Wellington Tramping and Mountaineering Club
Enjoying the great outdoors since 1947
It didn’t take long for me to realize, on my second weekend back in Wellington, that I did not have the fitness to tackle the Mid-Otaki trip I had put on the schedule. Emily wisely suggested Island Forks instead, and I adopted the idea as my own. We had a romantic drive from Wellington to … Read more
The trip was originally scheduled for October 2019 but postponed due to poor weather. Tash was no longer able to lead the trip so I took over and set a new date, inheriting a group of people who had been wanting to do this trip for a long time. The week before I had been … 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
Our target for the weekend was Blue Lake Hut, nestled in the Nelson Lakes National Park next to reputedly the clearest water in the world – Blue Lake with 80 meters of visibility. Walking in and out on the same track, we conservatively estimated eight hours of tramping each day. Our weekend jaunt to the … Read more
The first club trip I led was to Mole Hut in Nelson Lakes a few years ago, where we spent a really enjoyable day exploring the Mole Tops. When we were up on the tops I remember looking south along the Ella Range and thinking that it looked inviting to head along the range to … Read more
The life of the WTMC Ruapehu Lodge custodian in summer is unfortunately one of making unending and excruciatingly stressful decisions. Especially if the twenty guests are Year 13 college students staying for a week. It all comes about because the students have been instructed by their school teachers to do without argument exactly as told … Read more
I had never been to Hutt Forks in the Tararua Forest Park so I was interested when I saw that this trip to Alpha Hut would go there on the way. I didn’t know much about Quoin Ridge but it didn’t look too bad on the map. Tash had to pull out of leading so … Read more
Paua Hut has over the last few years looked a bit tired and forlorn – the outside appeared shabby and the inside was getting a bit grubby. Clearly some TLC was needed. A club maintenance trip was included in the schedule for January but only attracted a small number of helpers. Nonetheless the trip went … Read more
The middle section of the Rangitikei River offers some scenic paddling with a few rapids up to Grade 2. These rapids are mostly straightforward fun in a packraft and the views on the way down river are quite spectacular especially where the river flows between high cliffs. Three of us paddled the 35 km from … Read more
