Just returned from a three-day trip to Waimak Falls Hut in Arthurs Pass National Park. The hut is owned by the Canterbury Mountaineering Club (CMC) and was built in 1963.
The hut is a traditional design with corrugated steel roof and wall cladding. The corrugate was fixed with lead head nails and the ridge flashing had a lead edge. These needed to be removed for the health of the local Kea population.
We flew in on Saturday morning with Scott Rodgers from Heli Rural. As soon as we arrived, we got into the fixing and flashing replacement. We also replaced the front door which had been delivered on a previous heli flight to swap out a full toilet tank. The broken braces on the toilet were replaced with removable fixings to allow easier tank replacement in the future. The mountain radio was also removed which was a bit of a sad moment given the long history of the Mountain Radio Service and its association with the CMC. However, new technology with personal locator beacons has made the radios redundant.
On the Sunday we completed the work and late afternoon walked down to Carrington Hut three hours down river with heavy packs full of tools. Monday, we walked another 4 hours out to the road at Klondyke Corner.
Thanks to lance Irving from Irving Builders his son Bede and my son Oli for their time and great work.
BACK COUNTRY HUT VOLUNTEERING 1
BACK COUNTRY HUT VOLUNTEERING 2
BACK COUNTRY HUT VOLUNTEERING 3
BACK COUNTRY HUT VOLUNTEERING 4
