Huts Untold Stories from Back-Country New Zealand

If huts could talk they could tell the whole history of the back country. Of Scottish shepherds with a Gaelic brogue who arrived in the high country with the fresh, vivid memories of the Highland Clearances. Of the flush and fury of goldminers and water-racemen in Central Otago. Or of the patient and poorly paid jobs of boundary keepers, musterers and roadmen, who lived in tiny huts in the shadow of huge landscapes. There are over 1500 huts in New Zealand - an extraordinary number, and this book is the untold story of several of them. Remarkably, most of these historic huts still do the job they were built for, whether it's a pit-sawn deer cullers' hut in the Urewera National Park or a tiny skiers' shack in the Craigieburn Range. Every hut has a story to tell. Shutes Hut was built by Alex Shute, a rabbiter and practical joker who lost himself in the Ruahine back country for more than 20 years. Freemans Hut was part of Les Murrell's vision for an amazing tourist track in the Fiordland mountains. HUTS: UNTOLD STORIES OF BACK-COUNTRY NEW ZEALAND is a celebration of the endurance of these huts and the men who built and lived in them. It is a fascinating look at the place of these iconic dwellings in New Zealand's social and mountain history. Everyone who has worked or played in the New Zealand mountains had enjoyed the refuge of the humble hut. They may be only iron, nails and wood, but these flimsy, isolated huts are a living treasury. They weren't built to last, but a surprising number have. This is their story.

Mark Pickering is the author of 20 New Zealand walking and tramping guides, including 101 Great Tramps in New Zealand and 202 Great Walks. Born in England, he has lived in New Zealand for more than 30 years and is known as an authority on remote areas in New Zealand.