Club maintains association with Carrington hut

Press, 12 June 1978, Page 16

Club maintains association with Carrington hut

By

JOHN WILSON

I of “The Press”

This afternoon the Arthur’s Pass National Park Board will break its regular meeting to receive a group of members of the Canterbury Mountaineering Club who will present to the board a handsome plaque to be placed in the Carrington hut at the headwaters of the Waimakariri River.

The building of the first Carrington hut was one of the earliest projects of the infant C.M.C. The club was founded in 1925 after a visit by the Progress League to the head of the Waimakariri in Easter of that year. The impulse for that visit came from Gerard Carrington, generally regarded as the founder of the C.M.C., who had written to “The Press” in January, 1925, under the pen-name “Cora Lynn” extolling the area's attractions.

Carrington was drowned in the Waimakariri Gorge in August, 1926, while taking a break from the arduous work of transporting materials for the hut to its site at the junction of the Waimakariri and White Rivers. The hut was later completed by other club members.

In 1940, threatened by the river, this original hut was shifted on to a higher terrace where, set in beech forest, it sheltered trampers and climbers until 1975, when it was dismantled following the erection of a 50-bunk, Lock-wood-style hut on the flats closer to the White River. Many C.M.C. members were disappointed that their club’s connection with the site was severed with the building of the new hut by the Park Board and the subsequent dismantling of the club’s old hut. The placing of a plaque in the new hut was the way the club chose of ensuring that its association with the first two Carrington huts was maintained, and of bringing this association to the attention of those using the new hut. The plaque is made of copper with an explanatory text and pictures of the two former Carrington huts etched into it. The original hut’s metal name-plate has been riveted to the new plaque After being handed over to the board, the plaque will be placed in the new Carrington hut by the park board’s rangers.