The answer to which is the oldest hut in the Tararua Range depends on how you frame the question – it is not entirely simple.

1. First Purpose-Built Tramping Hut Overall: Alpha Hut No. 1 (1915)

If asking for the very first shelter constructed specifically for public recreational tramping, Alpha Hut No. 1 holds the honour. Built around Easter 1915 by William Workman for the Greytown Mt Hector Track Committee, it was a modest corrugated-iron and timber shelter designed to support the emerging Southern Crossing route. It was extended in the 1920s and 30s before being demolished in 1952 (the current Alpha Hut is actually the third iteration on that site).

2. Oldest Surviving Purpose-Built Tramping Hut: Field Hut (1924)

Because original Alpha is gone, Field Hut takes the crown for the oldest still standing purpose-built tramping hut. Built by the Tararua Tramping Club using hand-felled, pit-sawn timber, it remains largely intact and holds Category 1 heritage status.

3. Oldest Structure Still Standing | Private-Turned-Tramping: Sayer Hut (1909)

Predating all purpose-built tramping huts, Sayer Hut was constructed around 1909 by Richard B. Sayer for private cattle grazing and hunting on Tōtara Flats. It was shifted slightly back from the riverbank in the 1940s to prevent erosion, and has since been upgraded and reclad. Its hand-split tōtara framing makes it both the oldest standing structure in the range and the oldest private hut now open to public trampers.

4. Cone Hut (1946)

Not even close!