News and media
Advisory: Red Hills Hut demolition
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The Department of Conservation will demolish the old Red Hills Hut on October 5. The hut is on Te Araroa's route across the South Island's Richmond Range. Contractors will start work on a new hut immediately, but trampers are advised that over the October-November period the old Red Hills Hut site will be a construction site, and that any tramping trip north from St Arnaud township should be re-scheduled to reach Porters Hut, or any tramping trip south should be re-scheduled from Porters Hut to reach St Arnaud.
The Google snap above shows the extraordinary nature of the Red Hills - a heavy seabed plate that splintered away from the subduction zone, and got jammed in the continental crust. It was then uncovered by the twisting of the Alpine Fault. The Red Hills are named for their colour. Beech forest cover never evolved to take root on these ex-marine ramparts, heavy with gabbro, serpentine, copper, iron, magnesium. The forest stops dead at their feet.
