Derrick 0:00

we put a new track right down the Uck here and built the two huts those, were basically, unofficial huts that we just managed to get timber and what have you, the Forest Service Builders and just went and built two huts

Speaker 0:20

Kiro and welcome to the Tramping Life, a podcast about hiking in outro New Zealand, or as we call it here, tramping. I'm jt, and in each episode I chat with people who share passion for exploring this incredible country. We'll hear about the tracks they love, the huts they return to, the lessons they've learned, and what keeps them heading back into the bush.

Jonty 0:40

My guest today is Derek Field Chair of the Greater Wellington Back Country Network. Derek has spent a lifetime in the hills building and maintaining huts and tracks across the country. I'm delighted to welcome him to the podcast. Thanks John. I like to start at the beginning. So when did you first go into the outdoors?

Derrick 0:56

Probably when I was with mates around about 12 or 13 at Upper Hut. I grew up in Upper Hut we headed over the back of Canon Point and spent quite a bit of time over there and eventually camping out and from there, progress, To the tower and did just about all my tramping and hunting there for, quite a while.

Jonty 1:18

So is that what took you into deer culling? Was it the tramping and that experience in Roos that then turned into work?

Derrick 1:24

Had a good mate, Pete Southie whose family, were longtime hunters I always wanted to get into hunting, my father bought me a 3 0 3 when I was 15. And, then from then on it was always hunting.

Jonty 1:36

So the life of a color is quite different these days, with technology and helicopters and it's more kind of recreational hunting for most people. Can you take us back to, I guess this is the sixties, seventies, what was life as a color like?

Derrick 1:50

Probably a lot different to what it is today. We didn't get any helicopter flights anywhere. We walked in and walked out. Our food was all flown in by helicopter initially. Before I started, food was delivered by parachute from fixed wing, but I had started using bell helicopters when I started in 1966. The huts are pretty good, the Forest Service type huts were all pretty new, and most of the Tramping Club huts that we used, they weren't too bad. they had their fair share of rats, but by and large we stayed mostly in the Forest Service huts and they were quite comfortable they were built for you to sleep in and cook in and. Not hang about, get out hunting and so they're quite basic.

Jonty 2:33

Did you have a quota of you need to make this many kills before you can go out or you were in for a certain period of time? Or how did they measure your performance?

Derrick 2:41

I think if you got under about 10 for a six week trip, you might find yourself finding another job. we would start as a second grade hunter and if we got 30 deer for a six week trip, then we'd go to First Grade Hunter. By and large, on a six week trip, we would probably get between 40 and 50 deer, and goats. And we were paid, eventually on a tail basis, on a, bonus set up. There was no fixed wage. you got what you shot? and if you didn't, there was a retainer, but if that's all you got, then you weren't gonna have a job either. that was only about $13 a week at the time. The bonus system, was quite hard work, with the weather conditions in the tower roars, the good days hunting, fairly few and far between. And we spent, at least six weeks at a time in the hills. in the winter block. We shifted to what is now the Arani Forest Park was called Harran then. And, sometimes I spent three months in there. the climate down there was a lot better than the tower.

Jonty 3:40

I guess it depends on the day you gonna be out for 8, 10, 12 hours hunting each day to try and get those numbers.

Derrick 3:47

Yeah, quite easily. There was some fairly long days and fairly tiring days coming back to the hut. We were hunting right through The range and along, the main range and the town Ridge and Cattle Ridge and all those areas and 10 hours out was fairly hard work.

Jonty 4:06

Would you come across many Trampers whilst you're out and about?

Derrick 4:09

Funny, actually, I think we met two trampers The whole time that I was working in the, I met Graham Dingle and Jill Tain up on top of Girdle Stone and I knew Graham from school Tramping days 'cause he was in the Hu Valley High School. And we met up off and on in the Tarique, our Valley and a few other places. And those were the only two I actually recall meeting. By and large it was pretty quiet.

Jonty 4:37

And then you moved to Taranaki to hunt goat. Now what's the difference between hunting goat and deer? What's easier?

Derrick 4:43

Goats is probably a whole lot easier if you've got a good dog pack. Tara is, reasonably flat, quite hard going through the bush and leatherwood and there were still a few goats about then. I gather they've eradicated them all now, but, by comparison it was a lot easier physically for the day, but chasing dogs, still, was, reasonably tiring work.

Jonty 5:05

So what was in place at that time was the, around the mountain circuit there, se Hart the tramping network as we know it today at Taranaki. Was that there in the sixties or that's been developed since? Yep.

Derrick 5:16

The, around the mountain track was pretty popular. We stayed at Holly Hut and Kahui and um, and oi, I think um, on, on the block I was in as, and Kawai was a New hut at the time.

Jonty 5:29

So then you became Ranger in charge. Now does that mean you are still hunting or you are more looking at the tracks and the huts at that time?

Derrick 5:36

In Taranaki? Yeah we had a couple of goat hunting teams for the summer, and those teams would, if they stayed on over the winter, would do track and hut work down in Yto. I ended up with the job of running that and sorting out what track works were gonna do and surveying the tracks and, keeping the troops fed in the bush.

Jonty 5:59

Was that you were opening up for the for the colors or was that opening up for kind of recreational trampers?

Derrick 6:05

it was for recreational use. there was an idea, I think initially that it would encourage hunters to control goats, but, has been found that very large block of bush and the Taranaki backcountry goat control. There is not easy. Eventually the Forest Service put, paid hunters in there to hunt. But at the time I was there, we were just opening up the area, primarily for recreational use. And, we opened up the Madi Onga track, which was quite overgrown. It's an old road that was built before the First World War. And it's a bit like the Monka Peru, almost identical. there's a bridged, similar bridge, at Tuia and the history of the places identical. And, the Madi Mad was intended to be a highway to go right through and over to Rupe, but that never eventuated. And we also, cut new tracks right through the Y Tora, from the bottom end right through and connecting with the mad track as well. I think we built, About six or seven initial temporary huts that eventually got replaced by Lands and Surveys department with quite good huts, which are still there now.

Jonty 7:15

It's great being able to revisit the things that are involved in building half a century ago and it's still there and being maintained and well used.

Derrick 7:22

Yeah. The hills have got a bit steeper. it's quite different to the mountain ranges, like the tower ERs and Hanes or the South island. You've gotta be, reasonably keen on Bush walking there's really good bush a lot of, wildlife. it's quite good To stop using a scrub bar for a minute. The next thing there's a robin hopping around you and almost every time you stop, a robin would turn up and so that, that was quite cool. It was a bit of a trip down memory lane. It took us the first time we cut six of us, it took I think 16 days to cut the Madi on track. Over two trips, and we're going back at the end of this month hopefully, to do a recut of some of it.

Jonty 7:59

So the bird life in the, I guess this is late sixties versus the bird life now. Can you see a difference?

Derrick 8:06

Yeah. To be honest, I probably didn't pay a lot of attention back then I'm more aware, What I do recall is reading a newspaper cutting in the new Plymouth Forest Service office about some Trampers who in behind, the bush and the white Tora Valley recorded quite a lot of coco and this wasn't very far from the road end actually.

Jonty 8:28

In the early seventies you then moved down to South Island, so you were doing some stuff in Lake Summer, forest Park and Arthurs Park National Park. So quite different landscapes again.

Derrick 8:38

Yeah, initially I got a job in the Y Mac area and was working, looking after the Forest Service huts that had been built in those places in the National Park. And there was also helicopter dairy recovery starting the same time. And I moved to Hamama Springs with the family it's quite different country, but I actually wanted to get outta Taranaki, I think, and into some decent rivers where you could actually walk up and down. The back country of Taranaki is your travel is all on the ridge tops, so your navigation skills have gotta be pretty good.

Jonty 9:09

So that was what kind of maintenance, track building, looking after huts? Similar kind of work? Just in the different area?

Derrick 9:14

Yeah. it was the huts system was pretty well set up. Then it was mainly just, looking after the tracks and the huts were pretty well looked after, by the Forest Service at that time. the Hope Kiwi Lodge was a new one. in the head of the Hope Valley, on the way through to Lake Sun. And, that was the newest one at the time. the new huts over and the Nui hadn't been built then. I've since been through the Nui and those huts are in quite good.

Jonty 9:39

And then you went back up to the North Island. So were these sort of fixed term contracts or fasted the change. So you moved around a bit 'cause you seemed to have gone to, you worked in a lot of different places around the country and how much that was driven by you versus the department.

Derrick 9:51

Whatever jobs came up that, I was keen on and, I based out of Kangaroo Forest and also tpo, um, for about 10 years. One of the jobs we had was looking after, the tracks and huts in the takahe forest and we put a new track right down the Uck here and built the two huts those, were basically, unofficial huts that we just managed to get timber and what have you, the Forest Service Builders and just went and built two huts and I gather they're still there. and Back Country Trust has, upgraded, I think one of them recently. But it was, mainly a hunting area at the time, but now I think it gets a bit of tramping use. And we also worked on the TEI track, from the Ang Forest into the upper TEI and benched it. We had a team there for a couple of winters, I think, benching that track right through from, the road in right into the upper Tahoe. And then after I left. It got continued on down to, central Tihi, I think, and out further on, out to, the, um, Hunna Highway.

Jonty 10:54

So did the drive for that come from Wellington saying, they wanna put something in and you guys on the ground designed it, or did you have some agency locally to decide where the best new tracks or might be?

Derrick 11:05

I think it was, mostly up to the local ranger with the initiative to go out and do it. There wasn't, too many, directors from head office to Go and open up some of the back country. A lot of it was just driven by, the senior rangers at the time. The forest parks were different. Had a forest park advisory committee and a management plan. The planning for that was quite a bit different, but working in some of those, lesser known areas, it was probably more the initiative of the people in charge locally just to go out and do it. And Forest Service. seemed quite happy with that.

Jonty 11:40

And how did one go about building a new hut? Choosing the right site and then materials and the design.

Derrick 11:46

As far as the site goes, generally it's a basic principle that you would use anywhere. Like it's, a reasonable day's walk between huts in areas. that were a sort of a destination. The majority of trampers and hunters that went in there went in from the top end. So we put a hut down on one of the first clearings, down in the valley. and a lot of the hut network By this time actually already been established, in places like the Southern Euro where, so there wasn't a need to go building more huts. there only just one or two places, that I've worked like White Tora and, the AKA here that we were undeveloped.

Jonty 12:21

One of the projects involved with there was building new MIT Flats hut, which I think the third on, on that site. So how does one build a new hut? Was there like a standard, here's your standard design or local builders,

Derrick 12:34

basically, I had a bit of spare cash and had my eye on it. And at that time, doc didn't have the strategic planning systems in place. I basically said to the boss in Nui, I've got 15,000 here I can spend on a hut. And we went and did it. but design wise, we had some staff here who had built quite a few huts in the forest park. Mario Jeremiah was our builder. And he was capable of designing huts and we built them largely similar to the likes of, alpha heart in a way. And the heart's still there and it's going well. and. It was another one of these sort of informal, jobs where capital word wasn't mentioned. We just went and did it. and the massive and Remming Club who had built the previous heart contributed funding towards it. Everyone was happy at the end of it. Life has changed now for planning to build new huts. But that's how we got that particular one done.

Jonty 13:32

And then you're involved in the Matt Holsworth jumbo loop I guess upgrading that track, and that's probably one of the most accessible ways into the roos for most people now. So was that the original tent? How do we build a family friendly track, or what was the rationale for upgrading it?

Derrick 13:47

It was exactly that. Holsworth was the the most popular spot. OT Forks was very popular as well. At that time. The Forest Service previously had started some track formation up several valleys. There was a bench track that went up. there's Smith's creeks got quite a good bench track and I think they did all that with unemployed labor. And we were fortunate enough at the time, I think to be able to, get labor through a scheme called the task force green scheme. And the aim basically was to put a good quality track up the Artie Fog two, and, and eventually put a new hut up there and also up Generalani so that it was a day walk, but also on up to Powell. that was our most popular hut. in the Forest Park. And, in doing that, we were creating, a much easier loop track. So yeah, that was always the intention and I suppose you could say it's introduction to the Tower Rus, without, going into any of the, the,

Speaker 2 14:49

the high risk places.

Jonty 14:51

I think there's about 50 huts in the roos. Do you have any particular favorites or any kind of gems that people may not be that aware of, which aren't the obvious ones?

Derrick 15:01

I think it's still the huts in the middle of the range. not too many people go, Since I retired, I've spent quite a bit of time in those places and Dorsett Ridge our group, the Back Country Network did quite a major upgrade on Dorsett Ridge, last summer. that hut was starting to deteriorate a bit and needed, some work on it. back country trust and a donation helped us get that work done. those are probably my, favorite areas, um, they're all, handy to the tops of the towers as well.

Jonty 15:32

Are there any witches? You stay there once and never again?

Derrick 15:35

I probably wouldn't want to stay at Powell Hut Mainly just because of the crowds of people there. And Tora Flats. I've stayed there while I've been doing track cutting, but I wouldn't go there, for any other reason. it's not to me a tramping destination I'd sooner go to Neil Forks or somewhere else. And the same goes with Powell. I think I've only ever passed through that hut going somewhere else McGregor or MIDI or, or somewhere like that. Those huts are good huts and they do the job for, a lot of people. The many people that want to go there. But it's not where I'd want to, stay.

Speaker 3 16:06

What spurd do you to start mountain running in your fifties i've got

Speaker 16:09

no idea actually. Suddenly I've probably had too much spare time on my hands. I always liked to get around the hills as quick as I could and, a race was being organized in the, and the car work is called Car Worker Challenge, and it had been going for two or three years. And I heard about it. They had a new race which was a whole one day, whole circuit, of 67 kilometers I think. And I thought, oh, I've gotta see if I can do that. And I had done a one day southern crossing walk run, if you like, with a mate. The first year got washed out. The next year I did it. And, it nearly killed me and the next year I did it and the same happened. But I still come in the top nine or 10, but there wasn't that many actually doing that particular run. and, Brent Harrison from Mainly Tramping started the Southern Crossing Race. So I ended up doing about the first 10 of those. I think there was five of us left standing after about the first 10 races. It would be hard to describe it as being an enjoyable run, but, it was quite satisfying to get to the end. but probably what I enjoyed more was just going for a run, around the tops somewhere. I did trips from the road into, over banister and around and out through Holsworth I went on, with, con Rolf when he did the first sub 24 hour I went as far as, a rate with him and that's all I was intending to do and headed back home, out over banister, which was probably one of the longer days that I've ever done in the hills, I think.

Jonty 17:41

You mentioned the Greater Wellington Back Country Network. How did that come about?

Derrick 17:45

When the HU fee system came in and round about 1987, I think it was, Hut fees will pay for hut maintenance in future. And it was pretty obvious that a lot of huts in our area and no doubt right throughout the country, were not gonna pay their way. the maintenance costs would far exceed, the likely hu fees I met up with, Several reps from what at the time was called the Wellington Associated Mountain Clubs, because there's a very strong club tramping network in the Wellington region. I think it was, we met at John Christian's house who, the Hu Valley T Tramper. and from the Tramping Club, I think, Peter Smith was there. And agreed that, if we could pull the funding from the HPE that came into the lower North Island and share that around, amongst, all of the clubs that we're managing huts and dock, then it might be a way Keeping huts funded. I think it was about 15 clubs, joined what at the time was the Ang Huts committee that group, not only through the hut fees that came in, managed to keep the hut system maintained. I, talked with my boss, Dave Kercher when we started, and somehow I got to agree to actually pass on all the hut fees income that came from the retailers over to the Huts committee. which was probably at the time, he didn't think there was gonna be much money involved. But, it wasn't long actually before there was enough funding coming in to maintain the huts. And we built three huts, during that time as well. Waiwai Hut, got 20 odd bunks in it and Manga Health Flats is a similar hut the next year, and then a few years later, we built Tar Ridge Hut. and all of those huts. and alongside that, we also upgraded Powell and Jumbo and two y and to flats and uh, MI flats. The system worked I think quite well i'd like to think that we actually had the Best Hut system in the country at the time, So we've been able to keep up the volunteer, effort ever since. Also to take on track maintenance as well, which is something that, the backcountry track system virtually had no funding. I thought, if Doc can't do it, then we want to keep the tracks open. We'll have to. We got an MOU doc here in Marden they Signed us up to managing huts, and some of the track network you have to remember that the Tower Rus is a place where community ownership of the hut and track network goes back a hundred years. So there's quite a lot of, history behind there. most of the tracks initially were built by tramping clubs and hunters. So it's not a new thing and it's really just continuing. that tradition a bit now it's really good to see that there's so many people willing to do their bit and to either give something back or cause they don't wanna lose it and quite happy to get out there and do the hard

Speaker 2 20:39

work.

Jonty 20:40

It's amazing the work that volunteers do to keep the the network going. Just thinking back on some of your most memorable trips in the back country are there any that spring to mind

Derrick 20:50

Probably some of my most memorable trips were when I was at college, when I did trips to the south island on the west coast and a group of us flew into the Watoto Valley and spent two weeks in there We were hunting and the next Christmas, I spent three weeks in the water river, hunting tower. I was on my own on that trip. I had a cousin who was in charge of the deer culling on the West coast, so I did a few trips with him and he's probably what got me into the forest service to start with the ranger in charge of Harry, Harry said yeah we'll send you up there. Provide, you cut the track from the new butler hut up to, what is now the site of the top Butler heart. And I knew nothing about tracks whatsoever, and I worked away on there off and on for over three weeks and I was up there a few years ago with my son and grandson and walked down and I couldn't believe it that the still the same track and it's on the same route, which goes up and down. And I thought it was a disaster actually. Any trip on the hills is good and, doesn't matter about the weather. I can just stay at the hut until it comes. Right. Getting to places like McGregor and Dorsett Ridge and Nichols and Carkeek and that area is really cool.

Jonty 22:01

So you're happy to return to places, rather than seeking out new places,

Derrick 22:05

I just prefer to go to the places I enjoy and having walked over most of the. I know where I like to go. I've done a few trips in the Hanis as well since I retired. I started work in the Hanis in 1966. I quite enjoyed the, round the Sawtooth Ridge and that area but that's mainly for hunting.

Jonty 22:25

I guess you've seen the, increase in popularity of the Tiro Trail and how that's going through the roos and putting a bit of pressure on some points.

Derrick 22:33

I didn't have much to do with it initially. That the Western Tower Auroras, the Rangers over there, set it up, negotiated with the TRI trust it was originally proposed by DOC to go through O Rio Ridge, I gather. But that has been an unofficial remote zone, right back since the Forest Service. It was actually in the, forest Park management plan as a remote area and. So the TA trail came down the main range from Tomato eye but that obviously is gonna have its own problems the issue is that the huts are quite big in places along that section of the ta trail. they sleep up to 20 or so. All of a sudden you hit a six bunk hut on the bush edge of Mount Crawford. And that was always gonna be a problem. It's not a good place to camp around either, with the conditions up there. Ta walkers have, realized this, and getting over Mount Crawford is not easy and not guaranteed. And, I gather that. Proportion of TA Walker take the and bypass. What we've been looking at in conjunction with DOC and the TA trust is to look at, what would be best to solve that. And we built tent sites that. Track, which is, a couple of hours walk, Northwood and at Nichols as one of the options to help reduce the pressure on the accommodation at Nichols. But, it obviously needs a bigger heart

Jonty 24:02

now you've spent a lifetime in the roos. Is this the golden age in terms of the track maintenance and the HU maintenance, or have we still got a way to go?

Derrick 24:10

Yeah, that's interesting. I recall the tracks back in the, early sixties

Speaker 2 24:14

some of 'em are pretty rough.

Derrick 24:16

It's been quite difficult for dock there's something like 550 kilometers of track and the three forest parks that the wire rapid dock manage. It's been quite difficult for them to fund. Track maintenance because what you're looking at is you probably need to do about 140 kilometers of track every year, in order to keep on top of the regrowth. And if you leave it any longer, you'll suddenly find that your work is gonna take twice as long. So we've embarked Doing an initial, if you like, catch up of all the track network, which hopefully in our fourth year we will, do this summer and that will get the whole track network having a decent cut. but we're also revisiting tracks already, that need something more often than say, a four year gap between maintenance. So the high use tracks, we've already been redoing them every year and or every two years. But once we've got over the bulge of doing that initial cut. Life will become a lot easier, so the track system probably right now is as good as it's ever been. But it's going to take volunteers to do it.

Jonty 25:26

My last question is just around, do you have a bucket list of trips you still want to do or places you wanna revisit?

Derrick 25:32

The knees are getting a bit wobbly. I wouldn't mind doing some more trips back into the center of the tower ERs and back in the Rahini. And I'm hoping to go back down the west coast this summer, at the end of the summer. as well. I did a walk right through the Yto, last winter. I don't think I'll try that again. Unless we're cutting it. but yeah, those, that's probably what I'll do over the next year or two

Speaker 2 25:56

hopefully.

Speaker 25:59

Thank you so much for listening to the Tramping life. If you've enjoyed today's episode, please follow the podcast in whatever app you use. Tell a friend about it and consider leaving a rating or a review. It really helps more people discover the show. you have any questions or feedback, I'd love to hear from you. Drop me an email at the tramping life, one word@gmail.com.