Nearly all of the 950 Backcountry huts in New Zealand are maintained by New Zealands Department of Conservation. Often referred to as Tramping Huts (the New Zealand term for backpacking is Tramping), these are intended to provide overnight accomodation for backpackers and vary from small bivouac shelters made of wood to large modern huts that can sleep up to 40 people, with separate cooking areas, utilities and gas. Initially some of these huts were built to serve the deer culler's of the New Zealand Forest Service [1], but the larger and more modern ones (like some found on the Great Walks) have been purpose designed and built.
Hut Categories
Huts are assigned one of four categories:
- Basic Hut/Bivy - these have offer only basic shelter and have limited facilites
- Standard Hut - these huts have sleeping platforms/matresses a toilet (usually an outhouse) and a water supply
- Serviced Hut - these huts have the features of a standard hut, but will also have a heater of some sort and may have additional cooking facilities and a warden on a seasonal basis
- Great Walk Huts - These huts are located on one of the nine Great Walks and include the facilites of Serviced huts. They may also have handwashing facilities and heating/cooking fuel available.
The cost of staying overnight at these huts varies according to the category of the hut with Great Walk Huts being the most expensive and requiring booking in adavance. [2]. For frequent users of the hut system, the Department of Conservation sells a Hut Pass which is similar in operation to a season ticket and permits access to many of their huts.