KEY POINTS:
Whether you call them cribs, baches or huts, it doesn't matter. You'll always know one when you see it. Most have been squatting near a drop-dead gorgeous waterside view for way more years than their dodgy appearance would suggest possible.
Perhaps it's the spell cast by the standard seashell decor or the stacks of dog-eared fiction propping up the walls, but your typical permanently temporary specimen seems to have the survivability of a cockroach. The only question is how long it will take before they'll be found only in books such as Baches and Cribs, a pictorial journey through New Zealand's favourite holiday places by Jeff Grigor.
A sturdy frame and cheery paint job is but tissue paper when confronted with a storm of red tape. According to the grey shoe-wearing jobsworths of the Department of Conservation and various regional councils, these DIY summer palaces don't measure up when it comes to stormwater drainage and sewerage - but surely that's part of our love for them? Then there's the cash. Waterfront sites are sandy gold so the dirt under your fibrolite shack is enough to get any soulless developer dribbling in anticipation. Can we blame people for wanting to cash in on their family taonga?
Umm... So has Grigor released his book as a memorial? No, he was sitting in a mate's bach on the shores of Lake Alexandrina with his wife when said mate grumbled that they'd lost all their bach books. Being a good bloke, Grigor went off to see if he could scrounge a replacement from somewhere. Nope, all out of print. Nothing for it, he decided, but to put one out himself. But what makes his effort a little different is that the shots are supplied by bach owners and bach fans themselves.
Oh, there are a few of the one he stayed in as a kid and a few of his mate's, but these shots reek of an owner's pride in their gaudy ramshackleness. If the collection appears to lean a little too heavily on the South Island species, northerners have only themselves to blame.
While most of the photographs were provided by people living north of Wellington, Grigor found they were overwhelmingly taken of South Island baches - sorry, cribs if you live south of the Waitaki, and hut if you're in South Canterbury. No one's quite sure why buildings within a stone's throw have different names, they just do. Besides, the answer would probably spoil all the fun of arguing over it.
* Baches and Cribs by Jeff Grigor, (Penguin, $25)
