Homecoming for historic Hooker Hut
The long-closed historic Hooker Hut has been restored and returned to the Aoraki/Mt Cook National Park, 111 years after it was built.
Access to the hut was washed away in storms in the mid-1990s, and in 2015 the hut was broken into sections and lifted by helicopter out of the national park over concern the terrace it was sitting on was slipping into the glacier below.
The hut was officially reopened on Thursday, its restoration having been delayed by Covid-19 and the weather.
The Department of Conservation’s senior ranger in charge of search and rescue and recreation at Aoraki/Mt Cook, David Dittmer, said the managers at the time knew if they had left the hut in the park, ‘‘it would go over the side and would be completely wrecked’’.
DOC Aoraki/Mt Cook operations manager Sally Jones said there were lengthy discussions on what to do with the hut once it was removed.
‘‘The question was, ‘Does the hut get removed and put into some sort of hut museum or hut graveyard?’ or ‘Does it get restored and put somewhere else?’ ’’
Part of the challenge was the location. The Hooker Valley’s moraine walls are constantly shifting, and the hut has been moved four times in the past 111 years. DOC wanted to choose a location that would be stable and end the hut’s migration around the valley.
Jones said: ‘‘This is the safest place that we can identify with a view to it being here for the next 100 years.’’
The hut was restored by backcountry construction specialist firm Recreation Construction at a cost of about $385,000.
Josh Soper, of Recreation
Construction, said restoring such an old building had its challenges. ‘‘The hardest part was that I wasn’t involved with taking it apart, so I never knew what it actually looked like,’’ he said.
The hut is an amalgamation of different time periods – with a new roof, floor and windows, walls from the 1960s, and the original 1910 doors, bunks, table and bench. ‘‘I am actually surprised there’s so much of the original structure still left. Around the doors was where the water penetrated the most, but apart from that it was very sound,’’ Soper said.
‘‘When I first took this job I thought, ‘Oh, no – this is going to be a nightmare with all the old stuff.’ But it shows how well it was done back in the day that it’s fitted back together quite well.’’
At some points Soper found himself trapped between modern building standards and preserving the historic structure in the original materials.
‘‘It was a challenge using timber for everything – whereas today everything’s aluminium – just to keep everything weathertight.’’
Soper and his team started work on the hut restoration at the start of last year, but were forced by Covid to leave the project. They got back in for a few months after lockdown, but then had to leave again after winter came early.
‘‘It was starting to get to minus 5 to minus 6 degrees [Celsius] and struggling to get to zero during the day; it’s hard to work in those conditions.’’
The hut is located within two hours’ walk from the White Horse Hill car park, and access is mostly along the wellmaintained Hooker Valley track.
Jones said: ‘‘Some people might think it’s unnecessary to have a hut so close to the end of a track, but the reality is that most people with a moderate level of fitness can access it and I think that’s pretty special.
‘‘I think it’s wonderful that people like myself who aren’t uber fit, or children that are 4 or 5 years old are able to walk here. As long as you’ve got some stability you can come here.’’
Dittmer said the hut was likely to be booked out years in advance.
‘‘I’m thinking fairly quickly this hut will be overprescribed . . . But at the end of the day, if it’s being well used, that’s the intent.’’
Dittmer first used the hut during the 1970s as a teenage mountaineer heading over the Copeland Pass or climbing at the head of the valley.
‘‘If the walls on this building could talk – I’m sure there’s a lot of stories.
‘‘The hut had a reputation for having a ghost. A few people have had that experience, and one or two quite staunch mountaineers have had that experience. It’s an unknown whether the ghost has come with the hut on this new build. Only time will show.’’
Anyone wanting to book the hut at present needs to contact the Aoraki/Mt Cook visitor centre, but it will be added to DOC’s online booking system in the coming weeks.
The hut costs $15 a night for adults, $7.50 for youths aged 11 to 17 years, and free for children up to 10 years.