Waihohonu and Mangatepopo huts will no longer be first-in, first-served in the off-season. Starting last week, all stays in either hut will now need to be booked through DOC’s booking system for stays outside of the Great Walks season.

Also in this week’s outdoor news: Repairs to key Kahurangi access road underway, Lower Hutt boy finds rare native frog exploring creek near home, why everyone is suddenly dressing like a hiker and more!

Missed yesterday’s feature? Is this the world’s toughest rain shell? According to gear editor Mark Watson, it could be.

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

Wilderness readers are a fascinating bunch, and this column is where we get to meet you all.

Otago-born Strang has filled his decades with ski mountaineering, tramping and other outdoor pursuits. He’s a pioneer of New Zealand’s climbing scene. He has skied off the top of Mt Brewster, climbed the South Face of the low peak of Aoraki and the east face of La Perouse, and climbed Mt Herschel in Antarctica with Sir Edmund Hillary. That feat was a 27hr round trip in -40℃ temperatures.

Do you know a subscriber worthy of being profiled – yourself, even? You don’t have to have climbed with Sir Ed – we want to meet you all. Email: [email protected]

The current 20-bunk French Ridge Hut was built in 1999 for $75,000 and is a NZAC hut managed by DOC.

French Ridge was used as an access route to the Bonar Glacier by early climbing expeditions. In 1940, the first hut at the location was built. In 1973, a 15-bunk hut was build and named the Lucas-Trotter Hut after a tramper who had perished nearby three years earlier.

The hut sits just below 1500m, well above the bushline and on the edge of vertiginous Gloomy Gorge. French Ridge Hut is a traditional climbing base for Tititea Mt Aspiring and peaks around the Bonar Glacier, but it’s also a worthy summer tramping destination for its incredible location and views of the surrounding mountains.

We featured this hut in our 25 huts to visit in 2025 feature and covered the route to the hut in this 2016 article.

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