In December of last year, in a move he said was “a long time coming”, Minister of Conservation Tama Potaka issued final decisions on the future status of 576 parcels of West Coast land.

Conservation groups want to know why it was decided not to extend protected status to 365,000ha of West Coast land, including national park expansion.

Forest and Bird and the Environmental Defence Society say Potaka needs to explain why he overwhelmingly rejected proposals to expand national park status to West Coast land, especially in cases where the majority of advice Potaka received – from his ministry and two expert panels – was in favour of doing so.

Also in this week’s outdoor news: ‘Spectacular’ 189m bridge emerging on Hooker Valley Track, the unlikely appeal of barefoot hiking and more!

Missed yesterday’s feature? Nic Low (Ngāi Tahu) is an author and mountain-lover. He shared with us the three trips that have have changed his life.

Sarah Hedger, the co-founder of Yum, explains how their Bushline Breakfasts are good you and the planet.

My family loves nature and venturing into the hills. Once we started noticing the amount of single-use plastics people were using in the outdoors, I wanted to offer a simple solution to reduce this.

We asked our outdoor adventure friends, and over 90 per cent of them said they carry some kind of bowl, cup or pot – and therein lies the solution. We wanted to create a meal that no longer required the packaging to be the bowl, so we made the Bushline Breakfasts instant, requiring no cooking or rehydrating – just mixed in a bowl with water.

This simple process of removing the need to rehydrate a meal in its package means that our meals don’t contribute to the plastic in landfills and oceans.

The packaging we use is also made in Aotearoa and is home compostable, which means it uses 98 per cent less plastic than ‘forever’ plastic packaging that is rarely reused and is not recyclable.

The Bushlines pack in light and pack out light, are nutrient dense and are a more earth-friendly solution – something we can all be proud to be a part of.

Take a look at this week's most read articles at wildernessmag.co.nz.

Trampers relaxing overnight in Nelson Lakes National Park this summer may have been greeted by a 10-year-old volunteer hut warden with a mullet.

Fletcher Lodge worked alongside his father, Dan, for nine days in Upper Travers Hut, welcoming trampers, tidying up, bird watching and exploring the valley in their spare time.

No strangers to volunteering in the backcountry, the pair have also worked as hut wardens at Lake Angelus Hut in Nelson Lakes.

Dorset Ridge Hut is a six-bunk hut built in 1968 by the NZFS. Wilderness Daily reader Derrick Field wrote us and to say this about the hut:

"It’s the best hut in the country! The view is awesome, and the woodburner is excellent. It’s a traditional NZFS cullers hut that has been modified. The Greater Wellington Backcountry Network (GWBN) reclad the hut in colour steel in 2025, and GWBN also supply cleaning materials at all huts in the Tararua, Remutaka and Aorangi range."

Wilderness covered this route to the hut in our July 2018 issue.

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