Rob Brown

Shaun Barnett

Geoff Spearpoint

One of the defining and unique features of the New Zealand outdoors is the backcountry hut. New Zealand has a remarkably diverse network of these huts, unparalleled anywhere else in the world, and for those who venture into our wild places there is often a passionate attachment to these humble structures. Shelter from the Storm is a landmark publication, the first wide-ranging history of our hut network. The authors provide an overview of who built the huts - tramping and mountaineering clubs, the Department of Internal Affairs, Lands and Survey, New Zealand Forest Service, Park Boards and DOC - as well as why they were built, which includes farming, mining, tourism, tramping and climbing, hunting and deer culling, science and as monuments. For each of these sections the authors profile a wide range of representative huts, and recount the fascinating stories that invariably surround them. This is a wonderful book, meticulously researched and lavishly illustrated with a huge range of historic and contemporary photographs. Its significance and appeal is far-reaching, as this is a subject that has a genuine resonance with many, many New Zealanders.

The Story of New Zealand's Backcountry Huts

Shelter from the Storm

New Zealanders have produced a rich body of literature about tramping, with writing spanning nearly two centuries and ranging from poetry and songs, journals and newspaper pieces to magazine articles and books. The pieces in Across the Pass, as selected by Shaun Barnett, range from epic tales to stories of strolls. Some writers celebrate the intricacies of nature and the strong bond forged when facing challenges together, while others talk of treading the trails first pioneered by their ancestors. All say something about the many textures and colours of the experience we call tramping. Across the Pass includes writing from New Zealanders such as writer John Mulgan, mountaineers Sir Edmund Hillary and Lydia Bradey, adventurer Graeme Dingle, public servant Bill Sutch, MP Eugenie Sage, and photographer Craig Potton.

A Collection of Tramping Writing

Across the Pass

Chris MacLean

Tramping: A New Zealand history tells the story of the development of tramping in New Zealand, tracing its origins to the way Maori and early Europeans engaged with the sometimes forbidding New Zealand mountains and bush. It describes how state-sponsored tracks and huts were developed for tourism in the late nineteenth century, most notably on the Milford Track, described as 'the finest walk in the world'. As a growing number of New Zealanders began to explore the outdoors, the first tramping clubs were formed in the early twentieth century, with a subsequent boom in tramping during the 1930s. The growth of an extensive hut and track network in the 1950s and '60s saw New Zealand become one of the best-developed countries in the world for hiking. Trampers' battles to have national parks and wilderness areas established, changes to gear and technology, and the role women have played in tramping are additional themes.

Shaun Barnett

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