Paekākāriki Escarpment Track – a hiker’s point of view The hiker’s point of view of a 9.5km hike along the Escarpment Track from Pukerua Bay to Paekākāriki taking in wonderful coastal views and a golden sunset. The Escarpment Track is a spectacular 10km trail that runs between Pukerua Bay and Paekākāriki on the Kāpiti Coast. … Read more
😃 Wellington Tramping and Mountaineering Club (WTMC) Lodge – Mt Ruapehu accommodation for winter skiing and summer hiking The Wellington Tramping and Mountaineering Club (WTMC) lodge on Mt Ruapehu is located in Iwikau Village adjacent to the Whakapapa Skifield. It offers comfortable, reasonably priced, backpacker type accommodation for up to 32 guests and 2 custodians, … Read more
WTMC Ruapehu Lodge Blog The Wellington Tramping and Mountaineering Club (WTMC) owns and operates a lodge at Iwikau Village on Mt Ruapehu. This blog is intended to complement the lodge webpage by offering general news about the lodge and for readers to be able to comment. It will slowly develop over hopefully many years. The … Read more
WTMC Ruapehu Lodge – its survival may depend on your help Ruapehu Alpine Lifts (RAL) who has run the skifield at Whakapapa for 60 years is in Liquidation and Receivership. If no buyer can be found before the 2025 ski season it is very likely that all skifield infrastructure will be removed from the mountain and … Read more
Mt Ruapehu accommodation – the WTMC Summer Lodge at Whakapapa skifield The Wellington Tramping and Mountaineering club owns and runs a lodge at the Whakapapa skifield that will be open for public accommodation during 29 December 2024 to 12 January 2025, and is ideal ‘backpacker type’ accommodation near Mt Ruapehu. More people visit Tongariro in summer … Read more
Mt Holdsworth day walk – a hiker’s point of view A video of a day walk to the summit of Mt Holdsworth in the Tararua Range from a hiker’s point of view. Includes walking time for sections of the track. There is even some snow to add to the spectacular view from the peak. The … Read more
With the demise of RAL there must be something to talk about with a positive theme. I’ll try the weather. When there is little snow on the mountain there tends to be better weather. When there is plenty of snow on the mountain there is less skiing. After returning from two weeks on the mountain … Read more
We have just returned from three days up at the lodge where two of the days were ‘bluebird’ days. We also had some Alpine Club members join us which helped fill the lodge. Despite appearances on the webcams the upper mountain has plenty of snow. Given the cold temperatures RAL has been snowmaking onto the … Read more
The mountain gods have spoken. There will be no covid problems this season, the mountain will not erupt, and the snow will continue to fall at night with intermittent periods of sunshine during the day. Car parking will be free for all if there is space. The start of the season has had an early … Read more
Our lodge has had a reasonable amount of use over summer although a bit disappointing as there could have been a lot more use and as one passerby said it looked a bit forlorn all locked up with no activity. This time of the year there has been some superb weather on the mountain as … Read more