Around the 3rd to 5th of September Bernie, Richard, Mike and I had plans to do some exploring around the southern Ruahines. We bailed out a day early with too much snow for the gear we’d brought, not to mention an extended mountain forecast of 120km/h galeforce nor-westerlies in exposed mountain areas on Sunday. Okay, … Read more
I looked at the weather forecast on the Monday and it looked alright. Rain on the Friday and Sunday and clear on the Saturday, the climbing day By Tuesday the forecast had gone rotten, two fronts passing through one hitting on our Saturday. I sorted out a good book and made sure we had some … Read more
Tuesday evening before the tramp. I was supposed to be leading a Medium trip to Kime on the coming weekend but unfortunately one signed up. Thankfully, Paul Jefferies was leading an overnight tramp to Tutuwai and as there was space I decided to join Paul’s trip. Friday 17.00. At this point on a weekend tramp … Read more
Having lived outside New Zealand for a while, I can say that weather forecasting is quite a bit more hit and miss here than, say, Australia or Europe. Something to do with being a small island in a large ocean, I’ll bet. But when the Metservice decided to add a 10 day forecast to their … Read more
This year we decided to schedule an alpine refresher weekend ahead of the snow courses, the idea being that instructors would get in some practice before the courses started. However, with Snowcraft cancelled due to a lack of numbers, the weekend evolved into an opportunity for people who had previously done an AIC or Snowcraft … Read more
After what seemed to be weeks and weeks of rain this Saturday morning the sun was out again. A good start for the easy ‘novelty’ walk to the Rimutaka Forest Park organised by Steve. (Originally, the ‘novelty’ part was to be hot lasagne; later changed for soup.) We met part of our group at platform … Read more
Family tramps work nearly the same as the usual tramping that we all know and love. Early starts, gruelling days through all weathers, getting far into the backcountry – well, we don’t do any of that. Four hours is a long day, persistent drizzle is enough to make us seriously consider staying at home, and … Read more
– the Journal winners go to Christchurch and beyond Late 2009 we were happily surprised by Tony and Jackie announcing we had won tickets to Christchurch with our journal contribution. As people often mention Chch itself is not too exciting, but it is a great gateway to the Alps, Kaikouras and Banks Peninsula, so we … Read more
There were three, or maybe four, punters signed up for the Mt Luna fit trip. At the last moment two punters signed up for the med–fit trip. Hence the fit group heading over Luna divided back into a fit and med-fit party, who then re-molded together as one group made up of two separate groups, … Read more
For the 4th year in a row for some! we looked forward to another great Whanganui river canoe adventure ☺ All the essentials were lined up… Good company, food…even weather! We love this place… with its stunning scenery and nice out of the way location. The trip in Summary This is an epic trip suitable for relative … Read more