WILD HUTS
OLD JULIA HUT, West Coast
The old Julia Hut that sits at the confluence of the Julia and Mary creeks in the upper Taipo Valley was built in 1958. There is now a new Julia Hut nearby, but it's the old hut that holds interest: it's supposedly haunted by Julia or Mary.
In 1876, Julia and Mary Griffin, after whom the creeks are named, were sent from Wainihinihi up the Taipo River to retrieve cattle. The weather turned and the girls never came home. They were 8 and 11,
A deer culler, who worked the valley in the sixties, told of hearing a knock on the hut door one night around midnight. He wasn't game to open it. Over the years the hut fell into disrepair, especially after New Julia was built.
Max Dorflinger and Dick Brasier spent two weeks restoring Old
