The Nature of Things – June 2015

Oops, I have missed a couple of months due to work travel and pressure. For many of us, it’s been a busy few months on a number of fronts. Thanks to everyone who attended the very successful first aid course in June (and to Beccy who spearheaded the organisation of this). It’s great to have … Read more

The Nature of Things – March 2015

This month I had time to either write this column or a trip report. I figured the latter might be more interesting. You can read my trip report of the Haukura ridge navigation in this newsletter. Meanwhile, please imagine the following crafted into nice prose and spun out to 300 words. The end of 2014/15 committee … Read more

Haukura Ridge navigation

On a Friday night in May 2006, a band of hardy WTMC M trampers ventured into Northern Tararuas. Three days later they emerged – scratched and broken by leatherwood, attempts at compass navigation in the dark and arguments about oversized watches. Their Haukura Ridge trip was to gain enduring life as a case study in our … Read more

Nature of Things – February 2015

I hope you have been enjoying this beautiful summer. Unfortunately I’ve been spending a lot of time chained to the computer but looking forward to remedying that sometime soon! At our February committee meeting one of the things we discussed was feedback on the logo design circulated in December. It was a pretty short discussion … Read more

Nature of Things – January 2015

I hope you’ve had a good holiday break filled with tramping or other adventures. Certainly the weather in the Tararuas has looked amazing the past week or two! We’ve got some interesting-looking trips on the schedule in February, March and April so it’s a good time to be making good on that resolution to tramp … Read more

Nature of Things – November 2014

Thanks to those of you who made the effort to come to club night last week and participate in the EGM. This EGM was held to vote on the series of constitutional amendments needed to enact changes to our membership categories. I can report that the motion was passed by an extremely convincing show of … Read more

Nature of things – October 2014

Another month and another newsletter column! They seem to come around quickly. Probably partly because Committee is beavering away on a number of things at the moment. This issue we include our formal proposal for changes to membership categories, refined in response to your feedback. We will hold an EGM as part of club night … Read more

Nature of Things – September 2014

It’s an exciting time to be on the committee with a group of passionate, opinionated and talented people all committed to a vibrant club. Like any institution, the club needs to change and evolve to stay healthy and resist irrelevance. The advantage of a diverse committee is that we can have some strong debates and … Read more

Nature of Things – August 2014

You can read more later in this newsletter about the changes we’re looking at around membership. Thanks for your feedback on the membership categories – we’ve made some minor tweaks in response. We would also like your views around the requirements to join the club, particularly the two-trips requirement. Feel free to drop me an … Read more

Nature of Things – July 2014

In late July, Illona and I ran the club’s annual leadership course. The most inspiring thing about this course is that everyone there is committed to giving back to the club. This year we had eight people keen to learn the basics of WTMC trip leading, some of whom had already led one trip. I … Read more