Griffin Creek Hut Work-days

Mon-Wed, 15-17 January 2024

The planned Back Country Trust maintenance work on Yeats Ridge Hut had to be postponed, last minute, because of a narrowing weather window ahead of a deluge forecast for Westland.  Plan B was to finish off some work at Griffin Creek Hut that only required two days of good weather.  So, the PTC group who had geared up for Yeats Ridge Hut hastily reorganised themselves and met with Ollie Clifton of Back Country Trust and builders Ben Norris and Aaron Gillespie at a farm where Harrington Creek meets the Taramakau River.  Three short helicopter trips saw all eight of us, plus gear installed at Griffin Creek Hut ready to start work late in the afternoon of Monday 15 January.

During the next two days, everyone was busy with a variety of tasks—carting buckets of gravel up from the creek, mixing and pouring concrete around newly replaced piles, repainting the long-drop toilet and new woodshed, and track maintenance towards the saddle, while builders Ben and Aaron installed a new wood burner and flue unit into the open fireplace of the hut.  Ollie used the remaining concrete to construct a step up to the hut entrance.