New Zealand’s Trail Huts: Shelter, Conversation, and Community

NOLS Instructor Jeremy Cronon gives The New York Times the rundown on New Zealand’s public trail hut system. Nearly a thousand of these structures are open to trampers (aka backpackers) for a minimal fee. Jeremy reports that “each hut has its own quirks, stories and memories,” which travelers record in the hut’s unique “Intention Book.”

“Finally scrambling out of the bush of New Zealand’s South Island, I paused, surveying the alpine valley in the foreground. Then I saw it. Nestled against a slab of moss-covered schist stood a modest structure, no larger than my 8 feet by 12 feet college dorm room. With excitement and relief, I clambered toward Cameron Hut.

As a 10-year-old, entranced by the cinematic landscapes of Peter Jackson’s ‘The Fellowship of the Ring,’ I wouldn’t have guessed that backcountry huts would become a focal point of my travels in New Zealand…But it was in the huts that I immersed myself in the culture of those landscapes and spent time with the people who know and value them most…the country’s commitment to this vast network of public huts fosters something unique: a community of strangers even in the most remote backcountry.”

Read the full story.