A keen tramper, the late Phil Cox always wanted to see something done about the dangers of the Silver Peaks.
His wish was granted yesterday at the official opening of the Philip J Cox Memorial Hut on Yellow Ridge in the Silver Peaks by Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull.
Mr Cox (58), a Dunedin oral surgeon, was killed in a car accident at Millers Flat in 2009.
His wife, Jane Cox, said her husband often ran in the Silver Peaks in his lunch hour and took his children there to introduce them to tramping.
But he was always aware it could be a dangerous place as the weather could quickly change for the worse.
"He believed it needed to be treated like any high-country place."
A trust formed after his death with donations from friends, family and colleagues and Doc funded the hut, which cost about $80,000.
The Department of Conservation had been looking at what it could do to make the Silver Peaks safer after several groups had to be rescued from the area.
Doc visitor assets programme manager Bill Wheeler said the existing hut was no longer suitable, so it was decided to put in a shelter and rationalise the walks in the area to one circuit.
The idea was to provide shelter for people caught in bad weather.
It was decided a small four-bunk shelter, with an adjacent helicopter landing area, could be built to replace the existing hut on a spot on the ridge about an hour's walk from the nearest road.
The steel-framed hut, which also had a small kitchen area and a boot room, was built in two pieces in Te Anau, trucked to the Silver Peaks and dropped in place by a helicopter.
Mrs Cox said the trust would continue to raise funds for additional safety measures such as signs in the Silver Peaks.
