Ticking off 50 tramping huts in a year
Most people probably won’t visit 50 New Zealand huts in their lifetime, but Mary Culpan did just that – in only a year.
The Titahi Bay woman had always done a lot of tramping, but after her 49th birthday in July 2015, she started to think about how to mark her 50th year.
‘‘Once I saw this big 5-0 looming, I thought ‘wow, this is actually a really big milestone’. It gave me a sense of ‘I really want to do with whatever is left of my life; the things that bring me joy, the things I love’.’’
Visiting 50 back-country huts in a year was one way to do this and also presented Culpan with a real challenge.
She feels ‘‘free’’ in the mountains, carrying everything she needs with little or no data or wi-fi access.
Her husband, Angus HulmeMoir, gave her a back-country annual hut pass for Christmas 2015 and she started on New Year’s Day 2016 with a run up to Kiwi Saddle Hut in the Kawekas with her sister-in-law, Charlotte Hulme-Moir.
Culpan, a social worker with Hospice New Zealand, made many weekend trips throughout the year, visiting huts in the Kawekas, Ruahines, Aorangi Forest Park, Rimutaka Forest Park, Pureora Forest Park and Tongariro National Park.
She set three rules for her challenge: 1. The huts had to be more than an hour’s walk from the road end; 2. They could be huts that she had visited in the past but she couldn’t repeat the same hut twice during the 12 months; 3. She didn’t have to stay the night but she needed to get a photo.
Her favourite hut was Kylie Bivouac, a tiny two-person biv high up on a ridge line in Ruahine Forest Park.
‘‘The wind dropped that night and we sat outside the hut with a tiny fire. Someone had left two folding camping chairs, there was a full moon with clouds drifting across ...
‘‘Honestly, I’m struggling to find the words. It was captivating, to be so far away from everything in this tiny orange hut.’’
But it was not always smooth sailing, she says.
In July, her husband planned a surprise helicopter flight for them both into Arete Hut to mark her 50th birthday but a few weeks before the trip, he broke both wrists mountain-biking and couldn’t tramp or drive.
Culpan still went tramping that weekend, but the helicopter trip has been saved for this year.
The hutting went on hold for a while after that, she says.
‘‘After July, I got very badly behind. After the casts came off his hands right up to December, I was going like billy-o to make up time.’’
There were plenty of lighter moments too, including being caught on a long drop by hut companions she thought had already set off on a hike.
‘‘It was really gloomy in the loo and the smell wasn’t very inviting so I left the door wide open, when all four of our hut companions from the previous night trooped past less than four metres away with a video camera attached to a selfie stick out in front,’’ she says.
‘‘What do you do, stand up with a bare arse to shut the door, or smile and wave?’’
She chose the latter option, a moment that she, and her companions, are not likely to forget.
Culpan arrived at her 50th hut on New Year’s Eve 2016, visiting Waihohonu Hut with sister-in-law Charlott, on the Round The Mountain Track in Tongariro National Park.
She says she felt elated to finish, closely followed by a sense of ‘‘oh, what am I going to do next?’’.
Although yet to come up with another feat to match her achievement, she says it doesn’t matter what your challenge is, as long as it involves something you love.