The Club’s photo competition was very competitive this year. The judge Grant Newton noted that the standard was higher than in previous years and found it difficult to choose a winner in a number of categories. Despite this the results were dominated by Tony Gazley and Spencer Clubb. Tony won three of the categories with … Read more
‘Shelter From The Storm: The story of New Zealand’s backcountry huts’ Written by Shaun Barnett, Rob Brown and Geoff Spearpoint. One of the defining and unique features of the New Zealand outdoors is the backcountry hut. New Zealand has a remarkably diverse network of these huts, unparalleled anywhere else in the world, and for those … Read more
The morning of Saturday 9th March dawned colder and wetter than had been predicted by both Amanda and the Meteorologists so I was glad I had packed a raincoat. From the house it was clear to see that it would be wet over in the Rimutaka ranges. Perfect conditions for an NZ bush-craft course. Seeing … Read more
Lots of space in the van with eight people on the trip, best kebabs at Bulls and luxury camping (with hot showers) just past Whanganui, and that was just the Friday night… this was going to be a great tramp. After an early start on Saturday morning, thanks to the 5am wake-up call from the … Read more
So with the Wellington drought in full force, I figured that not too much weather watching would be needed; this just being a day walk up on the Kapiti coast. However with maps packed and the final trip intention sheet sent out, it seemed that Sunday 17th March it was possibly going to rain. My … Read more
Continued from Part 1… On Monday morning we thank Hans and Mika for their kind hospitality and throw bikes in and on the van. We are joined for the day by Julie and Thomas who, as seasoned bikers, will hopefully not mind travelling at our pace. To avoid having to climb Tantragee Saddle at the … Read more
So the idea was to get crafty while on a tramping trip: to knit, needlepoint and natter our way across the ferry trip and beyond. Yarning started while waiting for a delayed ferry departure in Wellington, with craft consultations being undertaken while still on the pier. Projects got well underway on the ferry crossing with … Read more
We had a group of 6 trampers for this daywalk with stunning sunshine weather; the day it was forecasted to be sunshine for another 10 days! We had 2 cars and met Grant the ranger at the main car park whereupon he let us in to the water collection area through a couple of gates … Read more
After a slightly bleary-eyed 7.30am meet on the Saturday morning, a club minibus jam-packed with sleepy trampers left for the Tararuas in hot pursuit after Illona’s car. As a tramping-virgin, I had been warned about the mysteriously misty, murky and muddy Tararuas and had sat through various club presentations picturing drizzly-looking forest and decidedly damp-looking … Read more
When Gareth asked me for the sixth time “have you committed to the Jumbo-Holdsworth?” I weighed up the pros and cons for the sixth time. Pros – no time left to do any training, have run the route before and enjoyed it, unlikely to be snow this time. Cons – have not done any training, … Read more