Mini Huts

by Kemi Niko

Inspired by real Aotearoa New Zealand backcountry huts 

Mini Hut Ingredients

_{Made in Aotearoa}

½ Large tin can, slab of reclaimed rimu or pine, hours of time and attention, years of experimentation, a healthy dose of hut obsession.

Every hut comes with a corrigated info card & map hidden in its chimney

$125

inc GST

Riordans Hut

Kahurangi National Park,
Golden Bay

Three-bunk musterers hut built in 1926 by the Riordan brothers. Native cedar and totara framing, clad with slabs split with a broad axe. The lean-to-annex added in the 1940s was bought in by packhorse from Uruwhenua.

Rimu hut with lean-to & chimney

Awatere Hut

Ruahine Forest Park, Hawkes Bay

Built in 1957, the hut is situated in beech forest at an altitude of 600 m. It is a basic three-bunk hut with an open fireplace and plenty of wood around the hut.

Orange hut with rusty chimney

Poet Hut

Mungo River, Paparoa National Park, West Coast

One of the four B48 4-bunk designs built by the NZFS in Westland in 1957. You can still find the Intentions Book from 1968 in the hut.

Grey & green hut with orange tipped chimney

Goat Creek Hut

Old Ghost Road, Mōkihinui River, West Coast

This hut was built in 1957, and renovated in 2013. It has character in buckets, and you can sweep the floor straight out the door.

Grey hut with orange roof and chimney

Black Spur Slab Hut

Ka Whata Tu o Rakihouia Conservation Park, Kaikoura Ranges

Constructed in the 1920’s from axe-dressed poplar slabs over a poplar pole frame and served as a shepherds hut. A corrugated iron roof has replaced its original canvas one.

Rimu hut with chimney on the end

Jumboland Hut

Mount Aspiring National Park, Otago

Built by members of the Otago section of NZAC in 1981, as a climbing base. Has since been removed. Jumboland is named after Jumbo, the horse of an early saw-miller called Yankee Dan.

Green hut with lean-to & a rusty chimney

Mingha Biv

Arthurs Pass National Park, Canterbury

This is a basic two-bunk hut, just south of Goat Pass, that had a full refurbishment by Permolat and others in 2019. No mattresses so you will need to bring your own.

Orange with silver roof and chimney

Bealey Spur Hut

Arthurs Pass National Park, Canterbury

This basic six-bunk hut has local historic significance for its role in high country sheep farming. Built in 1935, it has an open fire with a tin chimney and spring mesh bunks attached to beech pole framing. It remained unpainted until 1997 when it got its first coat of green.

Green hut with chimney

Old Manson Hut

Kaweka Forest Park, Hawkes Bay

This historic hut was originally built in the late 1940s to serve as a musterer’s hut. Built of split slabs, possibly beech, cut from nearby trees, and it has a malthoid roof. An authentic example of “pioneer” hut construction.

Rimu hut with chimney

Old Cedar Flat Hut

Kokatahi River, Westcoast

A basic two-bunk hut in the Hokitika area. This unique historic hut was built for government employed deer cullers and is the best surviving example of its type on the West Coast.

Orange hut with lean-to & chimney

Cecil Kings Hut

Kahurangi National Park, Nelson Tasman

A surviving hut of depression era gold mining. Cecil King, a well known local identity, claimed that he built it alone from a single Red Beech in 1935. Its a four-bunk hut, beech pole framed, clad in wooden slabs and roofed with shingles (later covered with iron).

Rimu hut with lean to & chimney on the side

Deception Hut

Arthurs Pass National Park, Canterbury

An old New Zealand Forest Service hut built in 1962 for deer cullers. A basic six-bunk hut that could do with a decent spruce up. Noted as Upper Deception Hut but Lower Deception Hut is long gone.

Green hut with rusty chimney