Wellington Tramping and Mountaineering Club
Enjoying the great outdoors since 1947
Saturday After camping overnight at ANZAC Park, Norsewood, on the Friday night, we drove down Kashmir Road to the Moorcock carpark (via coffee and breakfast treats at the excellent Café Norsewood – highly recommended!). The road sign isn’t kidding when it says steep gradient, and it took a couple of goes to get the car … Read more
After an eventful Friday night camping which combined fire warning sirens and some local dance music playing at 4-5 am—both of which I managed to sleep through—things were going pretty awesomely on my first trip with the club. We were dropped off at the Daphne Hut car park and we picked up the trail behind … Read more
In the quest to explore more of my backyard, I signed up for the Howlett’s Hut tramp, my very first with the WTMC. We met Dan, our leader, at Platform 9 on Friday evening, to gather along with Tash’s Easy-Medium group heading to Ruahine NP. All eleven of us piled into the van to drive … Read more
Let’s start by listing the things this trip did not have: injuries, complaints, Turkish food. That’s about it. Ok, let’s look at what it did have; everything else! Our carefully laid plans to get over the hill and enjoy a kebab in Carterton were scuppered after we found the long time WTMC favourite dinner-stop closed … Read more
A warm sunny evening greeted our group as we departed Wellington on the Friday night. We stopped for dinner at the yummy Turkish restaurant in Carterton before making our way to the Anzac Campground near Norsewood. We arrived after dark meaning we had to set up our tents with our head torches on, but as … Read more
I was looking forward to returning to what I consider my home grade (“Easy-Medium”) with Maarten’s trip to Daphne Hut, after some tough snow trips this past winter. In addition, Maarten is the club’s resident expert on the Ruahine, so he is supremely qualified to lead rambles around the Hawkes Bay hills. After a wet night … Read more
Reading about Maarten’s achievements in visiting all huts in the Ruahines, and in particular his recommendation of Makaretu Hut as a hut to visit, prompted me to finish the report for a trip to the hut we did back in August. While the natural home for the WTMC may be the Tararuas, I grew up … Read more
Our epic journey started quite calmly at the railway station on Friday night. In a full club van we drove 3 hours up to Noreswood, stopping for an evening meal at the Istanbul in Caterton. The ANZAC Park campsite just north of Norsewood is a basic but pretty campsite (toilet but no water available). Next … Read more
Up the hill we went in the dark – not an inky dark, lit by a huge oculus-moon highlighting the jagged terrain amid fragmenting cloud. Not a breath of wind and a landscape bathed in ivory light made for a glorious hour up to Longview Hut for the night. Jessie’s headlamp threatened to add to … Read more
The trip began at platform 9, Wellington Station. Our group of 7 plus another group of 6 going on the EM trip to Daphne Hut filled all spaces in the van. We all headed off to the eastern Ruahines to Kasmir Road end arrived sometime after 10pm. We brought tents as the weather forecast predicted … Read more