I’ve been ice climbing and I’ve been camping before, but never at the same time. And I suppose the spoiler of this story is that I’ve still never been ice climbing and camping. From an initial sign up of eight, disease, injury and maybe even a little pestilence took it’s toll and come the day of … Read more
On a nice sunny Thursday evening in mid-November we drove up to Ohakune feeling very excited to be having yet another long week-end—and with no need to carry any heavy packs! I was eager to get back on the river (which now has its own legal status) after a break in my annual pilgrimage, but … Read more
INTRODUCTION This adventure strangely and quite accidentally ended up being a joint venture, with two WTMC members and two Tararua Tramping Club members. I’m not sure if there is a history of rivalry between the clubs, but I would like to at least try to start some rivalry here by pointing out that the WTMC … Read more
We set off from the railway station on Friday afternoon together with the Easy group and drove the 4.5hrs to the trailhead (I highly recommend our kebab stop at Istanbul in Carterton along the way). The road to the trail head has probably seen better days, so the last few kilometres were a bit bumpy … Read more
INTRODUCTION The purpose of running the trip as an Alp1 “PLUS” was to give experienced Alp1-level members a chance to try something with a bit more exposure, and maybe needing the occasional rope to make crossing certain features safer. This proved to be a very popular proposal, and despite this being a Fit trip I … Read more
As the next step in my transformation from city slicker to baby bear grylls, I signed up to the Intermediate Bushcraft course run by Kevin, Richard, Matt, Emily and Bram on the weekend of 11-13 August 2017. I had high hopes for this course. Until that time, GPS devices were just cumbersome old-school mobile phones … Read more
After a long drive on Friday and the usual kebab stop in Carterton, we parked at the Road End around 11pm. Within half an hour, four of us were enjoying a bunk in Sentry Box Hut, and the three others had their ground sheets and mats laid out on the floor. We also managed to … Read more
The tip of my left pick tentatively balances on the smallest of burrs in the rock. I wriggle it around, and angle the axe up to make sure that it doesn’t pop off as I haul up. I’m on a top rope, but that doesn’t provide much comfort when you are 6 metres up a … Read more
We set of from Waiohine Gorge road end on Friday night for Cone hut. Our original plan was to navigate to Jak Flats biv North of Mid-Waiohine hut but the heavy rain and wind forecast for Sunday wasn’t conducive to tops travel so we reshuffled it to Neill Forks via some navigation up from the … Read more
