Tinpot Hut
The place
Tinpot Hut in the Molesworth Recreation Reserve, Awatere/Blenheim sector (Marlborough, South Island, New Zealand), at 556 m elevation, Molesworth tussock plateau. Continuous Molesworth cluster (batches 200-355). Historic musterer/rangers' hut (namesake "Tinpot" = "small tin pot" toponym from cattle station high country farming), Molesworth Station (500,000 ha, New Zealand's largest cattle station, 3,000 merino/hereford cattle + Molesworth Recreation Reserve 1949 first pastoral lease resumption to crown land conservation after 1880s dust bowl burn-offs and ecological collapse), red tussock zone Chionochloa rubra + Poa cita high plateau + Marlborough wine Sauvignon Blanc "boom" 1970s-2000s 30,000 ha 100 M bottles/year, world's leading white wine exporter, heritage of the Kāi Tahu (Ngāi Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998 pounamu jade monopoly).
The setting
Molesworth RR Awatere/Blenheim Marlborough NZ 556 m tussock plateau, continuous cluster batches 200-355, musterers/rangers Tinpot small tin pot toponym, Molesworth 500,000 ha NZ's largest, 3,000 merino/hereford + RR 1949 first pastoral lease resumption to crown land, 1880s dust bowl burn-offs collapse, Chionochloa rubra + Poa cita high plateau, Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc boom 1970s-2000s 30,000 ha 100 M bottles/year record white wine, Kāi Tahu Claims 1998 pounamu jade monopoly.
