The volunteers who have spent years fixing up New Zealand’s remote huts and tracks have a new formal agreement with the Department of Conservation, though for now it changes nothing on the ground.
Conservation Minister Tama Potaka announced on Friday 11 September that DOC and the Backcountry Trust had signed a memorandum of understanding covering the backcountry hut and track network. The two organisations now plan to write a national operational agreement, with the aim of signing it by the end of 2026.
DOC has nearly 1,000 huts and 24,000 kilometres of track across the country, according to the government’s release. Its own hut information page says it manages a network of over 950 huts.
“For nearly ten years, the Backcountry Trust has partnered with DOC to restore and maintain hundreds of huts and thousands of kilometres of tracks across the country — demonstrating what can be achieved when government, community, and passionate volunteers work together,” Mr Potaka said.
The release is careful about what the agreement does not do. It is non-binding and creates no legal or operational obligations. It does not hand over any of DOC’s responsibilities, it does not decide the future of any individual hut or track, and it does not commit either side to a future arrangement. “There are no immediate changes to how huts and tracks are managed, and no decisions have been made about individual locations or districts,” the release says.
What it does set out is a shared intention to keep huts and tracks going where possible, to put the network on a financially sustainable footing, and to make use of the skills and enthusiasm of volunteers, communities and contractors. The two organisations will also explore new funding opportunities and better ways for visitors to pay.
Paying for a night in a backcountry hut is still a low-tech business. At standard huts such as Venison Tops Hut in Kaweka Forest Park, DOC asks visitors to buy hut tickets before they go and put them in the honesty box at the hut, or to buy a Backcountry Hut Pass that covers most standard and serviced huts for 12 months. A night at Venison Tops costs an adult $15. The release does not say what an improved payment system would look like.
The money behind the partnership comes from overseas visitors. Mr Potaka said the trust had received $4.2 million from the International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy since 2024. Most visitors entering New Zealand must pay the levy, and the government raised it from $35 to $100 from 1 October 2024. New Zealand and Australian citizens are exempt.
The Minister named three huts the funding has helped. Almer Hut is in Westland Tai Poutini National Park, on the north side of Franz Josef Glacier. According to DOC’s page for the hut, it was prefabricated and air-dropped onto the site in 1950, and it is the third building to carry the name. DOC says it is one of a few examples of a distinctive type of hut built between what it calls the packing and helicopter eras.
Hopeless Hut in Nelson Lakes National Park has a notable history. DOC records that members of the New Zealand Alpine Club built it and Sir Edmund Hillary opened it on 23 December 1967. Venison Tops Hut, also called Tira Lodge, was built in 1969 and sits at 1,430 metres in the central Kawekas in Hawke’s Bay. The release describes it as a hunting base. The Minister also mentioned track work in the Silverpeaks north of Dunedin.
“The nation’s backcountry huts and tracks are part of who we are. Generations of Kiwi have explored them, cared for them, and created memories in — and on — them,” Mr Potaka said. “I am pleased that this work means others will be able to have those same experiences, too.”
The trust grew out of the outdoor clubs themselves. When it was launched in 2017, Wilderness magazine reported that it replaced the Outdoor Recreation Consortium, a collaboration between Federated Mountain Clubs, the New Zealand Deerstalkers Association and Trail Fund NZ. The consortium had started as a three-year trial funding volunteers who wanted to restore neglected huts, and had received about $1.2 million from DOC over that time. The magazine said the project had by then led to the restoration of 60 huts and 500 kilometres of track.
The case for the model was simple. “The funding goes three or four times further when we do the work,” the trust’s deputy chair Geoff Spearpoint said in October 2017.
The numbers have grown since. DOC’s partner page for the trust dates the work to 2014 and says volunteers have since restored over 300 huts and maintained 1,500 kilometres of walking and mountain biking tracks. It says more than 1,400 volunteers have put in 100,000 hours. The trust is an independent body and also receives money from individual donors and sponsorship partners.
For people who use the huts, the agreement is a signal of direction rather than a change. The release says there are no immediate changes to how huts and tracks are managed. The detail will have to wait for the national operational agreement, which the two organisations aim to sign before the end of the year.
“Working alongside organisations like the Backcountry Trust gives us an opportunity to combine DOC’s expertise with the skills, energy, and commitment that already exist in our backcountry communities,” Mr Potaka said.
Have you helped fix up a backcountry hut, or is there one you would hate to lose? Tell us which one and why in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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