Someone wanted to have some freshly brewed beer in a DOC hut and intended to share it with his mates. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. Lorraine says that it took the brewer seven trips in and out to get everything set up for his brewing. I say that is commitment to the cause!
Quote.When Lorraine Freeman arrived at a Department of Conservation (DOC) hut in the middle of the Tararua wilderness, a brewing operation was the last thing she expected to find.
But that is exactly what she and her husband stumbled upon at Roaring Stag Hut recently.
A “nice young American guy” had taken up residence at the hut with a huge pot, and was using water from the nearby river to brew large bottles of beer.
Freeman was even more surprised to find that eight of his friends planned on joining him later that day to help drink the beer, and that the Conservation Department had no problem with the operation.
“You wouldn’t be allowed to brew beer at the local town park, so why would it be OK to do it in a national park?”
The man told her DOC had been to the hut and seen what he was doing, and didn’t say anything, Freeman said.End quote.
“I thought that was really odd, to be honest.”
DOC’s Wairarapa operations manager, Kathy Koukamau, said a ranger had come across the “brewer”, but found the man was “personable and friendly” and had a current annual hut pass.
“While we certainly wouldn’t encourage this behaviour, our ranger made a call that, from what he witnessed, the man wasn’t bothering other users at that time.”
Had the man taken up residence at the hut, rangers would have moved him on.
Freeman said she came across others on her way back to the hut who decided to sleep elsewhere upon hearing about the man’s plans to drink beer with his friends that night.
“In total, that we know of, there were 11 people that changed their plans because of this one guy.”
Did the eleven people change their plans because of this guy or because of what you said to them?
Perhaps, if she’d been outraged then something would have been done. But she was only horrified; doesn’t require action.
