Last year, rumors started to surface at Fergs that a new crag had been bolted near Waikanae, which was shortly followed by the whinges of seasoned climbers, ‘yeah right, a big long bush bash for crumbling greywacke.’ But then Christmas arrived and Santa delivered a guide to the Wellington Rock Climbing facebook group. See Waikanae … Read more
When my brother emailed me the link to the Rafting NZ webpage, asking if I’d be happy for him to book the trip, I saw the words ‘extreme’ but figured that was just marketing, and didn’t read much further. So that is how I came to be booked to raft both the Kaituna River (with … Read more
I could hardly resist the trip description for this year’s annual craft beer tramp: We have a great route planned – specifically designed to include the high altitude of Kelburn and the rough terrain of the botanic gardens! A map of the intended route is attached (this is the only club trip where google-maps can replace … Read more
On Saturday morning around 8.15 we boarded our ferry in fine weather, along with a large group of day visitors, for the 10 to 15 minute trip to Kapiti Island. Despite warnings of bad weather brewing we had a pleasant journey. On arrival at Rangatira Flat we volunteers were greeted by DOC rangers Gen and … Read more
We started with a well-used pattern: depart Wellington railway station, dinner at Bulls and then camp at the very nice campsite by the river at Mangaweka. For company on the trip we had a party of three cyclists. The night at Mangaweka was uneventful although the temperature dropped below zero and the tents were coated … Read more
For once the Metservice long term weather forecast for the Tararuas was accurate, promising a three day potpourri of sunshine, gale force winds and heavy rain following on from a snow storm on the Friday. This necessitated a change from the original plan of the Jumbo-Holdsworth Loop due to the gale force winds on the … Read more
More photos from Mike McGavin Six of us departed from platform 9 Friday night with a windy but rainless weekend predicted for our attempt to do a fairly involved navigational effort from near paua hut over the main range to the southern coast for a saturday night camp, returning Sunday via south saddle. I considered … Read more
What a weekend! I would say 4 seasons in two days, but really, it was a spring blast of winter for most of the weekend. This trip was a special one – my first overnight away without the toddler. As an added bonus, I was talking 4 other mums with me, for a night away … Read more
Both Sharron and Marie have written up their experiences of the race Marie’s running adventures The Aorangi Undulator is a ‘run’ taking in some 30km of Aorangis over a series of bumps. Our trip leader decided to truly lead the way by doing the Aorangi 100 Ultra – a three day event taking in 100km … Read more
Our South Island jaunt to Lewis Pass was initially a bit stop-start due to the usual vagaries of Inter-islander Ferries. This time they managed to load too many passengers and cargo. ‘Fortunately’ the captain noticed before we entered the Cook Straight (7m swell) and we headed back to unload the trains! Handy tip number 1, … Read more