Hut Keepers

A grassroots legacy for New Zealand’s remote huts

Official selection badge for the 2025 New Zealand Mountain Film Festival, featuring a laurel wreath design in black and white.

A film by Liam Hall

Amid decades of underfunding and bureaucratic gridlock, the future of New Zealand’s remote backcountry huts and tracks hangs in the balance. Frustrated by inaction, Andrew Buglass sets out to make a difference—hoping to spark a movement.

“We were hoping that it would become a movement, a shift in consciousness”

A man with glasses and a goatee wearing a red fleece jacket inside a partially constructed shed, looking toward the window, with insulation and unfinished walls around him.
Close-up of a charred and damaged wooden surface next to burnt brickwork in a fire-damaged structure.
A person wearing a black raincoat and gloves tending to plants on a foggy hillside.
Person crossing a suspension bridge over a rocky river, surrounded by green trees and vegetation.
An elderly man with gray hair and a beard sitting at a wooden table in a well-lit room, with a bookshelf and a framed mountain landscape painting behind him.
Close-up of an elderly person's hands holding a photograph of a boat on water.
Person working inside a small building with a window, illuminated by a light, outdoors in a mountainous area at dusk or dawn, with another person nearby.

Follow the films journey here!