Shelter in the Hills

New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 484, 1 October 1948, Page 14

Shelter in the Hills

| Film Unit Goes Out With Trampers ss UIET Week,-end," the National Film Unit review which was released in the main centres last Friday, took only about seven minutes to screen, but it represented a weekend of hard work by two members of the Unit-and several week-ends of even greater effort by those Wellington trampers who figured in the film. The film is a good illustration of the strenuous efforts which have been made by alpinists and trampers throughout the Dominion to provide shelter-and through shelter, safety-for those who find their recreation in the more inaccessible areas of bush and mountain country. In this particular instance the "quiet ' week-end" was one of those spent in the building of the new Totara Flats hut in the Tararuas, a task on which a number of Wellington trampers have been engaged at intervals over the* past five months. Timber for the new hut was already in the bush. It had been taken there some seven years ago when the Physical Welfare Branch of the Department of Internal Affairs planned to start work on a chain of huts similar to those built by the Department in the Harper’s Pass area of the South Island. First the war, then more urgent post-war work, prevented the Department carrying out

its plans and the timber was made available to the Tararua Tramping Club for the Totara Flats hut. Access to the site of the hut, which is on the right bank of the Waiohina River at the northern end of Totara Flats, is through Masterton along the road to Bannister’s Hut, across the Mangatariri. River by suspension footbridge," ‘and along an 800-foot ridgenot the easiest route for the’ transport of anything bulky. Before the film was -made most of the heavy material was already on the site, having been packed in by trampers from both Wellington

and Masterton, but there was still enough heavy gear-tools, roofing material, and other ' stores-to give filmgoers some idea of the physical strength and agility expended on thé job. The hut stands in a sheltered corner, surrounded by heavy bush which will protect it from the strong winds funnelling up or down through the gorge. A small quantity of standing timber, was felled to clear the hut-site, but none of this was wasted, being trimmed ~ and adzed to make the framework. As is usually the case in any group of New ~ Zealanders, tradesmen and handymen were not lacking on the job..A plumber put ' on the roof, a catpenter supervised the: construction of the walls, and the window-frames were made and fitted by a joiner. Measuring 20 feet by 14 feet, the hut will pack in about 20 trampers and though a

good deal of work has still to be done inside, it. is hoped to. have it

ready for use this month. . Once it is in commission it will open up anther fine expanse of country to week-end trampers-a track is to be made from Totara Flats up to Hector Forks and the upper waters of the Waiohina, hitherto one of the most inaccessible areas in the Tararuas. The new shelter will be the seventh hut built in that country. Huts already established are Alpha, Cone, Tauherenikau, Kime, Field’s, and Dobson’s. Kime Hut, built above the 4000 feet contour, is the highest in the area.