Fun Fact: One of the first public back country huts built here was built on the lower slopes of Mt Ruapehu (the one next to Mt Doom) in order to provide a base for the then-new sport of skiing. The central plateau is cold in winter, really freaking cold, and wooly fibrous material is in short supply up there. What is available, in abundance, is pumice. So they double-hulled the hut, and filled the cavity with pumice which apparently worked a treat for many years (at least until the pumice broke down into dust and settled).
Extra fun fact: it was built with two rooms - one for males, and one for females - each of which only has external access (no internal door). However, the fireplace only heated one of the rooms … see if you can guess which
