Trampers who visit nine Great Walks huts within a two-month period will be able to bag their tenth hut free of charge, DOC has announced this morning. The new digital Hut Loyalty Card hopes to be a sweetener for the recently announced price increases for Great Walks huts. From July 1, hut and campsite prices will increase by 18 per cent, a move that has drawn backlash from the largely middle-class tramping community.
To qualify for a free stay at their tenth hut, trampers will be required to register for a digital Hut Loyalty Card and scan a QR code at each hut. They are also encouraged to upload a selfie at the hut and post it on social media under the hashtag #tenthhutfree
A spokesperson for DOC said the initiative would provide an incentive for families to get outdoors, as well as increasing visits to huts. “We love that customers are engaging with our incredible outdoors product, and we hope families across the country take this opportunity to bag as many huts as they can.”
Speedy trampers who manage to bag all 27 huts on the Great Walks during the month of April will also receive a limited edition Great Walks T-shirt plus a $50 Warehouse voucher.
The Hut Loyalty initiative hasn’t been universally well received, however, with Federated Mountain Clubs of New Zealand warning the ‘buy nine get one free’ scheme could encourage people to take unnecessary safety risks as they rush to bag the huts.
“Hut are not cups of coffee, and national parks are not cafes,” a spokesperson said. “This doesn’t solve the problem of ordinary middle-class families being priced out of Great Walks. Money is often tight after families have spent a thousand dollars on ultra-breathable, thermo-regulating active-wear, portable coffee machines and other assorted nic-nacs from outdoor shops. Expecting them to shell out $22 for a bunk after they’ve just spent $139 on an AeroPress and $225 on a set of insulated travel mugs with built-in speakers and Bluetooth capability is totally unrealistic.”
The FMC spokesperson added that there was a danger people may resort to staying in some of the other 900 or so non-Great Walks huts. “We’d hate to see ordinary middle-class families discover that there are tramps in Aotearoa that aren’t Great Walks.”
Large outdoor chain shop not having a sale
Reports are coming through that one popular outdoor shop is currently not having a summer, winter, autumn, spring, Easter, Christmas, Halloween, equinox, Chinese New Year, Shrove Tuesday, Hanukkah, National Bikini Day, Back-to-School, Take-Your-Dog-To-Work Day or Year of the Monkey sale.
An eagle-eyed Wilderness magazine reader went into the store over the weekend and couldn’t find any ‘SALE’ signs anywhere. “I’ve never known any of these outdoor stores to not have a sale on,” she said. “The price tag on one jacket had the sale price of $179 crossed out, and a sticker added saying ‘Now $899’. Everyone knows those original prices are just plucked from thin air, so it feels like we’re getting a massive bargain when we pay $179 for a polyester windbreaker. But I’ve never actually seen them try to sell anything for the fairyland price.”
The shopper then confessed to buying the jacket for $899. “It must be a pretty amazing jacket, to be worth $899,” she said. “I mean, come on …”
Search called off after lost teenagers refuse to answer phone
A search for a group of lost teenagers in the Waitākere Ranges over the weekend was hampered when the group refused to answer phone calls from search and rescue teams. A family member of one of the teenagers received a text message on Friday saying, “We’re lost, bruh.” Search and Rescue were alerted and tried to ring the teenagers, none of whom answered their phones, despite having reception.
“This is not unusual,” the mother of one of the teenagers said on Sunday night. “They really don’t like talking on the phone, as I explained to the police.”
Police say they were frustrated by the teenagers’ approach. “Our chances of locating the missing group would have been much better if they had answered the phone and told us exactly what happened and where they were.”
The police offered a compromise of communicating through Instagram video chat, but the teenagers declined, responding, “That’s so cringe. Only old people use Instagram, it’s nearly as bad as Facebook.” They offered instead to speak with police via TikTok, but none of the officers had the app.
The search was called off this morning, at the request of the teenagers, who sent a final message saying they considered the incoming phone calls to be bullying, and that the harassment was putting them in harm’s way.
This year’s most popular tramping slang terms revealed
You might FOLL when you hear this year’s most popular tramping slang terminology, as compiled by a Massey University social anthropology researcher. Dr Eileen Cliff has been studying slang terms used by trampers for the past two years and has today published a paper detailing the results. She says the research will be useful in aiding communication with trampers, many of whom don’t have great conversational skills in the first place. “Trampers have really developed their own lingo in the bush, which I find fascinating,” Dr Cliff said. “They’re a different breed, and the more we understand about them the better.”
According to the research the top ten slang terms are:
FOLL – Fall off long-drop laughing
FOMOOB – Fear of missing out on a bunk
USWT – Unrealistic suggested walking time
Cooker – Someone who has summited Aoraki Mount Cook
Kathy – Someone who only shops at Kathmandu
GOAT – Species of mammal, member of the bovid family, commonly seen in New Zealand mountains
MILF – Man in loose flannelette
Logjerk – Someone who uses all the firewood in a hut and doesn’t replace it
SWAU – S**t weather as usual
Cuckoo – Parents who make their children walk with another group of trampers so they don’t have to feed them or listen to them whinge
Trans-tramper – Someone born a biological bike rider who now identifies as a tramper
Thatcher – A tramper who hides on the roof of a hut to avoid the hut warden
Polygrot – Someone who stinks due to wearing the same polypropylene thermals for seven days straight
BMB – Burst my blisters (often used to convey surprise, e.g. “Burst my blisters, that hill is steep!”)
Cross-dresser – Someone who removes their boots and socks when crossing a river
Choc-scroggler – Someone who picks all the chocolate bits out of the scrogginOHFTG – Only here for the ’gram (someone who only goes tramping to get photos for Instagram).
Hut merger trial to create ‘super huts’ in the backcountry
Some of New Zealand’s most popular backcountry huts are set to be relocated and combined to create ‘super huts’, part of a hut merger initiative announced by the government this week.
Mueller Hut and Hooker Hut in Aoraki Mount Cook National Park will be the first to be merged, and plans are in place to relocate them this winter to a middle-ground location on the shores of Hooker Lake. The huts will be linked by an enclosed walkway decorated with work by local artists.
A spokesperson said the initiative will make it easier to service the huts and improve safety by concentrating visitors in one area. “It’s an area that’s been under considerable pressure in recent years, especially Mueller Hut, and we think this is literally a great middle-ground solution. The Hut Merger programme is going to be a game-changer for tramping in Aotearoa New Zealand.”
Mueller Hut has come under scrutiny recently after DOC closed it temporarily when the toilet became blocked and there were no plumbers available on a Sunday. A spokesperson said the toilet, which is yet to be emptied, will be helicoptered separately to join the super hut at the new site. “We’re advising trampers to avoid walking under the flight path during the operation.”
Wilderness Outdoor Book of the Year finalists announced
Wilderness can reveal this year’s finalists for the prestigious Outdoor Book of the Year Awards. The grand prize-winning author will receive a signed copy of the winning book. The finalists are:
Great Views and No More Tripping: Why tramping with your eyes open is the new craze
A Cableway Across Lake Taupo: 101 pieces of outdoor infrastructure that could exist but don’t
You Can’t Compete with Hot Springs: How Hanmer Forest Park learned to deal with feelings of inadequacy
Eating Yellow Snow: The case for and against
Brown Stains in the Sunset: The 2024 bog identification handbook
Just a Really Long Path: How Te Araroa didn’t change my life
