HUT PROFILE > Myttons Hut

HUT PROFILE > Myttons Hut, Cobb Valley, Kahurangi National Park

Raymond Salisbury stumbles into an old cobber

A full moon climbed over Cobb Ridge, illuminating the Reservoir below. It was a windless autumn night; the darkened hillside of thick beech was now floodlit beneath a canopy of glittering stars.

Inside Myttons Hut, my wife Lynette was snuggled into her bag, reading. The dying embers of a flickering fire had warmed the cosy cottage. A solitary candle burned on the sill of the picture window. I sipped a second cup of tea, happy to have found this old timer…50 years on, still providing shelter for wayfarers between the Mt Arthur Tablelands and Cobb Valley.

From his farm on the Motueka River, my great, great grandfather, John Park Salisbury, drove some 1,000 sheep up the Graham Valley, over Balloon Hill, and down into the lower Cobb Valley. The four-bunk shelter was originally built in 1883 from pit-sawn red beech by my forefathers as a musterer’s hut. It became known as Myttons Hut when Hugh Mytton took over the lease from the Salisburys in about 1920. During the period from 1935-1954, the Cobb Valley was dammed, and the government stopped all farming ventures.

In January 1958, George Lord built the latest version of Myttons Hut. He obtained timber from the dam site, cut it to length, and brought it on a NZFS clinker hull boat up the lake. He and his men carried the wood, cement and sand up to the present site, at an altitude of 910 metres.

Since 1994, the Department of Conversation stopped maintenance of the dwelling, so a group of four local hunters formed ‘Friends of Mytton Hut’ and have taken over as caretakers. Brian Barton and his colleagues were deer stalkers during the mid-1970s. They have recently upgraded the structure to comply with DOC’s building codes for backcountry huts, and given the old cobber a fresh coat of paint.

Day excursions from this hut include walking along Cobb Ridge to the reservoir lookout for a couple of hours, or a visit to Lake Peel, en route to Balloon Hut (3 hours), or further on to Salisbury Lodge (4.5 hours) on the legendary Tablelands.

We had sojourned here in search of solace, in preference to sharing Trilobite Hut with the crowds of Good Friday trampers. It was only 15 minutes climb from the valley floor, but we felt we were hours away, lost in a time warp. I was glad my grandfathers had left me this legacy.