“Huts and High Places: The Cobb and beyond.”
“Huts and High Places: The Cobb and beyond.”
Opening in style this weekend at the Golden Bay Museum is a new exhibition, “Huts and High Places: The Cobb and beyond.”
Karen Johnson, the museum’s collections manager, says: “Our exhibition introduces the Cobb Valley, which was opened by prospectors and graziers in the 1860s for the geologists, botanists and trampers who came later. Through their efforts and exploration Northwest Nelson gained the status of a national park in 1996 and become a sanctuary for its unique plant and animal life.
“The Cobb is a grand and colourful entry to the park. It’s a stunning environment of beech, tussock and alpine flora, within the Kahurangi National Park. Beyond the seven-kilometre reservoir, tracks and huts connect the tramper with the surrounding mountains.”
The exhibit focuses on all these aspects of the area’s history, with stories and photographs of the people who worked there in the early days, displays of the flora and fauna, and a special diorama of a typical hut, equipped with the essentials.
The life-sized diorama, built by DOC officers John Taylor, Joe Hambrook, Tony Hitchock and Doug Pickup, equipped with guidance and material donations from local tramping guru Paul Kilgour, and enhanced with the art work of Philly Hall, is the centrepiece of the exhibit.
“It celebrates the tradition of the old pioneers who were innovative and had the philosophy of ‘make do with what you got’”, says Paul.
Paul says the Chaffey hut up the Cobb is of beech log construction and is the only hut of that sort he has found in the back country, built from local materials and thus demonstrating the principals of sustainable construction. Other huts are constructed of timbers and iron, some quite crudely, but the more modern huts are built to code with parts flown in.
Paul hopes the exhibit informs people that these huts exist, are part of our back country and there for us to enjoy.
“We hope our exhibition will encourage you to visit Kahurangi National Park.”
Em Hofstede
