In the warm early afternoon of December 15, 5 of the keenest of the beer connoisseurs assembled at the Sprig and Fern on Tinakori Road to begin their journey with a warm-up beer. They knew they may not all make it to the end of the journey, but they were the core of pied pipers … Read more
A warm sunny evening greeted our group as we departed Wellington on the Friday night. We stopped for dinner at the yummy Turkish restaurant in Carterton before making our way to the Anzac Campground near Norsewood. We arrived after dark meaning we had to set up our tents with our head torches on, but as … Read more
With the weather forecast for the weekend looking grim four of us headed (along with the EM group) from the train station to check in for our ferry ride to Picton. Once we were on the ferry heading to Picton there was no turning back. The ride over was smoother than expected with the rain … Read more
Otago Mountain Biking – sunshine and snow Wonderful days riding mountain bikes through the Otago high-country ☀🌨 Club night talks can be inspiring. Tony G did a talk in 2014 about his mountain bike trip to Central Otago—and I wanted to go! Another club talk made me spent $10k for 10 days in the Sub Antarctic … Read more
We started out from Wellington station on Friday night with the five of us in the van. After competing with Friday traffic for a couple of hours we had our dinner stop in Levin – spoilt for choice we all went for the same kebab place for a great pre-tramp meal. When we arrived at … Read more
This was not a WTMC trip, but, with the five passes coming up on the schedule soon, I thought it might be useful to share our experience, times (walked at a leisurely pace) and route finding tips. We had three weeks on South Island to go anywhere and do anything. Plan A was the Tin … Read more
What a lark! Hooning down the Tararua rivers in a 1.6 kg inflatable dinghy—including all the kit (floatation device (PFD) and paddle). Welcome to the wonderful world of packrafting! Having had a very harebrained thought to do just the same thing by myself a few years ago, except with questionable gear, no training and no … Read more
It takes courage and skills to organise an alpine tramp for a party of 20 to go all the way from Wellington to Arthur’s Pass, and our amazing Megan Sety had the courage, the skills, and much more. With at least three months of planning, she managed to put together an outstanding frontline of six … Read more
This trip was a wobble around South-eastern area of Tararua Forest Park. We started at Waiohine Gorge Road end, taking the Mt Reeves Track to Tutuwai Hut. We then walked about 45 minutes down the Tauherenikau track, finishing with a small scramble up to the unmarked Joe Gibbs Hut. We back-tracked to Tutuwai Hut, went along … Read more
Two and a half years ago Elisabet and I signed up to a High Alpine Skills course in Temple Basin, Arthur’s Pass. On day one our American instructor Pete sat us down and asked each of us what our motivations were for the training. Why did we want to take on the risks the mountain … Read more