Love our Huts
Caring for our huts — together.
Our huts are more than places to rest — they’re where we shelter storms, share stories, and connect with the wild. They’re also a base for important conservation work. Our network of public huts is the envy of the world – let’s care for it together.
This summer, we’re inviting you to register a hut or more to give them a spring clean and a little love.
Last year, hundreds of us showed how much we care. This year, we’re going bigger — with more time, more huts, and more ways to help. Whether it’s your local favourite or one you’ve always wanted to visit, now’s the time to head in and show it some love.
How does it work?
1. Pick your hut(s), plan your trip
Choose one, two, or as many huts as you’d like to visit. In our registration forms, we’ve tagged some close-to-the-road huts especially for families and less experienced groups to register for.
2. Register your trip
Once you know where and when your hut loving will take place, and who will participate, register your trip below. Between 1 November and mid-March you can get out across the hut network. We’re first registering trips through to the end of January, so we know early which huts are covered. February and March will then focus on the huts still waiting — with any unbooked huts opening for Feb–March bookings just before Christmas.
3. Show your love
When time comes, give the hut a spring clean, do a simple health check using our checklist, and snap some photos of recent hut book entries as well photos of the hut. Once you’re back home, share your info with us. More details to follow soon.
Why love our huts?
We all know DOC’s resources are stretched. By giving our huts some care and recording how they’re used, we’re helping free up time for conservation work — while also doing our part to help keep the network in public hands.
It’s a practical way for us, together, to show decision-makers that these places matter — that huts are loved by communities all over Aotearoa.
Sending in your data and uploading you hut and hut book photos
A huge thank you to everyone who’s gone out and shown some love to one of our awesome huts. Your dedication to New Zealand’s backcountry huts is truly inspiring, and your efforts in recording information are key to preserving these special places. By sharing data from your activities, you’re helping demonstrate the real, lasting value of our huts and contributing to one of the largest ongoing citizen science projects focused on backcountry conservation.
1. Sending in your data
We know it takes a bit of time—and we’d all rather be outdoors—but every piece of data you enter helps us build a powerful knowledge base. With this shared information, we can make informed decisions and advocate for the best possible care for these huts. As a small organisation, we rely on your input to keep this work going. Together, we’re building a legacy of protection and appreciation for our backcountry heritage. Thank you for making a difference! Here’s the link to record your findings.
Love Our Huts Video Competition
This year, we are running a Love Our Huts Video Competition for FMC members who are signed up to show a hut some love this summer. Win some awesome prizes while doing good for our wild places.
A huge thank you to our sponsors Rab, Earth Sea Sky, and Dwights Outdoors for helping make this competition possible. Here are the prizes up for grabs:
- First Place: 1x Rab Protium 35 Pack
- Second Place: 1x Expedition Kitbag 50L
- Third Place: Pico merino beanie, a pair of merino socks, and a $100 voucher.
- Monthly spot prizes of a $20 voucher
Details:
- Competition open to FMC members only.
- Submit a portrait video (45 seconds max) of you and your group out on your Love Our Huts trip and upload it to the Love Our Huts Facebook page as your entry. Be sure to include the hut name!
- Only one video entry per hut
- First, second, and third place will be determined by the number of likes each video gets on Facebook.
- Spot prizes will also be awarded to entries at random – so make sure you’re in to win.
- The fine print – all prize winners will be required to provide a high resolution version of their video, confirm that they and any persons in the video consent for the video to be used in any publication by FMC or its approved 3rd parties for the purpose of promoting FMC.
Thanks again to Dwights Outdoors, Earth Sea Sky, and Rab for supporting FMC and Love Our Huts!
A few extras for the journey
There’s more than just brooms and cleaning windows — we’re here to have some fun too. This might include:
- Love our huts T-shirts – we’ve created a limited-edition T-shirts — these can be yours for a $55 each with the proceeds going to fund FMC’s vital advocacy work. You don’t have to participate to get one. Watch this space for more info once we have them.
- Joining our Love Our Huts FB group – share your stories, swap tips, see where others have been, and celebrate all the mahi going into our backcountry huts.
- Love Our Huts Dashboard – we’ll post here running stats for all that’s going on – huts registered, huts loved, and a countdown for the huts still needing love. Also numbers of volunteers involved and funds raised for FMC’s advocacy work.
FAQs
Get in touch
For more information, please contact:
Registrations inquiries
North Island: emma.gregg@fmc.org.nz
Upper South Island and West Coast: raymond.ford@fmc.org.nz
Lower South Island (south of Rangitata) and Rakiura: liz.wightwick@fmc.org.nz
Social media and video competition: louise.hammersly@fmc.org.nz
Campaign coordination & media: mick.abbott@fmc.org.nz
Data review team: liz.wightwick@fmc.org.nz
