Wellington Tramping and Mountaineering Club
Enjoying the great outdoors since 1947
This trip was inspired by a crazy overnight ascent of the south side of Taranaki back in November when I realised I had now climbed Taranaki from the North, East and South sides which left only the western aspect to complete the compass points. A lot of googling and asking around revealed very little information … Read more
I first heard about this challenge a year or so ago when I found out about the book full of all the previous trip reports, most recently updated and published by Tony and Megan from our club. The challenge itself started out with the simple rule that you need to work until closing time Friday, … Read more
When the Aorangi Crossing has been on the schedule in the past it has attracted a handful of signups. This time however, there were two handfuls – in fact a round baker’s dozen of keen beans signed up. The reason for this, I believe, is simple – people love a challenge. The last club trip … Read more
The Otaki water catchment had little to no rainfall until Friday before our trip. On Friday morning, it started raining in various degrees from 1 to 5 mm per hour until Friday evening. Around midnight before our trip, it rained again 2 to 3 mm per hour, then the weather turned to dry and overcast … Read more
On my last trip to High Ridge we did not manage to get to Totara Creek or Totara Flats hut and instead found ourselves marooned on Flaxy Knob on the Saturday night. There is good travel along High Ridge and I was keen to do the section from Flaxy Knob to Totara Creek. Pete put … Read more
Saturday morning 6:30 we set off from Whakapapa village to join Juan to tick off his final great walk. The crisp morning led us to shatter the DOC times and tramp to Mangatapopo hut in 2:15 instead of the designated 4 hours. After a quick break we joined the refugee caravan on the Tongariro crossing. Hundreds of … Read more
I had never been to Mid King Bivouac in the Tararua range so I signed up when Maj-Britt put this trip on the schedule. As a bonus the plan was to go to Dorset Ridge hut on the way. This is one of my favourite huts and it’s always worth a visit there. After the … Read more
Our adventure began at 7:45am on the Saturday. We rendezvoused at platform 9 at the railway station. Everyone was very prompt and raring to go which meant we were on the road at 8am. The day was stunning: beautiful big blue skies and with the traffic playing nice and some skilful driving from Tash on … Read more
The weather forecast was for a warm dry day, with North Westerly winds decreasing. Good enough to go! With an early 06:45am meet up at Wellington Station we left on the 07:05 train to Upper Hutt, the first train out on Sunday. It was a short train and the number of bikes was officially limited … Read more
This was not a WTMC trip but I thought the notes might be generally helpful to other WTMC members. We researched this trip thoroughly as the first two days do not have any maintained tracks. It is some of the most remote tramping you can do in New Zealand, and, whilst not all that high, … Read more