Why is this place significant?

Why is this place Category 1 / Category 2?

Te Tai-o-Wawe/ Kā Roimata-o-Hinehukatere (Franz Josef Glacier) In te ao Māori, Te Tai o Poutini (the ‘West Coast’) is the place of some of the earliest stories of creation and exploration. Sparsely populated in comparison to the east coast of Te Wai Pounamu, it has a long history of Māori occupation and the resources that were available on Te Tai o Poutini, including food and highly prized pounamu, were sufficient to support vibrant communities and frequent visitors. While Poutini Māori were well acquainted with the alpine passes and kept an oral map of the landscape, for the most part they did not traditionally seek the snow and ice. Nevertheless, stories are recounted about the appeal of snow and glaciers to the more daring, such as with Puha, who is remembered for her efforts to ascend the steep snow slope known today as the Hanging Glacier behind Franz Josef township. Her repeated attempts to ascend the sides of the icefield amused her friends who, impressed with her reti (tobogganing) skills as she slid down the ice with each failed climbing attempt, named that area Te Reti-a-Puha and the glacier Awareti. In another story, Hinehukatere (the snow girl) enticed her lover, Wawe, into the mountains but he was unable to keep up with the fun-loving wahine on the mountaintops and slipped to his death before her eyes. Hinehukatere’s grief was such that she cried a river which froze as it flowed down the mountainside, forming the slow moving glacier past Te Reti-a-Puha and on towards the sea. The new glacier was called Te Tai-o-Wawe and also Kā Roimata-o-Hinehukatere (the frozen tears of Hinehukatere). Poutini Ngāi Tahu held manawhenua over Te Tai o Poutini around the time Pākehā first arrived and showed interest in acquiring their resources and their lands in the mid nineteenth century. A controversial 1860 Arahura Deed of Purchase saw West Coast land title transfer to the Crown. The Pākehā applied numerous new names to the land, including, in 1866, Te Tai-o-Wawe/ Kā Roimata-o-Hinehukatere being renamed as Franz Josef Glacier, after the Austrian emperor. Defiance Hut and Glacier Tourism Pākehā adventurers and visitors had admired the beauties of the glacier country since the nineteenth century, and in the early twentieth century active steps were taken to promote Westland and its Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers as the scenic wonderland of New Zealand. In 1911, the well-known guiding and mountaineering brothers, Jim and Alex Graham, purchased the first hotel at Waiho (Waiau) Gorge at Franz Josef, and this became a base for their mountain guiding business and led to growth of tourism and mountaineering in the area. In response to the Graham brothers’ offer to build a hut, the Department of Tourist and Health Resorts made available a sum of £160 for the project and provided sketch plans and specifications. Built on a moraine terrace above Harpers Creek on the west side of the Franz Josef Glacier Valley, at 2,657 feet (809 metres), the alpine hut commanded excellent views of the main icefall. The hut was built by Alex and his brothers, Jim, Dave and Jack, who packed in materials over several months. Although a government facility, it was maintained by the Graham brothers and became a mainstay of their guiding business. Three hours walk from Franz Josef Glacier township, but only a short distance away from the glacier, the hut made the closest peaks more accessible to climbers. The Defiance Hut extended the available tourist excursion to the glacier. The hut offered night shelter to visitors and mountaineers, enabling them to make ascents of some of the peaks on the western side of the glacier, including Mount Moltke, which became very popular. The Graham brothers’ good relationship with Poutini Māori led them, from the 1920s, to employ Joseph Puruti (Fluerty) first as a porter to carry supplies up the ice, including to Defiance Hut, and then as an expert glacier climbing guide, where he was particularly well regarded. A Visitors’ Book was placed at Defiance Hut by the Department of Tourist and Health Resorts recorded visitors to the hut between 1914 and 1930. Each visitor entered the date of their visit, their name and residence, and comments ranging from their climbing intentions, to sketches and comments about their surroundings. On 2 January 1914 A. Croft of Victoria was the first to sign the hut book and on 23 November 1930 Peter Graham was the last entry. As the glacier receded and the ice pressure diminished the terrace, Defiance Ridge began to crumble and erode. In December 1936 it was decided to move the hut to the safety of the crest of the Defiance Ridge. The hut was pulled apart and the two tons of material, which had originally been carried to the site by hand, was moved. The original fireplace, built of local stone, would not have been moved at this time. The hut was re-assembled and remained in constant use until the 1950s when the site was again threatened by erosion and access became a problem. A replacement hut was built at Castle Rocks, 650 metres high up the ridge, in 1974. In 1978 the Defiance Hut was rescued from its precarious position, flown out in sections, and reassembled and eventually restored behind the then Westland National Park Visitors Centre at Franz Josef township to serve as an example of an old-style mountain hut. In 1991, a ‘gathering of mountain guides and mountain people’ at Franz Josef led to the formation of Friends of South Westland Mountaineering, a voluntary group created to ensure the proper recording and presentation of South Westland’s climbing history, especially through displays in the relocated Defiance Hut, and through the retention of remaining historic huts and structures in the mountains. This group donated old equipment such as ice axes, snow shoes, crampons, cookers, skis, ropes, hob-nail boots and snow goggles for display in the hut. After a new Visitors Centre was built in circa 2016, the hut’s location was no longer deemed appropriate. In 2020 it was shifted again, this time back to a location closer to its original locations at the road end carpark for visitors going to see the Franz Josef Glacier. The building today matches closely the original construction drawings of 1913, though the original stone fireplace would not have been moved during the first relocation of the hut, in 1936.

Defiance Hut is located within Westland Tai Poutini National Park, which is part of Te Wāhipounamu World Heritage Area. Its new location is at the far end of the Franz Josef Glacier visitor carpark, which is on an open river terrace close to the shoulder of the hills on the true left bank of the Waiho River. The immediate surroundings of the hut are the flat area of the carpark, which is divided longitudinally with plantings, and fringes of bush, running down to the river on the east and up to the hills on the west. Although the glacier cannot be seen from the carpark, the hut site has extensive views of the flanking mountains. Defiance Hut, rectangular in plan, 7.4 metres by 3.9 metres - sits on stacked river stone and timber piles. Its overall form, which is a simple and unadorned gabled box, remains much as it was when first constructed – excepting the corrugated steel fireplace which dates to the 1936 move. It retains a high level of authenticity. The roof form is gabled, with the ridge running north-east to south-west. The height to the eaves is approximately two metres and approximately 3.5 metres to the ridge. The exterior cladding is original - vertical corrugated steel, lapped on the gable ends at the level of the eaves, and original rich rusty corrugated steel to the roof. At the verge, the roofing is neatly turned down over the walls as barge flashings. The front or north elevation has three timber-framed windows and two doors, one to each of its two rooms. The east elevation chimney, at only about two metres in height, is truncated and sealed. The plan arrangement of the interior includes a large room (originally for cooking and sleeping for men) and a smaller room (for women). While the floor framing appears to be old or original, the rimu flooring is very nearly all new material. The rimu roof and wall frame dates to 1913 and 1978, with some radiata pine repairs of 2020. The interior contains a fireplace nook with stove, a table and forms, cupboards containing old supplies, canvas bunks and assorted mountaineering artefacts such as skis and packs. The hut was designed in what became the standard design for mountain huts for approximately 50 years.

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A fully referenced New Zealand Heritage List/Rārangi Kōrero report is available on request from the Southern Regional Office of Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga. Disclaimer Please note that entry on the New Zealand Heritage List/Rārangi Kōrero identifies only the heritage values of the property concerned and should not be construed as advice on the state of the property, or as a comment of its soundness or safety, including in regard to earthquake risk, safety in the event of fire, or insanitary conditions. Archaeological sites are protected by the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Act 2014, regardless of whether they are entered on the New Zealand Heritage List/Rārangi Kōrero or not. Archaeological sites include ‘places associated with pre-1900 human activity, where there may be evidence relating to the history of New Zealand’. This List entry report should not be read as a statement on whether or not the archaeological provisions of the Act apply to the property (s) concerned. Please contact your local Heritage New Zealand office for archaeological advice.