Huts - Design and construction

Date: 31 Jan 2011

From: Tararua Tramping Club oral history project, 2010-2011

By: Tararua Tramping Club; Gates, John, 1928-

Reference: OHInt-1007-04

Description: Interview with John Gates, born in 1928, an architect who joined the Tararua Tramping Club in 1945. Outlines his official roles in the Club including being Chief Guide and designing the Tararua Lodge which was built in 1960. Talks about his work building huts and how they were funded. Mentions meeting his wife Edith through the Club and taking their children tramping. Comments that the Club was a social club for young people at a time when there were fewer activities available for them. Discusses alpine trips in the South Island when there were no maps and relying on mountain radios for weather reports. Talks about early equipment including canvas packs that ripped easily and contrasts it with present day climbing equipment. Refers to accidents and rescues. Mentions skiing, tubing down rivers, and photographing trips. Talks about rock climbing in England, ski-mountaineering in Europe, and a trip to Peru in 1982 where he climbed to 19,500 feet without oxygen. Mentions his last mountaineering trip was in 1985 and his last tramping trip was to Milford Sound in 1990. Reflects on having had an understanding wife. Interviewer(s) - Howard Taylor Arrangement: Tape numbers - OHDV-0053 - OHDV-0055 - mini DV 60 cassettes (original field recording) Tape numbers - OHDV-0056 - DV CAM (edited master of interview) Quantity: 3 videocassette(s). 1 videocassette(s) Videocassette. 1 printed abstract(s). 476 electronic scan(s) of original black and white photographic print(s). 371 electronic scan(s) of original colour photographic print(s). 1 Electronic document(s). 1 interview(s). 1.31 Hours and minutes Duration. Physical Description: Image files - Jpeg; Textual file - Microsoft word Finding Aids: Abstract Available - abstracting complete OHA-7596. Scanned black and white and colour photographs of tramping and mountaineering trips from John Gates' albums - 1945-47, 1947-65, Hopkins 84, Olivines and Peru (list of photographs available). Scanned photograph album pages; scanned document listing major tramping trips of John and Edith Gates and family from 1945 to 2004 (printout with printed abstract) Search dates: 1928 - 1945 - 2011

Date: [Circa 1920s-1940s]

From: Kennedy, William Alexander, 1865-1950 :Photographs of the Southern Alps area

Reference: PAColl-0959-10

Description: Snapshots of mountaineering, camping, and several unidentified mountain huts in the Southern Alps taken by unidentified photographers. The groups are probably members of the Canterbury Mountaineering Club and/or the New Zealand Alpine Club. Many of the scenes show men transporting building equipment (some with the use of vehicles and horses), then carried by the men across stoney river beds, fording rivers, climbing with planks on their backs, then showing the various stages of construction. One hut has a rounded roof-line; others made of corrugated iron and wood are situated at different sites, including one up a bare mountain-side, and one with trees behind, and another with a river in front. The collection includes several interior views of huts (nos. 130-134), and close-up pictures of the men. Names pencilled on the back of some of the photographs include F. Hulston, D.V. Apperley, W. Newton, G. Chisholm, M. Barford, John Sampson, J. Moore and R. Drake. Image no. 175 shows the tombstone of Minnie Cochran with the inscription "In memory of Minnie Cochran, d 27th Oct. 1879 and Baby" which was found "nestling under the hawthorn fence by the cattle yards at Mt White". Compare many of the images which are similar to those in the W A Kennedy Collection Box 09 (PAColl-0959-09) Quantity: 177 b&w original photographic print(s). Physical Description: Silver gelatin prints

Date: [Circa 1900s-1920s]

From: Kennedy, William Alexander, 1865-1950 :Photographs of the Southern Alps area

Reference: PAColl-0959-27

Description: Photographs of the Mount Cook area taken by unidentified photographers, with most sites unidentified. Several images show mountain huts, one of which is under construction. Image no. 18 shows the Hermitage, ca 1920s; image no. 106 shows a group of five mountaineers, showing Dr Ebenezer Teichelmann, probably with Robert Stuart Low, Reverend Henry Edward Newton, and mountain guides Peter and Alex Graham when they made the third ascent of Mount Cook in 1905. Image no. 93 shows a "gendarme" on the high ridge of La Perouse. [An abrupt rock pinnacle on an arete which has resisted frost shattering]. Identified places are listed above. Quantity: 120 b&w original photographic print(s). Physical Description: Silver gelatin prints. Finding Aids: Typescript inventory of this box held in Photographic Archive backfile under "Kennedy, William Alexander." Photographs numbered 1-75, 77-89, 91, 95, 100-106, 108, and 114-115 have no information or identification of places times or names of people..

Date: [Circa 1909-1930s]

From: Kennedy, William Alexander, 1865-1950 :Photographs of the Southern Alps area

By: C B and Company Ltd; Morris, Guy Clayton, 1868-1918; Sun (Christchurch, N.Z.)

Reference: PAColl-0959-21

Description: Photographs of areas in the South Island taken by various identified and unidentified photographers, with several taken by "Guy" (i.e. Guy Clayton Morris). Photographs include a very clear image of the interior of a mountain hut (no. 04) showing two unidentified men, one lying on an upper bunk and the other seated on a box under the window, cooking and kitchen equipment and a metal-bound soda siphon. There are two interior photographs of the Hermitage, one showing the closed-in verandah, and the other showing the dining room. Others of interest are an early view of the first Lower Greenstone Huts, and one which is possibly of the early days of William Batson's accomodation house. Many of the places shown are listed above, though many have no identification. Quantity: 44 b&w original photographic print(s). Physical Description: Silver gelatin prints. Finding Aids: Typescript inventory of this box held in Photographic Archive backfile under "Kennedy, William Alexander.".

Date: between 6-7 Feb 1928

From: Adkin, George Leslie, 1888-1964 :Photographs of New Zealand geology, geography, and the Maori history of Horowhenua

Reference: PA1-f-006-305

Description: Waiopehu Hut under construction, with E S Lancaster (left), and another (unidentified). Photograph taken by George L Adkin, between 6-7 February, 1928. Inscriptions: Album page - beneath image - 305. Waiopehu Hutin course of erection; Album page - centre - A Botanical Visit to Mt Waiopehu, Feb 6th-7th, 1928 Quantity: 1 b&w original photographic print(s). Physical Description: Silver gelatin print 15.3 x 10.4 cm, attached to album page

Date: between 22-24 Oct 1927

From: Adkin, George Leslie, 1888-1964 :Photographs of New Zealand geology, geography, and the Maori history of Horowhenua

Reference: PA1-f-006-284

Description: Levin-Waiopehu Tramping Club members at Rolston's Tent, carrying corrugated iron for the proposed Waiopehu Hut, October 22-24, 1927. Left to right: W Poad, W Bignal, W Ransom, G France, E S Lancaster, H D Richards, - Spooner, W Stewart, - Ransom, W R Harris, J Logan & P Stewart. Photograph taken by George L Adkin. Inscriptions: Album page - beneath image - 284. Club members with loads of iron at Rolston's Tent. Left to right: W Poad, W Bignal, W Ransom, G France, E S Lancaster, H D Richards, - Spooner, W Stewart, - Ransom, W R Harris, J Logan & P Stewart; Album page - top left - Transporting Material for the Proposed Waiopehu Hut, Oct 22nd-24th, 1927 Quantity: 1 b&w original photographic print(s). Physical Description: Silver gelatin print 11 x 15.8 cm, attached to album page