hut wardens

thought as much, and doc is reliant on volunteers more as they are struggling to find the money to pay anyone.... but

but as we see can see in the above case, volunteers arent always anywhere near as professional as paid employees. some prize locations doc can pick and choose its wardens, other places it has to take whoever it can get. you end up with guys like the one madpom came across who liked to rant and rave at anyone not born in nz that they were incompetent in the bush in nz putting people of from wanting to tramp here... and we're going to see more people like that in the future in DOC's service...

The example of a good hut warden was a middle aged woman who was at Lake Angelus Hut one time. She was actually a paid employee and had a uniform. She was on the porch welcoming parties as they came in and played the part of genial host. She remembered everyone's names and was a font of information. She socialised with the people in the hut in the evening though not intrusive. There was no need for a ticket check because she just knew who had tickets and who didn't. Oh.. and she was a Kiwi and a local to the district by the way. Unfortunately everything else I have seen since falls well short of that standard.

yeah thats more typical of the wardens in the serviced huts... the huts make more money so doc will pay someone to get a ranger of a better standard than the average volunteer. the great walks have some very capable rangers. the huts are more sought after to work in so that increases the likelihood of getting a decent ranger, they are still doing it for the love as most can make more money in their regular jobs and the work is often seasonal... mind you outside of the great walk huts the rangers arent as obliged to interact with the occupants and a lot do a bare minimum of interacting with them.

Only warden Ive ever run across was at Turenekau She was a nice enough young lass but thats really all I could say about her. She greeted everyone on arrival told us how the wardening thing worked and that was the last we saw of her. She retired to her quarters and wasnt out by the time we left. We were in no hurry. For her wardening was an excuse to get away for the weekend. One of the other groups in the hut let there dog sleep inside. She had seen the dog and not objected. It was a well enough behaved dog but even so thats forboden. Dogs are another subject all together

yeah its a straight forward job, collect fees and tickets, act as caretaker, basic interaction with the trampers. varies a lot how much the wardens will interact. some do the absolute minimum, others will make a decent effort to be informative. some wardens have to move back and forward between huts, if they meet you when they are on the track thats when they will demand proof you've paid for your hut stay. someone was telling me the guides for the guided walkers on the routeburn have to walk back over the track themselves in a day to pick up the next group of trampers. not sure if thats by default or the keener guides who want to spend as much time getting paid to work as possible. they do something like a week on week off. wonder how long the average guide lasts, it think they are mainly poorly paid tourists making some money while they are here. mind you they dont carry heavy packs and the track isnt that hard. some of them are slack making sure not too many people crowd into the bridges, i got to one bridge and the guide was letting his walkers across the bridge in small groups. he had a lot of walkers with him,,, i thought it was rude he didnt wait and let any of us across at the other end between his groups so i didnt wait after the first group got across and went across the bridge the guide was angry "you could have waited" I was pretty angry but held my tongue and complained to DOC. its not like they have it desperately hard, if the weather is bad enough they bring in the helicopter to ferry the trampers across the alpine section between mackenzie and the falls...

Outside of Great Walks I've only ever met one warden, who was a volunteer warden in the Tararuas. He was great for a yarn, keen to enjoy the guaranteed warden's quarters at the hut he'd walked into, and only reluctantly went around between yarns and asked to see tickets because he was required to do so. If there's a problem with some wardens, I see it as just a small part of a larger problem that also involves how hut fees are implemented. Are wardens supposed to be there for maintenance, enjoyment and general safety of all concerned, or as ticket conductors? It's tough to find people who are brilliant at all of the above at the same time, let alone for low wage or free.

to answer the above, I think its just ticket collectors. I had only ever seen one warden before I headed south, and I tramped the entire Tararua ranges. That was at mitre flats, and I knew the dude from school. Down here in the QT/wanaka/makarora areas most huts have a doc warden from about nov-may and yep they can be entertaining, and even rude. some are fine but yea never had any real bad experiences with them. Dont expect nothing from them thats all, but they can be handy for weather reports etc

Prior to becoming a permanent DOC ranger , i had served about 4 or 5 years(1991 on ) as a voluntary Hut Warden in the Tarrys. There were two or three of us volunteers initially, locals , and fairly up to speed with , huts , tracks ,tramping times etc in the area.The Programme Manager who looked after us was a really good man,related well to all , and gave us plenty of encouragement and good advice . He also provided food and transport to and from the hills, picked us up when a tod (tour of duty ) was completed.We also got very good training , radio, first aid, pr, etc and he always made sure we had the right gear and a weather report every day we were in the hills.It was a very good system, never had any probs with payments or tickets, although dogs could cause all sorts of problems; well not the dogs , but their owners did. When i became a Ranger , the responsibility of hut wardens became mine; in general the hand picked locals were the best, for obvious reasons, they knew the area, were familiar with weather and its uncertainty, and usually knew each other. However a change in senior management brought a change of thinking (or a rush of blood to the head, may be a better term).As a result the system which had worked well in general for the best part of ten/twelve years was suddenly discontinued, and no wardens were present at all in the Eastern Tararuas for a fair while. Hut Wardens are usually the first to know if a SAR situation arises in the area, can be helpful in these situations for radio contact etc, are a useful presence in a hut to deter vandalism , and do odd simple tasks like keeping bogs clean.The scenario i paint is from a DOC point of view. From the user point of view, Hut Wardens can be seen as "an official" rep of the organisation , DOC, and can be open to criticism if they cannot establish a rapport with visitors. I have had many "discussions " with trampers and hunters over the years, but never an argument; and on only one occasion did i have cause to dismiss a Hut warden for misconduct. I was very particular about who i engaged as a Hut Warden, honesty, integrity and the ability to get on with people were foremost in interviewing prospective wardens; majority of the time the right person was taken on and the tyre kickers shown the door ,in a nice way!