Leon Kinvig Hut Relocation and Restoration

27/3/2025

Ruahine Forest Park, Manawatu – April and December, 2024

After the power and fury Mother Nature threw at this hut, in 2023, it seems perhaps fitting that its rescue, relocation and restoration called for a major effort. In the end it took four trips and some big winds before the project team prevailed. A new-look Leon Kinvig Hut now stands on a new, safe site, ready for hunters, trampers and trappers in need of shelter.

Built by the New Zealand Forest Service in 1963-4, the 8-bunk Leon Kinvig Hut is located in the mid-reaches of the Pohangina River, in the heart of Ruahine whio country. The hut was named after a young deer culler, Leon Kinvig, who drowned in the Pohangina River.

In May, 2022, a BCT contract team, funded by the government's Kaimahi for Nature scheme, re-roofed the hut and installed a new woodburner. As it transpired, they could have saved the bother. Just months later, in February 2023, Cyclone Gabrielle raged through Hawke’s Bay and the Ruahine Ranges. Anthony Behrens works out what seems to have happened. “A hillside just north of the hut gave way in the heavy rain and blocked the Pohangina River. The river built up behind the slip and, when it inevitably burst, the resulting torrent of water and mud lifted the hut off its foundations and spun it around. As nature settled, Leon Kinvig Hut was left hanging over a one and a half metre drop, above a river channel forever changed.”

The finished - for now - Leon Kinvig Hut just before the chopper arrived to take home a tired crew.

While the hut isn’t hugely visited, it is much loved by hard core hunters and trampers who enjoy the challenge of its isolation (and handy venison supply), and it provides vital shelter for the Ruahine Whio Protectors, working here to protect what is the North Island’s southern-most whio breeding population.

Obviously, the hut couldn’t stay where it was, so the project began with the search for a new and safer site. This was selected 500 metres downstream on a higher terrace well above the flood zone. After DOC rangers cleared the site, builder Brock Beyer and his son led a BCT volunteer team of Fiona Burleigh, Emma Martindale and Duncan Ford, to set down the new foundations in preparation to receive the old hut.

Funding for moving the hut came from a variety of sources. These included a significant amount of Cyclone Gabrielle facilities restoration funding, as well as from BCT’s own small reserves.

Leon Kinvig Hut after Cyclone Gabrielle and before it was moved.

In early June, the tempo stepped up. The hut, perched on its precarious site was stripped of chattels, braced and prepped for lifting. At the new site a heli pad was cleared, toilet hole dug, toilet installed and the woodshed started. The work in this three day stint was carried out by Megan Dimonzantos (project lead), Brett Stokman and his mate Ben, Hannah Cochrane, Graham Beaven and Emma Martindale.

In August 2024 Megan, Anthony and Brett returned along with Regan Dick, Tyler Lee and Reon Sheath, for four days of action. First up was the big shift, calling on the skills of pilot Mark Law, his Kahu NZ crew and the heft of their heavy-lifting Black Hawk helicopter, to move the hut off its precarious overhang and position it onto its new piles. Then followed four days of intensive renovation, with lining pulled off the walls ready for replacement, new framing completed and a new ridge beam installed. Meanwhile the woodshed frame was completed and covered, the toilet finished, and the hut deck started.

The Black Hawk lowers the hut onto its new piles.

A ten-day stint in December, 2024, completed the project. BCT regulars involved were Megan, Steve Wilman, Tina Christie (described by Anthony as ‘master chef’), Dave Eaton, Fiona Burleigh and Anthony Behrens. They were joined by Rosie McIntyre – tackling her first BCT mission, and Konrad, a Te Araroa walker and last-minute volunteer who happened to be a carpenter.

The team flew in with Leon, of Mid West Helicopters, sharing their rides into the valley with Ruahine Whio Protectors trappers. Anthony enjoyed flying with them, given these hard working trappers also make use of Leon Kinvig Hut for their important stoat trapping/whio protecting work.

The work completed on the big, final push included recladding of the hut, installation of new bunks, relining the walls, painting inside and outside, installing new windows, varnishing the floor and bunks, and completing the deck, verandah and woodshed. David Eaton scoped and started flagging the new tracks to the hut.

The hut’s woodburner, installed just months before the flood, was rescued from the damaged site, moved and re-installed. The old meat safe was extracted from beneath a fallen tree and moved to the new site.

Rosie refurbishing the original hut sign. This was Rosie's first BCT trip.

The workload over ten days was huge, carried out in harsh conditions, Anthony recalls.

“The night winds were intense, our sleep was constantly broken by massive gusts we could hear roaring up valley towards us. Our tents heaved, tore, popped pegs, broke poles. The hut shook and loose paper and tin flapped noisily.”

Ten-hour days were common, and the crew managed to share a bout of Covid between them!
As with many BCT projects, the teams working on Leon Kinvig were a mix of skilled and unskilled volunteers. Anthony made observations about this that will resonate with those in the latter category, no matter which project they’ve taken on. “Being an unskilled foot soldier can be hard. Knowing how to find something to do when the skilled guys are doing the tricky stuff has its challenges. Being the lifter, the holder, or the tidier can bruise the ego. Waiting around nervously while there is nothing to do then feeling embarrassed when you realise you could have been polishing a door knob is humbling.”

He is indeed being rather humble – the point of the BCT volunteers is that everyone, skilled or not skilled, made a huge impact on the Leon Kinvig restoration – and has done with every project they work on.