly from now.