Named after Owen West (Westie), a Bluff born & bred fisherman who literally jumped ship near Prices Harbour in mid-1986. Westie lived at the site from 1993 to 2001, adding iron cladding & a coal range to the semi-built structure originally built in 1992 by Southland fisherman Ray ‘Slack’ Dawson. Westie used building materials dropped-off by passing boats & chopper-pilot mates to build the back hut in 1996 for use by passer-by’s. Cliff (pilot) & Ann McDermott maintained Westie’s hut after Westie retired to IVC aged 70. Between Nov., 2007 & Mar., 2008 both huts were reclad, the interior of the back hut relined, new beds & heating fitted. Westie passed away mid-April, 2020. Edit Hut
Westies Hut is now shown in the correct location on this online map. The track peals off just after the loop you do to get across the small stream which is not shown on the map. Just climb up the supplied rope! It is steep getting down to the shore level but the track is well marked. The paper map showed the hut in the bay to the east.
The location shown on this topomap appears to be from the the old (possibly incorrect) topomap. The current topomap shows the hut about 700 metres further west, just into the next small bay.