Two weeks out from the trip, leader Debbie emailed us two plans. Plan A would be Taranaki South Face ALP1 (M) – subject to the weather, snow conditions and avalanche risk. Should the weather, snow conditions and avalanche risk not be to Debbie’s liking, then Plan B – a tramp around the Pouakai Loop (M) … Read more
This trip shared the van with a group going to Howletts Hut. The Cattle Creek road end had a campsite and toilets, so it made sense to stay there on Friday night. It had been arranged that we had enough tents to use at the road end, but there was a fresh set of dry (and light) … Read more
Our plan had been relatively simple – walk to Angelus Hut via Speargrass Creek, climb the peak, then return via Robert Ridge. In the week before we set out, conditions looked more and more ominous, with south-easterly gales, heavy snowfall and the avalanche risk in the alpine zone rising from moderate to considerable. Dan decided … Read more
This trip was an EM tramp heading for Cupola Hut in the Travers Valley, Nelson Lakes, led by Richard. Six of us signed up for the trip and several of us had been on trips led by Richard before. We were to share the trip with a medium group led by Mike Moore, who were … Read more
On Friday 5th August we met at Wellington railway station with heavy rain showers passing overhead. There were two trips joined in one minibus for the weekend away. Ours was the Upper Travers, arranged by Mike Moore, a three-day excursion to Nelson Lakes National Park. The plan was to take the water taxi from St … Read more
20 beginner alpinists, 5 instructors, 2 teams and 1 mountain to conquer. Two packed vans and one car left a windy Wellington behind, with sights set on Mt Ruapehu. The drive up offered long and tedious discussions about what the name of our team was going to be, and to Brendan’s delight we settled for … Read more
This was a weekend traverse of Aorangi Forest Park, starting from the sea, ending at the sea, and going over some big hills in between… Friday night we converged on Platform 9 and bundled into the club van to test drive the newly opened Smart Motorway. Opinions about its performance varied slightly but generally were … Read more
Billed as an Easy-Medium, the Kawakawa Hut trip sounded like just what I needed after a long break from overnight tramping and a hideous cold. As benefits a trip of this grade, proceedings commenced with a coffee at Martinborough and it was 11am before the actual tramping began. Being new to the area, I’d done … Read more
In late June four of us headed up to the Ruahines to tend to the WTMC trap line. The tramping club adopted the line in early 2015 and it forms a circuit, with another line, to enclose a section of the Makaroro River where Whio (Blue Duck) live. The idea is to visit the line … Read more
On Friday the third of June seven intrepid Wellington trampers congregated in Auckland airport to await the beautiful scenic thirty minute flight to Great Barrier Island. The Island is serviced by two airlines (Barrier Air and Fly My Sky) and by a slight miscommunication as a group we were split between the two airlines but … Read more