We had a slower than usual trip out of Wellington Friday, but it was made all the more interesting by a well contested game of ‘I spy’, initiated by a fellow travel buddy Oliver (who was travelling up with his Dad Simon for a weekend of the “going downhill fast in a good way” variety. … Read more
INTRODUCTION Snowcraft 2018 is now complete, with 20 students participating in this introductory course to moving safely and efficiently in an alpine environment. While still following the familiar and established course format of theory sessions mixed with two weekends on the mountain, we progressed with the emphasis introduced last year on keeping the skills relevant … Read more
This was the first club trip for the 8 punters. Greg summarised his experience succinctly: “This weekend was a wet one! It started raining on the drive out to the Tararuas and continued intermittently throughout the trip. This tramp was an introduction to tramping for several attendees, which was exciting. We forded streams and squelched … Read more
Soon after fuelling ourselves at a Turkish restaurant on our way to the Tararua Forest Park we arrived at the beginning of our trail and set off. The four of us had a wet two hour tramp through the darkness, lighting the trail with our head torches to our first shelter, Herepai Hut. We managed … Read more
On the Friday night at 5.30pm, six of us set off in the club van making our way slowly but surely to the Pines to start our walk and making a quick dinner pit stop in Carterton. We arrived at the start of our walk after 8pm and started walking to Mitre Flats hut at … Read more
I had last visited Mid Waiohine hut many years ago and I’ve been keen to go back there for a while. So I signed up for Matt and Maj-Britt’s trip there. We met at Wellington station on the Friday evening and departed for the Wairarapa. As we were driving we were already discussing other options … Read more
It had been three years since the last club trip on this Great Walk. As huts had to be booked months in advance to secure accommodation over a holiday weekend, it was a long time in the planning, but there were sufficient numbers of people interested to ensure we could fill a van. In the … Read more
The trip started with an early Saturday morning meet at Wellington train station. It was a grey morning and a bit drizzly but with half the group on their inaugural WTMC trip (Ravi, Phoebe and I) and Lettie on debut as trip leader, nothing could dampen our spirits. We set off with the Sayers Hut … Read more
The Te Puia Lodge is an Easy-ish tramp located in the Kaweka Ranges. It was my first tramp as a team leader, and it was a pain in the ass, literally, but I will get to that later on. This guide is structured as follows. Chapter 1 describes the first day and our long drive … Read more
