Tangihua hut will lose deck and stove

By Peter de Graaf
Trampers are up in arms over rumours that a hut in the Tangihua Forest is about to be demolished - but DOC says only a rotting deck is facing the chop.
The word among trampers and hunters was that the Department of Conservation had decided to flatten Tangihua Hut, in forest midway between Whangarei and Dargaville. However, the only things to go will be the former club hut's deck and stove.
"There's never been any intention to bowl the hut - but it has transpired that the deck outside the hut is absolutely substandard," said Whangarei area manager John Gardiner.
"We're talking about untreated timber in a wet environment ... I've seen the list of problems and it's scary."
Mr Gardiner said the design specifications had to be tougher than for a deck at home, because the hut was open to the public and there was no way of knowing how many people would be on the deck at any one time.
It would be removed within the next few weeks, and the steps - which currently allow access to the deck - would be shifted up to the door.
DOC had planned to repair the deck but found it too far gone, and had not budgeted for a replacement.
However, Mr Gardiner was confident money would be available in the 2007/08 budget.
Zelka Grammer, a keen tramper and secretary of the Mid Western Districts Community Association, said that if the deck was a hazard, it should be pulled down and replaced, she said.
"DOC has inherited this wonderful asset at no expenditure - it's reasonable to ask them to maintain it," she said.
Meanwhile, views in the tramping fraternity over the removal of the stove, deemed a fire hazard, are divided.
Some say having a stove encourages people to collect firewood, damaging the bush; others, that visitors will light fires anyway and it should be replaced.
It had been removed once before by DOC, but was reinstalled by an enterprising tramper.
Mr Gardiner said the stove was unnecessary in Northland's climate, and to protect the bush DOC would be obliged to fly in firewood at unjustifiable cost.
It would be made unusable and picked up the next time a helicopter was in the vicinity, he said.
Going by the hut book entries and the $60 in fees collected in the past few years, the hut did not get a lot of use.
"But people do get a strong attachment to huts - if anyone talked about getting rid of my favourite down in Fiordland I'd be pretty upset," Mr Gardiner said.
The eight-bunk hut was built by the Whangarei Tramping Club in 1972, and handed over to DOC two years ago.
The department has since backed away from proposals to upgrade the hut, increase fees and install a lock.