Huts: Untold Stories from Back-country New Zealand ~ Paperback ~ Mark Pickering

If huts could talk they could tell the whole history of the back country. Of Scottish shepherds who arrived in the high country with the fresh, vivid memories of the Highland Clearances. Of the flush and fury of goldminers and water-racemen in Central Otago. Of the patient and poorly paid jobs of boundary keepers, musterers and roadmen, who lived in tiny huts in the shadow of huge landscapes. There are over 1500 huts in New Zealand - an extraordinarily large number, and this book is the untold story of several. Remarkably, most of these historic huts still do the job they were built for, whether it's a pit-sawn deer cullers' hut in Urewera National Park or a tiny skiers' shack in the Craigieburn Range. Huts: Untold stories from back-country New Zealand is a celebration of the endurance of these huts and the men who built and lived in them. It is a fascinating look at the place of these iconic dwellings in New Zealand's social and mountain history. Author Biography Mark Pickering was born in England but took root in New Zealand, and has had a physical and emotional commitment to the hills honed over 30 years. He's explored many forgotten landscapes, holed up in solitary old musterers' huts, and mulled over the left-over ruins of people who lived on and worked the lands long before he ever got there. The back country is an open-air book of history once you tune your eyes to the landscape. Twenty walking and tramping guidebooks later, Mark still finds himself looking at each place he visits with fresh eyes. He has made his living out of the mountains, and counts himself lucky that he never passed that bank manager's exam. Mark lives in Christchurch with his partner, Rachel Barker, and their daughter Alexandra.